scholarly journals Marx is Back, But Which One? On Knowledge Labour and Media Practice

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 570-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Mosco
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Communication Theory ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
The Political ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Structure And Dynamics ◽  
General Answer ◽  
The Many ◽  
Do So

The global economic crisis has led to a resurgence of interest in the work of Karl Marx. This paper acknowledges this interest, but asks on which of the many shades of Marx, communication scholars should be focusing their research attention. The most general answer is all of Marx, from the early work on consciousness, ideology and culture, which has informed critical cultural studies through to the later work on the structure and dynamics of capitalism that provides bedrock for the political economy of communication. But there is particular need for communication scholars to pay more attention to work that does not fit so neatly in either of these foci, namely, Marx of the Grundrisse and Marx, the professional journalist. Communication scholars need to do so because we have paid insufficient attention to labour in the communication, cultural and knowledge industries. The Marx of these two streams of work provides important guidance for what I have called the labouring of communication as well as for addressing general problems in communication theory.

Sociospatial Transformations in the ‘Postsocialist’ Periphery: The Case of Maputo, Mozambique

1995 ◽  
Vol 27 (9) ◽  
pp. 1463-1491 ◽  
Author(s):  
J D Sidaway ◽  
M Power
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Third World ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Capital City ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Portuguese Colonialism ◽  
Do So

As Mozambique was one of a number of Third World states that embraced Marxism-Leninism during the 1970s, the establishment and subsequent collapse of a socialist development project since independence in 1975 has had profound social, political, and economic consequences. Against these contexts, and through a chronological account which begins with the impacts of Portuguese colonialism and Mozambican nationalist responses, we analyse the contradictory impact of political and economic changes accompanying colonialism, independence, attempted socialist transformation, and the end of socialism in Mozambique as they are mediated through the built environment of the Mozambican capital city of Maputo. The combined political, social, and cultural facets within these transformations and continuities are evident throughout the account and we specify some of the ways in which these are intertwined with the political economy of urbanization. In the conclusion we reconsider what the changing trajectory of Maputo represents in global and comparative terms. We do so with reference to debates about the changing forms of international capitalist regulation and the reconfiguration of dependency.

The Culture of Contentment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kenneth Galbraith
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Economic Advantage ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Process Of Change ◽  
The Many

This book examines what it calls the political economy of contentment. It argues that the fortunate and the favored do not contemplate and respond to their own longer-run well-being. Rather, they respond to immediate comfort and contentment. In the so-called capitalist countries, the controlling contentment and resulting belief is now that of the many, not just of the few. It operates under the guise of democracy, albeit a democracy not of all citizens but of those who, in defense of their social and economic advantage, actually go to the polls. This chapter discusses how economic life undergoes a constant process of change, and, in consequence, the same action or event occurring at different times can lead to very different results. It considers some examples throughout history, such as the economic ideas of the Physiocrats in France, the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, and Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.

scholarly journals The Political Economy of European Wine Regulations

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 244-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Meloni ◽  
Johan Swinnen
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Technological Innovations ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Wine Market ◽  
Economic Developments ◽  
The Many ◽  
Historical Origins ◽  
Jel Classifications

AbstractThe wine market in the European Union is heavily regulated. Despite the many distortions in the wine market as a consequence, reforming the regulations has proven difficult. This paper analyzes the political economy mechanism that created existing wine regulations. We document the historical origins of the regulations and relate these to political pressures that resulted from international integration, technological innovations, and economic developments. (JEL Classifications: K23, L51, N44, N54, Q13)

scholarly journals Wellbeing and Worldbuilding: The Science Fiction of Wellbeing Measurement

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo Walton
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
The Political ◽  
Interested Party ◽  
Social Analytics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Data Infrastructures ◽  
The Many

Wellbeing has evolved into a fragmented, contextual, and multi-dimensional construct, underpinned by numerous measurement methodologies at many different scales. To explore wellbeing through science fiction and fantasy (SFF), we don’t just need SFF about health and happiness. We also need SFF about measurement: SFF that explores surveillance, data infrastructures, the political economy of personal data, ‘the metric gaze,’ social analytics, and the social life of metrics. This chapter explores just a few linkages between wellbeing, measurement, and SFF, mainly emphasising dystopian fiction. Has SFF struggled to imagine wellbeing policy — or any holistic stance on the myriad factors that inform the happiness and flourishing of populations — except where the interested party is some sinister elite? How might SFF's narratives of distant planets and more-than-human intelligences help us to formulate a more inclusive understanding of the wellbeing of the many morally weighty beings and worlds that inhabit this planet?

