CMNS 353 - Network labour

Transcript

1. Networked labour CMNS 353
2. Labour and identity
3. Alienation
4. In the progress of the division of labour, the employment of the far greater part of those who live by labour, that is, of the great body of the people, comes to be confined to a few very simple operations, frequently to one or two. […] The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which the effects are perhaps always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding or to exercise his invention in finding out expedients for removing difficulties which never occur. He naturally loses, therefore, the habit of such exertion, and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become. The torpor of his mind renders him not only incapable of relishing or bearing a part in any rational conversation, but of conceiving any generous, noble, or tender sentiment, and consequently of forming any just judgment concerning many even of the ordinary duties of private life. Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
5. Let us suppose that we had carried out production as human beings. Each of us would have in two ways affirmed himself and the other person. 1. In my production I would have objectified my individuality, its specific character, and therefore enjoyed not only an individual manifestation of my life during the activity, but also when looking at the object I would have the individual pleasure of knowing my personality to be objective, visible to the senses and hence a power beyond all doubt. 2. In your enjoyment or use of my product I would have the direct enjoyment both of being conscious of having satisfied a human need by my work, that is, of having objectified man’s essential nature, and of having thus created an object corresponding to the need of another man’s essential nature. Our products would be so many mirrors in which we saw reflected our essential nature.” Karl Marx, Comments on James Mill, Éléments D’économie Politique
6. From producer to consumer society
7. Alienation in the digital economy? The digital economy magically resolves the contradictions of industrial societies, such as class struggle: while in the industrial economy the “worker tried to achieve fulfillment through leisure [and] . . . was alienated from the means of production which were owned and controlled by someone else,” in the digital economy the worker achieves fulfillment through work and finds in her brain her own, unalienated means of production Don Tapscott
9. Entrepreneurial society The generalization of forms of “enterprise” by diffusing and multiplying them as much as possible, enterprises which must not be focused on the form of big national or international enterprises or the type of big enterprises of a state. I think this multiplication of the “enterprise” form within the social body is what is at stake in neo-liberal policy. It is a matter of making the market, competition, and so the enterprise, into what could be called the formative power of society. Michael Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics
12. Imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence
13. Authenticity, again?!?!11?? This process is different from that described by popular, left- wing wisdom about the incorporation of authentic cultural moments: it is not, then, about the bad boys of capital moving in on underground subcul- tures/subordinate cultures and “incorporating” the fruits of their production (styles, languages, music) into the media food chain.
14. Authenticity, again?!?!11?? The fruit of collective cultural labor has been not simply appropriated, but voluntarily channeled and controversially structured within capitalist business practices. The relation between culture, the cultural industry, and labor in these movements is much more complex than the notion of incorporation suggests.
15. Alienation Labour and automation Luddism Sentimentalization. Do waht you love and alineation Marissa Mayer Location independent business Mobility is the new capital
16. QUESTIONS? Office Hour: Monday, 4.30 – 5.20 Room 8661 OR 8666 Let’s connect: - Twitter.com/albertolusoli - Linkedin: ca.linkedin.com/in/albertolusoli - Email: alusoli@sfu.ca Share your thoughts using #cmns353 Photo Credits: All pictures used in this presentation are protected by Creative Common License. THANK YOU!