IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v36y2022i1p179-189.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Emrah Karakilic

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Emrah Karakilic, 2022. "Why Do Humans Remain Central to the Knowledge Work in the Age of Robots? Marx’s Fragment on Machines and Beyond," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(1), pages 179-189, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:36:y:2022:i:1:p:179-189
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017020958901
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017020958901
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017020958901?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lene Pettersen, 2019. "Why Artificial Intelligence Will Not Outsmart Complex Knowledge Work," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 33(6), pages 1058-1067, December.
    2. Taylor, Frederick Winslow, 1911. "The Principles of Scientific Management," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number taylor1911.
    3. Carlo Vercellone, 2007. "From Formal Subsumption to General Intellect: Elements for a Marxist Reading of the Thesis of Cognitive Capitalism, in Historical Materialism," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00263661, HAL.
    4. Carlo Vercellone, 2007. "From Formal Subsumption to General Intellect: Elements for a Marxist Reading of the Thesis of Cognitive Capitalism, in Historical Materialism," Post-Print halshs-00263661, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Karakilic, Emrah, 2019. "Rethinking intellectual property rights in the cognitive and digital age of capitalism: An autonomist Marxist reading," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 1-9.
    2. Jeon, Heesang, 2015. "Knowledge and Contemporary Capitalism in Light of Marx's Value Theory," Thesis Commons g5njk, Center for Open Science.
    3. Carlo Vercellone, 2008. "La thèse du capitalisme cognitif : une mise en perspective historique et théorique," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00401880, HAL.
    4. Bruno Tinel, 2013. "Why and how do capitalists divide labor? From Marglin and back again through Babbage and Marx," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00763837, HAL.
    5. Katarzyna Gruszka & Manuel Scholz-Wäckerle & Ernest Aigner, 2020. "Planetary carambolage: The evolutionary political economy of technology, nature and work," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 273-293, November.
    6. Laurent Baronian & Carlo Vercellone, 2013. "Moneta del comune e reddito sociale garantito," Post-Print halshs-00819014, HAL.
    7. Correa Romar & Rao D. Tripati, 2014. "A Heterodox Economics Critique of Financial Liberalization," Journal of Heterodox Economics, Sciendo, vol. 1(1), pages 79-99, June.
    8. Fumagalli, Andrea & Lucarelli, Stefano, 2008. "Cognitive Capitalism as a Financial Economy of Production," MPRA Paper 27989, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Bruno Tinel, 2013. "Why and How Do Capitalists Divide Labour? From Marglin and Back again through Babbage and Marx," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 254-272, April.
    10. Carlo Vercellone, 2008. "La thèse du capitalisme cognitif : une mise en perspective historique et théorique," Post-Print halshs-00401880, HAL.
    11. Monnier Jean-Marie & Vercellone Carlo, 2014. "The Foundations and Funding of Basic Income as Primary Income," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1-2), pages 59-77, December.
    12. Bruno Tinel, 2013. "Why and how do capitalists divide labor? From Marglin and back again through Babbage and Marx," Post-Print hal-00763837, HAL.
    13. Jean-Marie Monnier & Carlo Vercellone, 2017. "Basic income as primary income [Le revenu de base comme revenu primaire]," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-01486202, HAL.
    14. Allen J. Scott, 2008. "Resurgent Metropolis: Economy, Society and Urbanization in an Interconnected World," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 548-564, September.
    15. Andrea Fumagalli & Stefano Lucarelli & Elena Musolino & Giulia Rocchi, 2018. "Digital Labour in the Platform Economy: The Case of Facebook," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-16, May.
    16. Ben Fine, Heesang Jeon, Gong H. Gimm, 2019. "Value is as Value Does: Twixt Knowledge and the World Economy," Fiscaoeconomia, Tubitak Ulakbim JournalPark (Dergipark), issue s1.
    17. Rotta, Tomás N. & Teixeira, Rodrigo A., 2018. "The commodification of knowledge and information," Greenwich Papers in Political Economy 19448, University of Greenwich, Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre.
    18. Alina Mirela Teacu (Parincu), 2019. "Neuromanagement – the Impact of Neuroscience on the Organizational Performance," Risk in Contemporary Economy, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, pages 487-493.
    19. Giada Baldessarelli & Nathalie Lazaric & Michele Pezzoni, 2022. "Organizational routines: Evolution in the research landscape of two core communities," Post-Print halshs-03718851, HAL.
    20. Michel Anteby & Curtis K. Chan, 2018. "A Self-Fulfilling Cycle of Coercive Surveillance: Workers’ Invisibility Practices and Managerial Justification," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(2), pages 247-263, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:36:y:2022:i:1:p:179-189. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.