The Many Reboots of the Batman

Film Reboots ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 47-62
Author(s):  
Eileen R. Meehan
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Pop Art ◽  
The Political ◽  
Television Series ◽  
Industrial Structures ◽  
The Many

This chapter inquires into the industrial background to, and subsequent rebooting of, the filmed property from the 1940s. This includes the initial ‘pop art’ rebooting of Batman as a television series (1966–8), and subsequently as a film blockbuster (Burton, 1989) and transmedia franchise (1989–97 and 2005–12). Focusing on the ways that different industrial structures and corporate relationships have shaped Batman over the decades, the chapter explores the political economy of Batman to illuminate both the routines of corporate creativity and the particular contributions of media artists and professionals working to generate rebooted versions of Batman that are at once completely new and totally familiar.

scholarly journals Hidden in Plain Sight: Transactions of Moral Capital in Sick Leave Management Within the Corporate University

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 215824402110074
Author(s):  
Chrystal Jaye ◽  
Claire Amos ◽  
Lauralie Richard ◽  
Geoff Noller
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Sick Leave ◽  
Work Ethic ◽  
Moral Economy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Corporate University ◽  
Employment History ◽  
The Many ◽  
The University ◽  
Moral Capital

In this article, we argue that sick leave and its management within the university involves exchanges of moral capital. The circulation of moral capital supports a moral economy, in turn underpinning the political economy of the corporate university. The forms of moral capital are diverse, sometimes easily recognized as such, more often hidden in plain sight. Like other forms of capital, moral capital can be accrued, depleted, and exchanged as it is paid forward. The exchanges between employers and employees within this moral economy represent trading of moral capital over and above contractual exchanges of income and other benefits for labor. Sick leave transactions illustrate the many forms this moral capital can take: values and principles, entitlements and accruals of sick leave, bureaucratic compliance, discretion, vulnerability and deservingness, employment history, and work ethic.

scholarly journals The Forgotten Marxist Theory of Communication & Society

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 686-725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Horst Holzer
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Communication Theory ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Dominant Type ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Political Economy Of Media ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Sociology Of Communication

Translated from German to English by Christian FuchsMarxist political economy of communication analyses the role of communication in society and capitalism. This paper shows what it means to take a historical and materialist approach for analysing communication and society. In the German-speaking world, Marxist communication research has largely remained a “forgotten theory”.First, the paper analyses the role of communication in society, which requires thinking of how communication relates to work and production. Second, the paper analyses the emergence of communication in capitalist society. It shows that there is a close interaction of the dominant type of capitalism and the emergence and development of new means of communication. Third, the paper points out five roles of the media in capitalism (the production and sale of media products, advertising and commodity circulation, the legitimation of domination, regeneration and reproduction of labour-power, market for media technologies) and engages with how ideology, social psychology, audiences’ habitus and everyday practices/life interact in the reception of media contents, especially news programmes.The preface to this article, written by the translator, presents aspects of the works of Horst Holzer. Given his pioneering intellectual role in the development of the critique of the political economy of communication in the German-speaking world, it is not an understatement to say that Horst Holzer is Germany’s Dallas Smythe.Acknowledgement: First published in German as book chapter: Holzer, Horst. 1994. Kapitel IV: Eine „vergessene Theorie“ gesellschaftlicher Kommunikation? (Bezugspunkt: Historisch-materialistische Gesellschaftswissenschaft). In Medienkommunkation: Einführung in handlungs- und gesellschaftstheoretische Konzeptionen, 185-221. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag. ISBN 978-3-531-22172-4. © Westdeutscher Verlag GmbH, Opladen 1994. Translated and published with permission of Springer Nature.About the Author:Horst Holzer (1935-2000) was a German sociologist and communication theorist. He contributed to the formation and development of the critique of the political economy of media and communication in the German-speaking world. Holzer used Marxist theory for the analysis of the relationship between capitalism and communication. Given his pioneering intellectual role in the development of the critique of the political economy of communication in the German-speaking world, it is not an understatement to say that Horst Holzer is Germany’s Dallas Smythe. Holzer lived and worked in Munich and published twenty German books. The focus of Holzer’s writings was in general on communication theory, the sociology of communication, as well as on capitalism and communication. In particular, his books were about the ideology and political economy of magazines, newspapers, radio and television; public sphere theory, sociological theories, children and television, and surveillance.

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