Knowledge, Work and Subject in Informational Capitalism

With the development of informational capitalism and the network society, globalization and informatization play an increasingly crucial role for understanding technology and society. Informatization describes a qualitative leap in technology development which opens up new dimensions of productivity by information modelling on the one hand, but which demands new forms of knowledge of information workers on the other hand. Work is becoming more flexible, but also more precarious and more polarized socially. These tendencies create a contradictory situation for the subject: formalization and new scopes of autonomy exist side by side. This constellation allows for new approaches to the social shaping of technologies. But they presuppose a fundamental change in attitude by both, system developers and social scientists.

This article deals with the main themes concerning the new forms of the organization of work that have arisen since the changes that took place in the capitalist accumulation regime at the end of the 1970s. The impact of these processes on work has been analysed from the point of view of the spread of flexibility and precarious work (Sennett 1998), the growth of self-employment compared with waged work , the increase in the quality of work performance and attenuation of the alienation rate , the growth of work's cognitive content and the consequences that this produces in the link between capital and labour. The article addresses the issue from this last point of view, because tied to this perspective are the analyses that most decisively define the current form of capitalist development as the bearer of work cuts and discontinuity. The aim is to identify the tensions internal to the model caused by modifications in processes of value creation and by the qualitative change in work performance induced by its 'cognitivization'. The article considers the following questions in particular: a) whether the increasing involvement of networks, identities, socialization processes, intellectual and emotional attitudes of workers within the productive cycle, determine a tendency to subjugate them to the production-consumption cycle, or whether they determine a growth of influence that cultures and practices external to formal economy con have on what is produced and on how it is produced; b) whether the centrality of knowledge in the manufacturing organization increases the subordination of individuals and workers, because it involves aspects that used not to be involved in either production or consumption, or whether it entails a real growth of the autonomy and quality of work performance.

2007

ions and symbols that both represent the world and are objects in the world” (ibid.) and; (3) “it requires a formal education, i.e. abstract, technical and theoretical knowledge” (ibid.). Apart from the centrality of knowledge and information in the narratives of the information society/knowledge economy, assumptions are made about the changed nature of work demanding specifi c skills on the part of the knowledge worker or informational laborer. For instance, in Castells’ account of information labor, jobs are performed by “the group in the information age that manages, initiates and shapes affairs, by being well-educated, having initiative, welcoming the frenetic pace of change which typifi es the current epoch, and having, perhaps above all, the capacity to ‘selfprogramme’ itself” (Webster, 2005: 447). Similar to this notion of informational labor, Drucker asserts that “in knowledge work the task does not program the worker” (ibid.: 144). To this Drucker adds that “knowledge work ...

Canadian Journal of Communication, 2009

2002

Along with the diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs), work processes are becoming ever more knowledge intensive. In keeping with this trend, the number of informational (or knowledge) workers in Finland has more than tripled from 12% in 1988 to 39% in 2000. What makes the Finnish case unique and interesting is the exceptional speed with which the information sector of the economy has grown. A few years after facing the most severe economic recession in its history in the early 1990s, Finland is now considered to have an advanced information economy. However, our empirical analysis-based on survey data from 1988, 1994, and 2000-yields a somewhat more critical picture of the Finnish information society than what usually comes across in the mainstream media. The opportunities for social equality offered by the growth of informational work are far more limited than was the case with the transition from agricultural to industrial production.

The passage from industrial societies to other forms of societies has been strongly influenced by knowledge/information and technology. This transformation has had an effect on the economy and society in different ways. Some interpretations argue that such developments, based on the principle of rationality, have brought about the improvement of the occupational status of workers, whereas some interpretations argue about the elusive role of information as opposed to knowledge. In a more critical understanding, there are also interpretations which emphasise the inclusive and exclusive character of the network and the irrationality of information which on the political level sees a shift of knowledge from public good to intellectual property. This article looks at the theoretical developments which characterised the different interpretation of the role of knowledge in society.

