Fordism, post-Fordism and the imperial mode of living

Gramsci’s notes on Americanism and Fordism have inspired a long train of analysis of the distinct form of advanced capitalism that mass production for mass consumption brought in the post-World War Two era. Beginning with Gramsci’s formulation, this chapter unpacks the class-compromise regime that flowed, in the global North, and related North-South relations since the middle decades of the twentieth century, the subsequent crisis of Fordism, supplanting class compromise with neoliberal regimes, and the rise of post-Fordism. The main approach to examining these constellations are, beside the concept of hegemony, the notion of the ‘imperial mode of living’. At the end of the chapter, some thoughts on the current conjuncture and possible alternatives are formulated.