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In the first section I present a critical perspective on economy that is necessary in order to appreciate Bataille’s conception of general economy, which is presented in the second section. The general economy is first considered in a macro-perspective, which comprises the whole of the universe, second in a micro-perspective, where the subjective aspect of economy is maintained as non-objectified desire and inner experience. In the third section I turn to the general economy as it was explicitly intended, namely as a political economy. First I argue that the suggestions that Bataille himself presents are apolitical in an ordinary sense of politics, and that this can be shown to be due to some conceptual slides between nature and society and between history and ontology. I then sketch some postmodern attempts to legitimize respectively capitalism and communism, which refer to the general economy, but argue finally that Bataille can escape both, since he maintains the important distinction between need and desire. Although Bataille’s conception of economy thus reminds us of aspects often overlooked by economy in an ordinary sense, it also contains some serious aporias, which means that it cannot constitute the theoretical basis of a new general political economy, as Bataille had hoped.\nKeywords\nGeorges Bataille, capitalism, desire, energy, political economy,  postmodernity\nIntroduction\nIn the wake of discussions following the publication of Hardt and Negri’s Empire in 2000 there has been a remarkable resurgence of interest in the expression ‘general economy’. The notion of a general economy can be traced back to, at least, Rousseau’s article on economy in the French Encyclopedia from 1755. Here it signifies what has later become known as political economy, namely knowledge of the laws necessary to govern the household of a state. From this original sense, however, the reference of ‘general economy’ can be displaced to include almost every aspect of human and social life, and it is well known that the expression has also been discussed in such a much wider sense by Derrida and Baudrillard. Known is also that these discussions draw heavily on the ideas of Georges Bataille, and in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death of Bataille, this article analyses his notion of general economy.\nBataille’s theoretical work was published under the title La part maudite. Essai de économie générale, which has adequately been translated into The Accursed Share. An Essay on General Economy. The explicit point of departure of Bataille’s general economy was political economy, but in spite of this, the notion of economy eventually developed by Bataille is quite far from economy in the ordinary sense. In the light of the discussions just mentioned, this article is therefore dedicated to improve the understanding of the relationship between economy in an ordinary sense and economy in Bataille’s much wider sense. The main questions guiding this investigation are thus three, namely what is economy, what does Bataille mean by ‘economy’, and how can Bataille’s understanding of economy contribute to the ordinary understanding of economy?\nLet me, however, just say a few words about the textual basis of this investigation. The first part of The Accursed Share was published in 1949 with the subtitle 1. La consumation, i.e. ‘1. The Consumption’. Work on part two, Histoire de l’érotisme, i.e. ‘History of the Eroticism’, was first dropped in 1951; it was then rewritten in 1954, and eventually given up again the same year. Part three, La souverainété, ‘The Sovereignty’ was written in the same period, but also given up in 1954. Bataille died in 1962, and the second and third parts did not appear as publications ","cbCaikYwBJzPlyB6","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaikYwBJzPlyB6","docx",178278,42,"English","# Introduction\n## General economy and its intellectual background\n## Bataille’s sources and the structure of La part maudite\n# Bataille’s restricted economy and the focus on The Consumption","[{\"question\":\"What relationship does the article draw between Bataille’s general economy and political economy?\",\"answer\":\"It frames Bataille’s general economy in direct relation to political economy, arguing that although the departure point is political economy, Bataille’s notion develops beyond ordinary economic meaning.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the article explain general economy through macro- and micro-perspectives?\",\"answer\":\"In the macro-perspective, general economy concerns the whole universe; in the micro-perspective, it retains the subjective side of economy as non-objectified desire and inner experience.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the article emphasize the first part, The Consumption, in its analysis?\",\"answer\":\"Because Bataille most systematically discusses economy in both the ordinary sense and his wider general sense in The Consumption, which is the article’s main interpretive focus.\"}]","On a universal scale - Economy in Bataille’s general economy - Asger Sørensen | DOCX"]