Labor Intellectualization as a Social Phenomenon of Modern Capitalism

Labor Intellectualization as a Social Phenomenon of Modern Capitalism


Krasova E.V.

Cand. Sci. (Econ.), Assoc. Prof., Department of Economics and Management, Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service, Vladivostok, Russia elena_krasova@rambler.ru

ID of the Article:


For citation:

Krasova E.V. Labor Intellectualization as a Social Phenomenon of Modern Capitalism. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2022. No 7. P. 53-62




Abstract

From the second half of the twentieth century, a share of intellect in labor content has grown significantly. However, the changes are ambiguous in their manifestations and consequences for society. Intellectualization remains the most understudied issue in terms of its strong connection with the capitalist economy development. The author critically rethinks some common utopian views on intellectual labor as the highest form of human activity that makes possible overcoming the existing contradictions between capital and labor by means of maximizing individuals’ creative potential in information economy. The article considers intellectualization as a process that is consistent with the capitalism development on the base of information and communication technologies. The role of intellectualization is substantiated; it is to provide production using new technologies with labor resources of the appropriate quality. There are arguments that intellectualization cannot ensure changing nature of relationship between capital and labor and bring the economy beyond framework of capitalism, since it is itself determined by the capitalism. A trend of social inequality aggravation under the information economy and inherent intellectualization processes is indicated. There is a general conclusion that today’s capitalism with its desire for super-accumulation of capital and deep internal contradictions justifies unclear prospects for intellectualization under the strengthened exploitation and intellectual labor alienation.


Keywords
labor; labor intellectualization; intellectual labor; capitalism; public production; information and communication technologies; capital

References

Bridges W. (1995) JobShift: How to Prosper in a Workplace Without Jobs. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.

Buyruk H. (2014) «Professionalization» or «Proletarianization»: which concept defines the changes in teachers’ work? Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences. Vol. 116: 1709–1714.

Buzgalin A.V. (2017) Creative economy: private intellectual property or ownership by everybody of everything? Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. No. 7: 43–53. (In Russ.)

BuzgalinA.V. (2018) Late capitalism and its limits: dialectics of production forces and production relations (on the Karl Marx’s 200th anniversary). Voprosy politicheskoy ekonomii [Issues of Political Economy]. No. 2: 10–38. (In Russ.)

Campbell J. (2019) Questions with regard to work. Ideas and Innovations. Vol. 7. Iss. 1: 27–33.

Castells M. (2001) The Internet Galaxy. Reflections on the Internet, Business and Society. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.

Cavenaile L. (2021) Offshoring, computerization, labor market polarization and top income inequality. Journal of Macroeconomics. Vol. 69. Art. 103317.

Chernysh M.F. (2018) Trends of modern critical sociology (general impressions from ESS conference). Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. No. 2: 3–8. (In Russ.)

Corsani A. (2015) Transformation of labor and its temporalities: chronological disorientation and the colonization of non-working time. Logos. No. 25. Vol. 3(105): 51–71. (In Russ.)

Dyer-Witheford N. (1999) Cyber-Marx: Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High Technology Capitalism. US: University of Illinois Press.

Inozemtsev V.L. (1998) For Ten Years. About the Concept of Post-Economic Society. Moscow: Academia. (In Russ.)

Ivashkevich I.M. (1983) Deepening the opposition between mental and physical labor in the conditions of the scientific and technological revolution under capitalism. Diss. kand. fil. nauk. SU: Kiyev. (In Russ.)

Jabborov D.B. (2018) The market and the state in the context of the development of creative labor. Vestnik Instituta ekonomiki Rossiyskoy akademii nauk [Bulletin of Economics Institute of the RAS]. No. 6: 150–160. (In Russ.)

Kirshin I.A., Titov A.V. (2012) Genesis of economy intellectualization: theoretical generalization. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki [Kazan University Bulletin. Humanities]. No. 154. Vol. 6: 7–18. (In Russ.)

Lazzarato M. (1996) Immaterial Labor. Radical Thought in Italy. Virno P., Hardy M. (eds) Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Lebedev S.N. (2014) Conceptual problems of the intellectual labor economics. RUDN Journal of Sociology. No. 3: 108–120. (In Russ.)

Lebedintseva L.A. (2009) Distinctive features, role and functions of intellectual labour in the modern society. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta. Sotsiologiya [Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Sociology]. No. 3–1: 92–103. (In Russ.)

Lovering J. (2009) Fordism, postfordism, and flexible specialization. International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (2nd ed.): 209–218.

Martseva L.M. (2013) Essence and Existence of Labor: Selected Articles. Omsk: OOO «Izdatel’skiy tsentr «Omskiy nauchnyy vestnik». (In Russ.)

Mikhneva S.G. (2002) Information economics and the new paradigm of the political economy of labour. RUDN Journal of Economics. No. 1: 44–55. (In Russ.)

Mokshin V.K., Shipelik O.V. (2019) Labor in the History of Society: from Primitive to Network. Arkhangel’sk: KIRA. (In Russ.)

Novozhilova N.V., Smirnov V.V. (2008) Intellctualization of work in system of relations of production. Audit i Finansovyy Analiz [Audit and Financial Analysis]. No. 3: 63–73. (In Russ.)

Orlov V.V., Gritsenko V.S. (2012) The post-industrial society and a new type of labour. Filosofiya i Obshchestvo [Philosophy and Society]. No. 3(67): 60–78. (In Russ.)

Pink D. (2002) Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself. New York: Business Plus.

Pokrovskaya N.N., Boyko S.V., Khodakova I.A. (2020) Information society as socio-economic paradigm. Nauchnaya mysl’ [Scientific Thought]. No. 13. Vol. 3–1(37): 65–73. (In Russ.)

Rakhmanov A.B. (2020) The business elites of the leading countries in 2020: a complex study. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Filosofiya. Sotsiologiya. Politologiya [Tomsk State University Journal of Philosophy, Sociology and Political Science]. No. 56: 194–222. (In Russ.)

Small G., Vorgan G. (2008) iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alternation of the Modern Mind. New York: William Morrow Paperbacks Publ.

Standing G. (2020) The Precariat. The New Dangerous Class. Moscow: Ad Marginem.

Stozhko K.P., Stozhko D.K., Shadrina O.V. (2013) Creative labour in the context of innovative economy. Upravlenets [The Manager]. No. 4(44): 22–27. (In Russ.)

Sy A., Tinker T. (2010) Labor processing labor: A new critical literature for information systems research. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems. Vol. 11. No. 2: 120–133.

Terranova T. (2000) Free Labor: Producing Culture for the Digital Economy. Duke University Press Publ.: Social Text. Vol. 63(18). No. 2: 33–58.

Toshchenko Zh.T. (2017) Sociology of Labor. Moscow: UNITI-DATA.

Tsareva N.A., Omelyanenko S. Yu. (2020) Remote work: development of employee digital competence. Revista De La Universidad Del Zulia. Vol. 11. No. 31: 131–140.

Volkov Yu.E. (2009) Re-thinking current ideas on the labor essence. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. No. 3 (299): 27–35. (In Russ.)

Zarubina N.N. (2017) Economic Sociology. Moscow: Yurayt. (In Russ.)

Content No 7, 2022