The Thesis of Cognitive Capitalism. New Research Perspectives. An Introduction

This Special Issue, The Thesis of Cognitive Capitalism. New Research Perspectives, proposes a set of contributions that presents some of the research lines organized around the thesis of cognitive capitalism, a project that insists upon re-reading the historical development of the capital/labor relation from the point of view of the knowledge economy. In this introduction we outline a method of analysis in terms of cognitive capitalism by insisting on the critique of conventional theories of both the economics of knowledge and the knowledge-based economy. This is done in order to explain the role of knowledge in the long-term development of capitalism, while providing a Marxian theoretical map of historical time in the process. To understand the specificity of the cognitive capitalism thesis, we must first of all dissipate the theoretical misunderstanding that assimilates it to a variation on the theories of knowledge-based economy. To do so, in this section we will begin by characterizing certain fundamental limitations of the contemporary theorizations of knowledge. Subsequently, we will show that the thesis of cognitive capitalism rests on a method of analysis that is able to perceive the meaning and stakes of the current mutation of the place of knowledge in the economy, on the basis of the primary role played by historical transformations in the capital/labor relation.