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This essay aims to continue to develop the thesis that the welter of political-economic, social, technological, and subjective transformations that characterized the final decades of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st necessitate a re-thinking of the relationship between social criticism and the critique of political economy. Herein the focus is directed towards the critique of reification and industrial rationalization as developed in the works of Georg Lukács and Cornelius Castoriadis. Drawing on recent phenomenological and psychological analyses of work within contemporary capitalism, I argue for both the historical obsolescence of the critique of reification as it has been traditionally understood and, consequently, the need for novel conceptual responses to the pressing needs of our time.

Denne artikkelen er en teoretisk diskusjon av bruken av såkalte «sosiale» medier-plattformer. Ofte fremstilles internett som en nøytral arena for sosial kontakt og nærhet. Denne forståelsen tilslører internetts økonomiske sider, og især hvordan nettbrukerne utbyttes som gratisarbeidere. Tekstens formål er derfor å utfordre den «sosiale» forståelsen av internett. Jeg anvender i denne anledning marxistisk teori for å analysere nettbruken som arbeid. «Sosiale» medier analyseres som en digital fabrikk hvor gratisarbeidet konstitueres som sosiale aktiviteter adskilt fra kapitalens instrumentelle mål. Jeg kontekstualiserer slik etableringen av «sosiale» medier som et ledd i en større økonomisk prosess hvor skillet mellom fritid/arbeid viskes ut mens våre liv koloniseres av kapitalen på grunn av den sosiale fabrikkens fremvekst. Denne koloniseringen fører dessuten til varegjøring av nettbrukerne. Jeg konkluderer med at vi trenger nytekning rundt arbeid som fenomen for å begrense kapitalens evne til utbytting, så vel som rundt det såkalte «sosiale» internett for å begrense kapitalens evne til å generalisere produksjonsmodellen som kjennetegner internett, til samfunnet i sin helhet.

The dissertation thesis analyzes Bitcoin as a socio-technical phenomenon by focusing on its prevalent socio-technical imaginaries and exploring these imaginaries into their contradictory consequences. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Czech and Slovak Bitcoin communities and following Lana Swartz's and Nigel Dodd's respective theories of Bitcoin, four imaginaries are identified: commodity, relation, ideology and money. Each of these imaginaries is explored in its own chapter. Bitcoin approached as a commodity explores the process of Bitcoin mining through the lens of the Marxist labour theory of value combined with Negri's theory of the socialized worker. The chapter explores how Bitcoin mining reproduces class antagonisms between miners and investors while also creating a new mode of production based on control via labour. The second chapter focuses on Bitcoin as a relation via the theories of kinship and knowledge developed by Marilyn Strathern. The chapter explores particular analogies of Bitcoin and kinship and how these analogies serve to develop relationless persons and personless relations. The following chapter analyzes Bitcoin as an ideology while utilizing theories of immaterial labour developed by Italian autonomists. It focuses on symbolic labour carried out in order to...

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to use spatial thinking (space-time) as a lens through which to examine the ways in which the socio-economic conditions and values of the post-Fordist academy work to diminish and even subsume the immaterial affective labour of librarians even as it serves to reproduce the academy.Design/methodology/approachThe research question informing this paper asks, In what ways does spatial thinking help us to better understand the immaterial, invisible and gendered labour of academic librarians' public service work in the context of the post-Fordist university? This question is explored using a conceptual approach and a review of recent library information science (LIS) literature that situates the academic library in the post-Fordist knowledge economy.FindingsThe findings suggest that the feminized and gendered immaterial labour of public service work in academic libraries – a form of reproductive labour – remains invisible and undervalued in the post-Fordist university, and that academic libraries function as a procreative, feminized spaces.Originality/valueSpatial thinking offers a corrective to the tendency in LIS to foreground time over space. It affords new insights into the spatial and temporal aspects of information work in the global neoliberal knowledge economy and suggests a new spatio-temporal imaginary of the post-Fordist academic library as a site of waged work.

Resumo O artigo propõe-se descrever e debater as propriedades constitutivas do campo social e económico das indústrias criativas. Situado nos interstícios entre a produção de bens e serviços e os universos simbólicos, o campo das indústrias criativas repercute um aproveitamento económico massivo das potencialidades derivadas da produção simbólica propriamente dita. Como se discutirá no artigo, daqui deriva um efeito replicador de criatividade a outros sectores da atividade económica, com benefícios multiplicadores no plano do crescimento económico, da criação de emprego e da própria integração económica internacional, mais especificamente com sua inserção nas redes de comércio internacional. A análise de dados nacionais e internacionais procura definir os traços macroeconómicos evidenciados anteriormente, complementada por uma discussão analítica final acerca de algumas das propriedades socioeconómicas deste sector. Abstract This article describes and discusses the properties of creative industries as a social and economic field. Situated between the production of goods and services and symbolic universes, the creative industries field shows the existence of a massive economic appropriation of the possibilities presented by the symbolic production itself. As it will be discussed in this article, there is a replication effect of creativity towards other economic branches, with several benefits in what concerns economic growth, jobs, international economic integration, and especially with regard to its insertion in global trade networks. The national and international databases help to define the macroeconomic axis. In the end, there is an analytical discussion about some of the socioeconomic features of creative industries.

