Abstract

Taking Herbert Marcuse’s classic One-Dimensional Man as a critical point of departure, this contribution is framed around the insight that complex and contradictory underlying determinants in capitalism are subject to outcomes and appearances that are conceptualized as one-dimensioning. The latter involves reduction to multiple dimensions as opposed to a single dimension, or homogenisation for which presumed conformity to the market and monetisation are the most obvious manifestations. The argument is illustrated through an account of one-dimensioning within the history of economics as a discipline since the marginalist revolution of the 1870s, and through the rise of financialized neoliberalism.