SUSSUNZIONE DEL LAVORO E DELLA VITA NEL CAPITALISMO DELLE PIATTAFORME/THE SUBSUMPTION OF WORK AND LIFE IN PLATFORM CAPITALISM

Abstract

The article focuses on the concept of living labour as a subjective expression of labour capacity in today’s platform-based, bio-cognitive capitalism. Unlike Fordist labour force, contemporary living labour is presented as a life force, no longer measurable in temporal units. At the very moment when human life becomes the main source of value being put to labour, the labour theory of value enters a measurement crisis. The consequences of this crisis affect the remuneration processes (the spread of unpaid work), the increase in precariousness – which is increasingly existential – and the form of work as a human activity to the point of making the difference between concrete and abstract labour increasingly indistinguishable. As is discussed, the case of network-value (i.e. the transformation of the use value of individuals’ daily life data into an exchange value highly profitable for platform managers) is the most paradigmatic example of what may be defined as “life subsumption”.

Keywords:

Living Labour, Life Subsumption, Platform-based Bio-cognitive Capitalism, Network Value, Unpaid Labour.