Intangible Work and the Value Theory: an Analysis of the Knowledge Production in the Capitalist Society
Name: POLLYANNA PAGANOTO MOURA
Publication date: 10/07/2015
Advisor:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| EDNILSON SILVA FELIPE | Advisor * |
Examining board:
| Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| EDNILSON SILVA FELIPE | Advisor * |
| MAURICIO DE SOUZA SABADINI | Co advisor * |
Summary: This research aims to discuss the existing problems between the central theory of value of Karl Marx and the so-called "theory of immaterial labor". It refers to the thesis of this divergence overcoming Marx's labor theory of value to understand the current dynamics of the capitalist mode of production, which for some, is today under the aegis of immaterial production. According to the authors aligned to this current, as André Gorz, Antonio Negri and Maurizio Lazzarato, being this production full of subjective characters and thus irreproducible, it is impossible to establish a relationship between its price and the time spent in its production. Hence, the Marxist theory of value becomes insufficient to support the analysis of the ―new‖ economic times. Our work presents a critique of this perspective and concludes that Marx's labor theory of value is still relevant to the analysis of the new forms taken by contemporary capitalism, and that it mainly provides the theoretical basis for understanding the issues related to it is called ―immaterial‖. In order to carry it out, we move forward in an central aspect, which lies at the realization that there is a misunderstanding about the true nature of the immaterial, understood as every idea and human intellectual development. The failure to grasp this meaning makes those authors linked to the theory of immaterial labor, incur in two basic misconceptions: first, this confusion leads them to classify the sectors producing services - many of them productive and materials for Marx - as part of immaterial production. We show that the pricing of these services is still based on the magnitude of their values. Second, there is a lack of understanding the form of production of immaterial - the production of knowledge - and how to determine its price. Thus, in the light of Marx's theory, one can see that knowledge itself is not wealth creator, and that its revenue is obtained through the appropriation of the share of the value generated in the material production, similarly to what happens to the ground rent so that understanding of its dynamics is only possible from the marxist value category. Key words: Immaterial labor. Karl Marx. Value. Knowledge.
