PERSPECTIVE
Revisiting Marx's Value Theory: Elements of a critical theory of immaterial labor in informational capitalism
Maxime Ouellet
Beginning with a reading of Marx proposed by the critical theory of value, the assumptions of Fuchs (2010) and Arvidsson and Colleoni (2012) in the debate on value creation in informational capitalism are analysed. The theorization of immaterial labor proposed by these authors is limited in its capacity to articulate a radical critique of political economy. Since the immaterial labor theory is marked by the absence of a dialectical critique of knowledge forms constituted under capitalism, it cannot advance Marx’s push for a critique of the categories of political economy. The dynamics of capitalism entails a process of alienation that is not limited to exploiting the work done immediately by the producers; it also generates an alienation of forms of knowledge: the alienation of the “general intellect” itself.