Thinking about modes of production and how important the concept was for the development on non-Western #Marxism, because it allowed for separating historical analysis from purely theoretical. But I'm wondering whether people like Samir #Amin or Walter #Rodney actually read #Althusser or #Balibar.

Balibar (in Lire le Capital and Cinq Etudes) develops a flexible, historically contingent notion of modes of production on a theoretical level, but Amin (and, after him, Eric Wolf or Jairus Banaji) make it concrete, developing it along non-European case studies in order to show it isn't exclusive.

Amin lived in Paris for a time and taught in Vincennes in 1969, so I would be astonished if he hadn’t connected to these discussions, but he doesn’t cite them anywhere as far as I can see.