Why Do Humans Remain Central to the Knowledge Work in the Age of Robots? Marx's Fragment on Machines and Beyond

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2374467
AutoresEmrah Karakilic (0000-0003-4620-5856, Nottingham Trent University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2022
Volumen36
Número1
Páginas179-189
Fecha de publicación2022-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaWork Employment and Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0950-0170 • E-ISSN: 1469-8722
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0950017020958901
OpenAlexW3108733315
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas32

The integration of new technologies into the process of production has recently resuscitated the question of world-without-work. Accounts that regard a workless future as a strong possibility often base their arguments on a body of work that upholds that new machines already tend to eliminate the category of work, including knowledge work. This article challenges this view by revisiting Marx's Fragment on Machines through the lens of autonomist Marxist writings. It offers an answer to the research question, inscribed in the title, that in contemporary capitalism the principal source of value and wealth lies in the general intellect embodied in living labour, living-knowledge-as-mêtis, that cannot be crystallized in and reproduced by the system of machinery and organizational tools in any meaningful way. The political implications of this argument will be discussed in the conclusion

Argument (complex analysis · Capitalism · Economics · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Fragment (logic · Inscribed figure · Intellect · Knowledge management · Knowledge production · Marxist philosophy · Neoclassical economics · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Work (physics · Computer Science · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Engineering · Law · Marxism and Critical Theory · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism