Contemporary Capitalism and Technological Development - Two theoretical approaches: Marxist and cognitive
Name: TÂNIA MARIA SILVEIRA
Type: MSc dissertation
Publication date: 24/10/2012
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| MAURICIO DE SOUZA SABADINI | Internal Examiner * |
Summary: This dissertation approaches the role of technological development in capitalism. Itconsists in a theory review based on two lines of thought: Karl Marxs analysis and the thesis of cognitive capitalism according to Yann Moulier-Boutangs proposition. Besides presenting the way Marx viewed technological innovation and its consequences to the production process, this study analyzes why scholars of cognitive capitalism sustain that the mode of production, based on information and communication technologies, modifies capitalism. Given the broadness of this issue, the effects of information technologies on the labor process and valorization of capital were adopted as the main element in this study. Concerning this point, the study found those theories to converge in relation to centrality of labor, but to diverge in terms of understanding productive labor. For Marx, labor produces value, WHEREas the exploitation of exceeding labor-time values capital; for Moulier-Boutang, value is the result of exploiting immaterial labor and inventive-force, i.e. the computer-network brains. Therefore, knowledge is considered an economic factor.
