Anita Chari
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231173896
- eISBN:
- 9780231540384
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231173896.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter turns to an analysis of one of the most influential thinkers of reification critique, Georg Lukács who explored the crucial role that subjectivity played in the processes of the ...
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This chapter turns to an analysis of one of the most influential thinkers of reification critique, Georg Lukács who explored the crucial role that subjectivity played in the processes of the capitalist mode of production. This chapter argues that Lukács’s analysis of the subject’s reified stance in capitalism is crucial for reconnecting a critique of political economy with lived experiences and subjective perceptions of capitalist society.Less
This chapter turns to an analysis of one of the most influential thinkers of reification critique, Georg Lukács who explored the crucial role that subjectivity played in the processes of the capitalist mode of production. This chapter argues that Lukács’s analysis of the subject’s reified stance in capitalism is crucial for reconnecting a critique of political economy with lived experiences and subjective perceptions of capitalist society.
Seb Franklin
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029537
- eISBN:
- 9780262331135
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029537.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
This chapter opens with a discussion of Gilles Deleuze’s theorization of control societies and its relation to concepts of post-Fordism, neoclassical economics, immaterial labor, and attention ...
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This chapter opens with a discussion of Gilles Deleuze’s theorization of control societies and its relation to concepts of post-Fordism, neoclassical economics, immaterial labor, and attention economies. Following this, the chapter traces the historical relationship between the conceptual structure of control and the fundamental logic of the capitalist mode of production. This historical examination passes through three major stages: an analysis of Marx’s work on capital, labor, and abstraction; a discussion of Charles Babbage’s work on computing machines, political economy, factories, and theology; and a close reading of the automation of essentialism that undergirds Herman Hollerith’s late-nineteenth century work on machine tabulation.Less
This chapter opens with a discussion of Gilles Deleuze’s theorization of control societies and its relation to concepts of post-Fordism, neoclassical economics, immaterial labor, and attention economies. Following this, the chapter traces the historical relationship between the conceptual structure of control and the fundamental logic of the capitalist mode of production. This historical examination passes through three major stages: an analysis of Marx’s work on capital, labor, and abstraction; a discussion of Charles Babbage’s work on computing machines, political economy, factories, and theology; and a close reading of the automation of essentialism that undergirds Herman Hollerith’s late-nineteenth century work on machine tabulation.
Daniel McLoughlin
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474402637
- eISBN:
- 9781474422390
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474402637.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter responds to arguments that Agamben’s work contributes little to the analysis of contemporary capitalism by reading his genealogy of government in the context of Guy Debord’s analysis of ...
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This chapter responds to arguments that Agamben’s work contributes little to the analysis of contemporary capitalism by reading his genealogy of government in the context of Guy Debord’s analysis of spectacular capitalism and the analysis of immaterial labour developed by post-operaismo thinkers. The chapter shows how Agamben’s analysis of glorification in The Kingdom and the Glory builds upon his earlier work on sacrifice to describe an estranged practice that masks the social foundations of governmental power. McLoughlin then argues that Agamben extends on this analysis in The Highest Poverty, which describes a monastic labour that that occupies the totality of life, and which simultaneously enacts and glorifies the divine order. This monastic paradigm can, the chapter claims, be usefully deployed in understanding contemporary capitalism, which has integrated language into both the process of exchange (the spectacle) and the process of production (Post-Fordism).Less
This chapter responds to arguments that Agamben’s work contributes little to the analysis of contemporary capitalism by reading his genealogy of government in the context of Guy Debord’s analysis of spectacular capitalism and the analysis of immaterial labour developed by post-operaismo thinkers. The chapter shows how Agamben’s analysis of glorification in The Kingdom and the Glory builds upon his earlier work on sacrifice to describe an estranged practice that masks the social foundations of governmental power. McLoughlin then argues that Agamben extends on this analysis in The Highest Poverty, which describes a monastic labour that that occupies the totality of life, and which simultaneously enacts and glorifies the divine order. This monastic paradigm can, the chapter claims, be usefully deployed in understanding contemporary capitalism, which has integrated language into both the process of exchange (the spectacle) and the process of production (Post-Fordism).
Sarah Brouillette
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780804789486
- eISBN:
- 9780804792431
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804789486.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter considers the surprising parallels between Richard Florida's arguments about the creative class and neo-Marxist theories of immaterial labor. It argues that they share a fundamentally ...
