How algorithms are reshaping the exploitation of labour-power

Insights Into the Process of Labour Invisibilization in the Platform Economy

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2059947
AutoresLorenzo Cini (0000-0002-5381-4361, University College Dublin, autor correspondente)
Ano2023
Volume52
Fascículo5
Páginas885-911
Data de publicação2023-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoTheory and Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0304-2421 • E-ISSN: 1573-7853
EditoraSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s11186-023-09520-9
OpenAlexW4381661521
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas18
Referências citadas50

Marx conceives of capitalism as a production mode based on the exploitation of labour-power, whose productive consumption in the labour process is considered as the main source of value creation. Capitalists seek to obscure and secure workers' contribution to the production process, whereas workers strive to have their contribution fully recognized. The struggle between capitalists and workers over labour-time is thus central to capital's valorization process. Hence, capital-labour antagonism is structured over the capture and exploitation of unpaid labour-time. Building on Marx's labour value theory, as well as on some of its contemporary interpretations, I call this struggle over labour-time capture a process of 'invisibilization' of labour. I claim that this invisibilization process is still a relevant form of surplus-value extraction in contemporary capitalism, especially in the platform economy, characterized by remote but pervasive control by algorithms. The rediscovery of this form of surplus-value extraction and its manifestation in platform labour is the main contribution of this study. To corroborate this contribution, I compare the case of platform labour with that of textile-clothing, where value production is more clearly based on the classical forms of surplus-value extraction (i.e., absolute and relative). This comparison helps to cast a new light on the nexus between work-process transformations and surplus-value creation, which is the core of the Marxian labour theory of value, and which - I argue - is crucial to understanding contemporary capitalist developments

Capitalism · Capitalist mode of production · Economic system · Economics · Economy · Labour economics · Labour law · Market economy · Microeconomics · Mode of production · Neoclassical economics · Political science · Politics · Surplus value · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Employment and Welfare Studies · Engineering · Law · Political Economy and Marxism