An Ethical Global Information Society, 1997

The global information society is fundamentally changing many aspects of modem life. One of the areas undergoing the most dramatic change is employment. Important shifts are occurring in the effects of information technologies on production, newly emerging occupational structures, structural unemployment, and so on (Krueger, 1993). Technology changes how we labour. As important as these issues are, there is also a broader question, namely, the implications of this information society for work itself. Here, I am distinguishing labour from work: by labour I mean the conditions under which we act on and with the material world, whereas work means not just what we do to survive, but what we make and create in order to live as humans 1 • I am addressing the question: what does work mean as a social category: for society as a whole, as an entitlement to economic resources, for the self, and the constitution of identity? My claim is, the consequence of information technology is not merely that we are labouring differently, but rather, the meaning of work is changing. This paper addresses and reflects on some of the implications for labour and work of an information society. I find Arendt's (1958) distinction between labour and work a useful one, although I am not following her definitions here. Her argument that the only realm for human relations is vita activa, I find too limiting. I would argue with Aronowitz and DiFazio (1994) and, drawing on Marx, that work too can be an authentic human activity. Implicit in Arendt's and others' devaluation of work is, I believe, a privileging of mind over body, or contemplation over action, with which I am not comfortable.

2011

The model of the ecology of information work (Huvila, 2006, 2009) describes the relation of knowledge organisation systems, or in broader sense, the relation of information infrastructures and human information work. The present paper discusses the social aspects of information work and their impact on the interplay of information infrastructures and hu- man activity. The theoretical underpinnings of the discussion build on the ecological approach of Gibson, infrastructural theory and social informa- tion theory. The concluding remarks summarise a reading of the earlier model that places a specific emphasis on foregrounding the social pro- cesses relating to the emergence of information infrastructures and their related information work patterns.

Nowadays we live in the information society, which the specificity and phenomenon is based on ability of using new technology in everyday live. Therefore this work will be an expression of the belief that information society, at the beginning of new millennium, is facing the challenge of global computerization process. And in this case it could be a background for the development of net society.

Socialist Register 2021: Beyond Digital Capitalism: New Ways of Living, 2021

The economic and social consequences of technological change in capitalist societies have always been profound. For capitalists themselves, new technologies can have pervasive effects, rendering obsolete even the most profitable businesses, while simultaneously creating opportunities for early adopters. For workers reliant on the sale of their labour power, the effects are even more differentiated: new technologies create opportunities for those who can acquire necessary skills, but destitution for those whose capabilities are no longer required. Beyond the immediate economic outcomes for individuals and their communities, there are spatial, organizational, and cultural consequences that transform the fabric of society. In his analysis of the workplaces of the first industrial revolution, Marx concludes that ‘Large-scale industry possesses in the machine system an entirely objective organization of production, which confronts the worker as a pre-existing material condition of production’, and elsewhere he defines this condition as the real subsumption of labour. A hundred years later, his analysis underpinned modern socialist studies of labour and the struggle for control in the workplace. Indeed, ever since the birth of industrial capitalism socialists have not only critically examined technology in its social context, but also looked forward to futures of work based on radically different principles. As Alfred Barratt Brown wrote in 1934, ‘We need to look at the whole world of industry with fresh eyes, to ask ourselves again what we want to produce, and how we can best employ our powers in producing it, to the end that the work and its results may alike satisfy human capacities and human needs’. This essay is concerned to look with fresh socialist eyes at the technologies that underpin our present world of work, and how they have been shaped and applied by capital to meet the needs of capital, oriented firmly towards the subsumption of wage labour in all its concrete forms. We cannot repurpose them towards our fundamental goal as socialists to build a world based upon equality and justice for all without directly challenging and contesting the existing social order. This requires, as always, both a broad vision of a sustainable, egalitarian and democratic society, and concrete proposals that can connect to existing struggles while also prefiguring radical change.