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This chapter considers the surprising parallels between Richard Florida's arguments about the creative class and neo-Marxist theories of immaterial labor. It argues that they share a fundamentally ahistorical conception of creativity as the natural expression of an innate opposition to routine and to management. The chapter then suggests that historically grounded accounts of the history of cultural production, which attend to the position of the producer within the marketplace and within a broader field of social relations, provide an alternative. It outlines two particularly relevant tributaries within this history: the development via bohemian enclaves of the contradictory relationship between artists and the markets for their work; and the mainstreaming of the figure of the artist as valorized mental laborer.Less
This chapter considers the surprising parallels between Richard Florida's arguments about the creative class and neo-Marxist theories of immaterial labor. It argues that they share a fundamentally ahistorical conception of creativity as the natural expression of an innate opposition to routine and to management. The chapter then suggests that historically grounded accounts of the history of cultural production, which attend to the position of the producer within the marketplace and within a broader field of social relations, provide an alternative. It outlines two particularly relevant tributaries within this history: the development via bohemian enclaves of the contradictory relationship between artists and the markets for their work; and the mainstreaming of the figure of the artist as valorized mental laborer.
Tung-Hui Hu
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029513
- eISBN:
- 9780262330091
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029513.003.0002
- Subject:
- Computer Science, Programming
This chapter examines the pre-history of what is now called “cloud computing”: the idea that computer power and software could be ‘piped’ into a user’s home, like electricity or other utilities. This ...
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This chapter examines the pre-history of what is now called “cloud computing”: the idea that computer power and software could be ‘piped’ into a user’s home, like electricity or other utilities. This vision came out of a 1960s technology called time-sharing, which allowed the million-dollar cost of a computer to be shared and the computer multi-tasked. Time-sharing not only invented the modern idea of a user as a personal subject, but also positioned that user within a political economy that makes a user synonymous with his or her usage. The freedom that results, however, is a deeply ambiguous one, for the virtualization technologies that allow files and user accounts to be made private in the cloud also represent a subtle form of control.Less
This chapter examines the pre-history of what is now called “cloud computing”: the idea that computer power and software could be ‘piped’ into a user’s home, like electricity or other utilities. This vision came out of a 1960s technology called time-sharing, which allowed the million-dollar cost of a computer to be shared and the computer multi-tasked. Time-sharing not only invented the modern idea of a user as a personal subject, but also positioned that user within a political economy that makes a user synonymous with his or her usage. The freedom that results, however, is a deeply ambiguous one, for the virtualization technologies that allow files and user accounts to be made private in the cloud also represent a subtle form of control.
Anca Parvulescu
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226118246
- eISBN:
- 9780226118413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226118413.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter brings together the book’s argument about the category “women’s work” in the context of post-Fordism. The narrative basis for the chapter is offered by Ulrich Seidl’s Import/Export ...
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This chapter brings together the book’s argument about the category “women’s work” in the context of post-Fordism. The narrative basis for the chapter is offered by Ulrich Seidl’s Import/Export (2007), a film that documents the labor of a Ukrainian nurse in Austria, where she is employed as a cleaning lady in a middle class home and a geriatric ward. The chapter revisits the second-wave feminist debate on housework, especially the work of Silvia Federici, Pat Mainardi, and Ellen Malos, locating “women’s work” within Fordist economy. It juxtaposes to this history the analysis of contemporary work offered by Italian autonomist neo-Marxists, especially the work of Maurizio Lazzarato and Paolo Virno, who often take the figure of the housewife as exemplary of the post-Fordist worker. What happens, the chapter asks, if we consider the Ukrainian cleaning lady as a new housewife figure and consider her work to be exemplary of post-Fordist “immaterial labor”? The chapter ends by pointing to a European linguistic hierarchy, arguing that the calculated failure of translation is an important ingredient in the traffic in women.Less
This chapter brings together the book’s argument about the category “women’s work” in the context of post-Fordism. The narrative basis for the chapter is offered by Ulrich Seidl’s Import/Export (2007), a film that documents the labor of a Ukrainian nurse in Austria, where she is employed as a cleaning lady in a middle class home and a geriatric ward. The chapter revisits the second-wave feminist debate on housework, especially the work of Silvia Federici, Pat Mainardi, and Ellen Malos, locating “women’s work” within Fordist economy. It juxtaposes to this history the analysis of contemporary work offered by Italian autonomist neo-Marxists, especially the work of Maurizio Lazzarato and Paolo Virno, who often take the figure of the housewife as exemplary of the post-Fordist worker. What happens, the chapter asks, if we consider the Ukrainian cleaning lady as a new housewife figure and consider her work to be exemplary of post-Fordist “immaterial labor”? The chapter ends by pointing to a European linguistic hierarchy, arguing that the calculated failure of translation is an important ingredient in the traffic in women.
