A lecture by Michel Bauwens examining the concept of cognitive capitalism, which he defines as a regime where value is not extracted at the level of the factory floor from labor, but instead from society broadly through the exploitation and control of knowledge. Using the term “net-archical” capitalism, Bauwens argues that this is a new logic whereby capitalism exploits positive externalities rather than limits negative externalities from which a value crisis emerges. A mismatch exists between the capacity people have to create use values themselves and the capacity of the capitalist system to monetize this value creation, thereby eroding the purchasing power of the population. Bauwens then proposes peer-to-peer production (a value shift) as means to address this moment.
Michel Bauwens is the founder of the Foundation for Peer-to-Peer Alternatives and works in collaboration with a global group of researchers in the exploration of peer production, governance, and property. He is currently Primavera Research Fellow at the University of Amsterdam and external expert at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. Bauwens has also served as research director of the transition project towards the social knowledge economy, an official project in Ecuador, and of the floksociety.org research group, which produced the first integrated Commons Transition Plan for the government of Ecuador aimed at creating a “social knowledge economy.” During the spring 2016 semester, Bauwens is an Activist-in-Residence Writing Fellow with the Havens Center.
Comments
Post a Comment