scholarly journals Digital Labour and the Use-value of Human Work. On the Importance of Labouring Capacity for understanding Digital Capitalism

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Pfeiffer
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Work ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Work Organisation ◽  
Use Value ◽  
Digital Capitalism ◽  
Exchange Value ◽  
Digital Work ◽  
Alexander Kluge ◽  
Abstract Work ◽  
Labour Power

On the face of its virtual and immaterial appearance, digital labour often is seen as a phenomenon of abstract work. Contrary to that common understanding, in Marx’ theory the abstraction of labour derives from its historical development into a commodity, splitting human work as all commodities into use-value and exchange-value. Thus the process of abstraction is of economical logic, and not to be explained or characterized by the virtual and immaterial quality that is typical for the means and objects of digital labour. In his early work Marx differentiates between living labouring capacity (Arbeitsvermögen) as the use-value of human work and labour power as its objectified form to be exchanged. In the tradition of Marx‘ Grundrisse Oskar Negt and Alexander Kluge in Geschichte und Eigensinn pointed to the dialectical relationship between the use-value and exchange-value of labour, revealing how labour on its use-value side ‟contains and reproduces capacities and energies that exceed its realisation in/as commodity”, extending the model of labour power ‟to a whole range of physiological, sexual, social, and national relations” (Negt and Kluge 1993a, xxxiii). While these qualitative and material as well as corporeal aspects of human work are still visible in industrial production processes, they seem to be vanished in virtual work environments. But, digital capitalism not only opens up exploitation to higher levels and new forms (e.g. Fuchs 2012; Scholz 2012), the relevance of human work and its use-value for capitalism becomes more concealed to the same degree as it becomes more significant. The article develops an analytical conception relying on Marx‘ dialectical distinction between the use-value (labouring capacity) and the exchange-value (labour power), and transforming it into an operationalized model that could be and has been successfully used for empirical studies of digital labour. Labouring capacity has three levels of phenomena: subjectifying corporeal working action, material means and objects of work (even in virtual environments), and the socially and physically experienceable face of globalised work organisation. This analytical concept of labouring capacity (Arbeitsvermögen; Pfeiffer 2004) is especially helpful to reveal the dialectics in digital work and its sources of value creation (Pfeiffer 2013). The article unfolds the theoretical foundations of the concept, and elaborates its potential to analyse digital labour.

scholarly journals Introduction: Philosophers of the World Unite! Theorising Digital Labour and Virtual Work—Definitions, Dimensions, and Forms

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisol Sandoval ◽  
Christian Fuchs ◽  
Jernej A. Prodnik ◽  
Sebastian Sevignani ◽  
Thomas Allmer
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Virtual Work ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Mobile Media ◽  
Digital Capitalism ◽  
Critical Theories ◽  
Specific Dimension ◽  
The World

In 1845, Karl Marx (1845, 571) formulated the 11th Feuerbach Thesis: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” Today, interpreting the world has become an important form of labour that is expressed on and with the help of digital media. In this context it has become common to talk about digital labour and virtual work. Yet the changes that digital, social, and mobile media bring about in the world of labour and work have thus far only been little theoretically interpreted. In order to change the information society for the better, we first have to interpret digital labour with the help of critical theories. Social theorists of the world from different fields, backgrounds, interdisciplines, transdisciplines, and disciplines have to unite for this collective philosophical task. This special issue of tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique aims to contribute to building a theoretical framework for the critical analysis of digital labour, virtual work, and related concepts that can initiate further debates, inform empirical studies, and inspire social struggles connected to work and labour in and beyond digital capitalism. The papers collected in this special issue (a) provide systematic definitions of digital labour, (b) analyse its specific dimension, and (c) discuss different forms of digital labour.

scholarly journals DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE SPECIAL ISSUE: Philosophers of the World Unite! Theorising Digital Labour and Virtual Work - Definitions, Dimensions and Forms

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Editors: Marisol Sandoval, Christian Fuchs, et al
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Virtual Work ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Digital Capitalism ◽  
Specific Dimension ◽  
The World ◽  
The Eu

This special issue of tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique aims to contribute to building a theoretical framework for the critical analysis of digital labour, virtual work, and related concepts that can initiate further debates, inform empirical studies, and inspire social struggles connected to work and labour in and beyond digital capitalism. The papers collected in this special issue (a) provide systematic definitions of digital labour, (b) analyse its specific dimension, and (c) discuss different forms of digital labour.Theorising digital labour, as labour that produces or makes use of digital technologies, can help to understand its problems, limits, potentials, and contradictions. It can therefore highlight the need for social change and inspire political action. However, the act of freeing digital technology from being an instrument for the domination of labour requires to go beyond just interpreting the world and to engage in social struggles that want to change it.Acknowledgement: This special issue has been published in the context of the EU COST Action IS1202 Dynamics of Virtual Work, http://dynamicsofvirtualwork.com/Cover image: By Jonny White (G20 April 1st) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

scholarly journals A NEW SOLUTION CONCERNING CHOICE-OF-LAW FOR THE ASSIGNMENT OF DEBTS

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 665-696
Author(s):  
Alison Xu
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Use Value ◽  
Private International Law ◽  
Choice Of Law ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Exchange Value

AbstractThis article explores a solution to the choice-of-law issues concerning both voluntary and involuntary assignments arising in a domestic forum. The focus is on English private international law rules relating to cross-border assignments. A distinction is made between primary and extended parties as the foundation for choice-of-law analysis. Drawing on insights from the distinction of the use value and exchange value of debts found in economics, this article proposes a new analytical framework for choice-of-law based on a modified choice-of-law theory of interest-analysis.