Maurizio Lazzarato
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748638376
- eISBN:
- 9780748652662
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748638376.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter examines contemporary art and the practice and anti-dialectical thought of a so-called anartist, suggesting that contemporary art can be considered as constituting a new expanded field ...
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This chapter examines contemporary art and the practice and anti-dialectical thought of a so-called anartist, suggesting that contemporary art can be considered as constituting a new expanded field which utilises and critiques the sensations produced by cognitive immaterial labour. It explains that, in this sense, contemporary art does not signify the disappearance of hand-work or physical labour, but the constitution of another assemblage in which manual labour and intellectual labour are caught up in a machinic process, which can be found not only in the actions of the broader public.Less
This chapter examines contemporary art and the practice and anti-dialectical thought of a so-called anartist, suggesting that contemporary art can be considered as constituting a new expanded field which utilises and critiques the sensations produced by cognitive immaterial labour. It explains that, in this sense, contemporary art does not signify the disappearance of hand-work or physical labour, but the constitution of another assemblage in which manual labour and intellectual labour are caught up in a machinic process, which can be found not only in the actions of the broader public.
Elizabeth A. Wissinger
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814794180
- eISBN:
- 9780814794197
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814794180.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
Over the last four decades, the fashion modeling industry has become a lightning rod for debates about Western beauty ideals, the sexual objectification of women, and consumerist desire. Yet, as ...
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Over the last four decades, the fashion modeling industry has become a lightning rod for debates about Western beauty ideals, the sexual objectification of women, and consumerist desire. Yet, as Wissinger contends, existing theories of commercialism and gender norms fail to fully explain the enduring appeal and significance of fashion models. Instead, in the growth of informational capitalism, the transformation from print to film to the internet has had an enormous impact on what kind of body counts as “fashionable.” From Twiggy’s iconic angularity to the supermodels’ “glamazonian” contours to the waif’s hollowed out silhouette, to Kim Kardashian's curves, technologies change the fashioning of bodies, and how they are valued. The book masterfully weaves together in-depth interviews, participant observation at model castings, photo shoots, runways shows, and a careful examination of “how-to” texts to offer a glimpse into the life of the model. This life involves a great deal of physical and virtual management of the body, or what Wissinger terms “glamour labor.” Traditional forms of “glamour labor’—specialized modeling work of self-styling, crafting a ‘look,’ and building an image—have been amplified by the rise of digital media as the power of pixilation afforded unprecedented access to tinkering with the body’s form and image. As lines blur between life, work, and body management in the participatory culture of Web 2.0, the street becomes a runway and being “in fashion” a route to success. In an era where self-fashioning, self-surveillance, and self-branding are presented as a means to “the good life,” this book urges us to take seriously the presentation of bodies and selves in the digital age.Less
Over the last four decades, the fashion modeling industry has become a lightning rod for debates about Western beauty ideals, the sexual objectification of women, and consumerist desire. Yet, as Wissinger contends, existing theories of commercialism and gender norms fail to fully explain the enduring appeal and significance of fashion models. Instead, in the growth of informational capitalism, the transformation from print to film to the internet has had an enormous impact on what kind of body counts as “fashionable.” From Twiggy’s iconic angularity to the supermodels’ “glamazonian” contours to the waif’s hollowed out silhouette, to Kim Kardashian's curves, technologies change the fashioning of bodies, and how they are valued. The book masterfully weaves together in-depth interviews, participant observation at model castings, photo shoots, runways shows, and a careful examination of “how-to” texts to offer a glimpse into the life of the model. This life involves a great deal of physical and virtual management of the body, or what Wissinger terms “glamour labor.” Traditional forms of “glamour labor’—specialized modeling work of self-styling, crafting a ‘look,’ and building an image—have been amplified by the rise of digital media as the power of pixilation afforded unprecedented access to tinkering with the body’s form and image. As lines blur between life, work, and body management in the participatory culture of Web 2.0, the street becomes a runway and being “in fashion” a route to success. In an era where self-fashioning, self-surveillance, and self-branding are presented as a means to “the good life,” this book urges us to take seriously the presentation of bodies and selves in the digital age.
Ramsay Burt
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199321926
- eISBN:
- 9780190456627
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199321926.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
This chapter focuses on the relation between contemporary European dance and the new kinds of immaterial working practices of the postindustrial economy, drawing on critiques by post-Fordist ...
