From global value chains to modes of production

In the recent article, Theorising and analysing digital labour: From global value chains to modes of production, Christian Fuchs provides an compelling critic and overview of what he calls ‘Informational and Transnational Capitalism’. Identfyiny the role of ICTs  in the re-design of the globa production and value networks, his argument helps us to see through which nodes industrial, knowledge,  digital and agrarian forms of labour are interconnected in an hierarchically designed networks of global capitalist valorization.

Abstract

This paper considers the following question—where do computers, laptops and mobile phones come from and who produced them? Specific cases of digital labour are examined—the extraction of minerals in African mines under slave-like conditions; ICT manufacturing and assemblage in China (Foxconn); software engineering in India; call centre service work; software engineering at Google within Silicon Valley; and the digital labour of internet prosumers/users. Empirical data and empirical studies concerning these cases are systematically analysed and theoretically interpreted. The theoretical interpretations are grounded in Marxist political economy. The term ‘global value chain’ is criticised in favour of a complex and multidimensional understanding of Marx’s ‘mode of production’ for the purposes of conceptualizing digital labour. This kind of labour is transnational and involves various modes of production, relations of production and organisational forms (in the context of the productive forces). There is a complex global division of digital labour that connects and articulates various forms of productive forces, exploitation, modes of production, and variations within the dominant capitalist mode of production.

Full Text via Theorising and analysing digital labour: From global value chains to modes of production | Fuchs | The Political Economy of Communication.

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