The article aims to apprehend the deep social, political, economic and cultural transformations that characterized the three last decades, in contrast with the prosperity period following the Second World War. Therefore, the author critically analyses three specific works that deal with that period: "The economics of global turbulence", by Robert Brenner, The long Twentieth Century, by Giovanni Arrighi, and The conditions of postmodernity, by David Haravey. The metatheoric procedure adopted allows him to indicate the requisites of an adequate critical theory of contemporary capitalism.
critical theory; value theory; Marx; contemporary capitalism