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This chapter focuses on the relation between contemporary European dance and the new kinds of immaterial working practices of the postindustrial economy, drawing on critiques by post-Fordist theorists. In this new economy, artists are the model employees of the new work ethic due to their creativity, versatility, and skill at exploiting new opportunities. This raises questions about the extent to which dance artists’ virtuosity is being captured by the new economy or whether they have developed strategies for resisting it. The chapter therefore looks at examples where dance material has been circulating on the Internet, and in other forms of media, in the form of artists’ projects and as part of corporate advertising and promotion.Less
This chapter focuses on the relation between contemporary European dance and the new kinds of immaterial working practices of the postindustrial economy, drawing on critiques by post-Fordist theorists. In this new economy, artists are the model employees of the new work ethic due to their creativity, versatility, and skill at exploiting new opportunities. This raises questions about the extent to which dance artists’ virtuosity is being captured by the new economy or whether they have developed strategies for resisting it. The chapter therefore looks at examples where dance material has been circulating on the Internet, and in other forms of media, in the form of artists’ projects and as part of corporate advertising and promotion.
Joseph D. Hankins
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520283282
- eISBN:
- 9780520959163
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520283282.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
The tannery produces leather; the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR) produces webpages, U.N. documents, and other representations of the Buraku situation. ...
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The tannery produces leather; the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR) produces webpages, U.N. documents, and other representations of the Buraku situation. As much as these processes produce objects central to the contemporary Buraku situation, they also demand certain practices from the people who produce these objects. Following the jobs of Tanimoto-san in the tannery and Malaya-san at IMADR, this chapter provides an ethnographic description of the work, the people, and the institutions involved in the day-to-day operations of the current Buraku situation. It revisits linguistic anthropology’s contention that signification is an achievement, discussed in the introduction, to examine how people and objects, as much as words, are also achieved in concrete interaction. It explores the uneven dynamic between these two types of labor—the labor of representation and the labor represented. This chapter contends that the work entailed in this split between narrating and narrated creates not only commodities or information but also a relationship between kinds of subjects, who are recognizable as either political actors or as evidence of discrimination.Less
The tannery produces leather; the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR) produces webpages, U.N. documents, and other representations of the Buraku situation. As much as these processes produce objects central to the contemporary Buraku situation, they also demand certain practices from the people who produce these objects. Following the jobs of Tanimoto-san in the tannery and Malaya-san at IMADR, this chapter provides an ethnographic description of the work, the people, and the institutions involved in the day-to-day operations of the current Buraku situation. It revisits linguistic anthropology’s contention that signification is an achievement, discussed in the introduction, to examine how people and objects, as much as words, are also achieved in concrete interaction. It explores the uneven dynamic between these two types of labor—the labor of representation and the labor represented. This chapter contends that the work entailed in this split between narrating and narrated creates not only commodities or information but also a relationship between kinds of subjects, who are recognizable as either political actors or as evidence of discrimination.
Ramsay Burt
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199321926
- eISBN:
- 9780190456627
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199321926.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
This chapter continues a concern with the immaterial working practices of the postindustrial economy, and considers critiques of this by post-Fordist theorists. It presents extended readings of two ...
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This chapter continues a concern with the immaterial working practices of the postindustrial economy, and considers critiques of this by post-Fordist theorists. It presents extended readings of two works, BADco.’s dance performance 1 Poor and One 0 and Natalie Bookchin’s video installation Mass Ornament. It argues that both pieces trouble preconceptions about the meaning of leisure in post-Fordist times in a way that allows beholders to imagine possibilities for renewing the common space for social and political relations. Through their use of dance material, both works touch on the ways in which working conditions have changed since the early twentieth century, revealing how, in the twenty-first century, workers’ alienation and isolation are taking different, less easily recognisable forms.Less
This chapter continues a concern with the immaterial working practices of the postindustrial economy, and considers critiques of this by post-Fordist theorists. It presents extended readings of two works, BADco.’s dance performance 1 Poor and One 0 and Natalie Bookchin’s video installation Mass Ornament. It argues that both pieces trouble preconceptions about the meaning of leisure in post-Fordist times in a way that allows beholders to imagine possibilities for renewing the common space for social and political relations. Through their use of dance material, both works touch on the ways in which working conditions have changed since the early twentieth century, revealing how, in the twenty-first century, workers’ alienation and isolation are taking different, less easily recognisable forms.