Alternatives to Commodification

2021 ◽  
pp. 135-158
Author(s):  
Christoph Hermann
Keyword(s):  
Use Value ◽  
Market Exchange ◽  
Separate Section ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Exchange Value ◽  
Alternative Vision ◽  
Private Profit

This chapter discusses alternatives to commodification. The opposite of commodification is de-commodification. De-commodification imposes limits on the commodity character of goods and services traded on markets, but it does not provide for an alternative. Following an understanding of commodification as subjugation of use value to market/exchange value, the chapter argues that an alternative must seek to “free” use value and reinstate it as the primary goal of production. Or put differently, an alternative to commodification must focus on the satisfaction of human needs rather than the expansion of private profit. Three elements are crucial for the promotion of (collective and ecological) use value: democratization, sustainability, and solidarity. The chapter discusses each one in a separate section. It then brings the three elements together into an alternative vision that is called use-value society.

Devalorization

2020 ◽  
pp. 77-99
Author(s):  
Thomas Nail
Keyword(s):  
Use Value ◽  
Primitive Accumulation ◽  
The Core ◽  
Exchange Value ◽  
Mode Of Presentation ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
Theory Of Value

This chapter shows that the process of primitive accumulation or direct appropriation is and must be internal to Marx’s theory of value. This is the case for precisely the methodological reasons Marx describes in his postface to the second edition of Capital. The core concepts in the “mode of presentation” (use-value, exchange-value, and value) describe the strictly immanent conditions or core “logic of capitalism” but are also derived from the historical “mode of inquiry.” Since primitive accumulation is part of the historical mode of inquiry, there must be a conceptual place for primitive accumulation in the mode of presentation itself. If not, then the mode of presentation is strictly speaking inadequate to the mode of inquiry—something that any dialectician, and Marx himself, must reject.

Mapping the Commons in Istanbul

2020 ◽  
pp. 638-657
Author(s):  
Başak Ergüder
Keyword(s):  
Use Value ◽  
Public Benefit ◽  
The Third ◽  
Exchange Value ◽  
Infrastructure Finance ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Northern Forests ◽  
Basic Features ◽  
Urban Commons ◽  
Privately Owned

In the study, bids for Üçüncü Köprü (The Third Bridge), Üçüncü Havalimanı (The Third Airport), and link roads in Northern Forests will be examined to map urban commons in Istanbul. Two coordinates will be followed for mapping urban commons. First coordinate is the conceptual one which regulates the differences of fundamental conceptions relating to urban commons. At this level, use value will be analyzed in terms of public benefit which is in regard to basic features of urban commons. In second coordinate, urban spaces including exchange value and privately owned such as bridges, roads, airports and highways will be analyzed in terms of infrastructure finance. The aim of the study is discussing the “tragedy of commons” within the context of investments to be made for the urban commons and bringing into question the future of urban commons upon the basis of Istanbul example.

scholarly journals Consuming Code: Use-Value, Exchange-Value, and the Role of Virtual Goods in Second Life

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Martin
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Use Value ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Significant Growth ◽  
Exchange Value

In recent years, there has been significant growth in consumption of commodities in virtual social worlds, such as Second Life, and in the economies that arise from this practice. While these economic systems have been acknowledged and studied, there remains relatively little understanding of the reasons why individuals choose to purchase such goods, despite the fact that reasons for consumption are strong enough to drive a virtual goods industry with annual profits in the millions of dollars. Virtual goods, the author argues, meet no immediate needs for avatars or individuals and, as such, are purchased based exclusively on their exchange- and symbolic-values. Due to the graphical nature of Second Life and the consequent visibility of commodities within the environment, these reasons for purchasing virtual goods are explored in terms of their roles for users, and especially in terms of their potential for expressing wealth, power, status, individuality, and belonging. As such, this paper considers the roles of consumption in a way that relies on and further illuminates theories of consumption and value with respect to virtual environments and commodities.

Resisting songs: negative dialectics in pop

Popular Music ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Bloomfield
Keyword(s):  
Television Advertising ◽  
Soap Operas ◽  
Use Value ◽  
Late Capitalism ◽  
Crack Open ◽  
Cultural Objects ◽  
Negative Dialectics ◽  
The Past ◽  
Exchange Value ◽  
Closed Circle

But there isn't Al. If Al were there he would be giving a private performance to Chris Roberts as patron: an odd conception in the present-day world. In fact Al Green sings in a domain that is public although the musical commodity of the disc or tape turns it into a potentially solitary experience. In his comment Roberts has been captured by the Romantic understanding of the song: that its essence is (artistic) interiority made exterior. He is not alone in his fantasy of access to the pop singer. It constitutes the prevailing, if unformulated, view – a considerable irony in the postmodern world of late capitalism. The past few decades have witnessed the development of a global light-entertainment industry whose cultural objects partake in an increasingly closed circle of signification through pop videos, television advertising, soap operas and the tabloids. This (hyper)reality coexists today with the pursuit of the ever more soulful vocal, as if in a doomed attempt to crack open the reified commodity, by dint of the singer's passion to force something human across the gulf between exchange value and use value.

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