This thesis explores precarization of work and subject formation in seven post-referendum Brexit novels through theories of cognitive capitalism and biopolitical production. The analysis is anchored in Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s reconceptualization of Michel Foucault’s notion of biopolitics. Hardt and Negri combine the concept of biopolitics with contemporary theories of cognitive capitalism and immaterial labour, to illuminate how subjects are subsumed into a system of biopower in which capitalistic production has become biopolitical production. I argue that the Brexit novels examined in this thesis demonstrate how the intrinsic bond between production and life shapes the characters’ relationship to the referendum. As the characters are caught between individual goals and communal values, in a system that demands that they take sole responsibility for their own success while also being responsible democratic citizens, the referendum produces conflicted subjects that experience deep internal and external conflicts in relation to Brexit.

Tendo em vista o recrudescimento dos novos fluxos migratórios do sul global para o Brasil na última década, a tendência à hegemonia do trabalho imaterial no capitalismo flexível e globalizado e as limitações de estudos da Administração acerca de migrantes e refugiados no entrelaçamento entre mobilidade internacional e trabalho, tem-se como objetivo geral, nesta tese, cartografar os processos de subjetivação que compõem o trabalho imaterial nos percursos de migrantes e refugiados. Para tanto, se alicerça nos pilares Migração, Trabalho e Subjetividade, os quais confluem na abordagem da Autonomia das Migrações (MEZZADRA, 2012; 2015). Pauta-se fundamentalmente nas produções teóricas sobre migração e refúgio (AGIER, 2016; CASTLES, 2010, SAYAD, 1979), seus dispositivos de proteção e regulação (ACNUR; OIM; BRASIL, 1997; 2017), trabalho imaterial (GORZ, 2005; LAZZARATO; NEGRI, 2001), espaços liso e estriado (DELEUZE; GUATTARI, 2012b), modos de individuação e singularização (GUATTARI; ROLNIK, 1996) e modos de viver em deslocamento (BAUMAN, 1999; 2011). A cartografia, enquanto método, permitiu uma experimentação da pesquisadora como flâneur-cartógrafa na cidade de Porto Alegre/RS e possibilitou a participação-intervenção em um território-rizoma formado por 36 eventos-atividades, cinco informantes-chave e 16 migrantes econômicos e refugiados que desenvolvem trabalhos nas áreas de música, dança, alimentação, moda, idioma e representação político-cultural utilizando referências de seus países de origem, que são Venezuela, Haiti, Síria, Senegal, Costa do Marfim e Nigéria. A partir das observações-participantes e das entrevistas, produziram-se quatro dimensões analíticas: Partir, Chegar, Empreender(-se) e (Re)inventar(-se). A tese defendida é a de que, pela via do trabalho imaterial, desponta a (re)invenção de modos de viver de migrantes e refugiados no país de destino. Tal argumento se sustenta nas frequentes investidas em traçar linhas de fuga de um espaço estriado individuante em direção a um espaço liso singularizante que visibiliza o trabalho imaterial dos migrantes e refugiados, evidenciado, sobretudo, pelo uso de referências dos países de origem e pela situação de migração ou refúgio. Os momentos preponderantes da processualidade dessas passagens e sobreposições podem ser percebidos nas restrições de vida devido às situações-limite instaladas nos países de origem; no empenho para migrar ou refugiar-se sobrelevando o paradoxo das migrações empurradas e autônomas; nos dispositivos legais, burocráticos e políticos que gerenciam as vidas (e possibilidades de trabalho) nas travessias e no país de destino; no direcionamento ao ―mercado de trabalho para migrantes e refugiados‖ vinculado à precarização, à desvalorização social e à aporofobia; nos investimentos em form(a)ções; nos modos de criação de atividades artísticas, técnico-manuais e comunicacionais do trabalho imaterial; no que eles trazem na bagagem; na (co)participação de clientes e no uso de redes sociais da internet no ciclo de produção; na formação de um novo ―mercado de trabalho para migrantes e refugiados‖ vinculado ao afeto e à política; na rede de cooperação afetiva, social, rentabilizadora e emancipatória consubstanciada ao trabalho imaterial e agenciada ao longo do percurso; e, enfim, no devir-migrante e no devir-refugiado como leitura dos modos de viver em deslocamento. Sem abandonar o que são, migrantes e refugiados percebem, nas atividades do trabalho imaterial, outras formas de viver, de se envolver na vida já existente e, ao mesmo tempo, de continuar em deslocamento, provocando outros devires. In view of the recrudescence of new migratory flows from the global south to Brazil in the last decade, the tendency to hegemony immaterial labour in flexible and globalized capitalism, and the limitations of Business Studies about migrants and refugees between international mobility and labour, the general objective of this thesis is to map the processes of subjectivation that compose immaterial labour in the paths of migrants and refugees. To do so, it is based on the Migration, Work, and Subjectivity pillars, which converge in the Autonomy of Migration approach (MEZZADRA, 2012; 2015). It is fundamentally based on theoretical productions on migration and refuge (AGIER, 2016; CASTLES, 2010, SAYAD, 1979), its protection and regulation devices (UNHCR; IOM; BRAZIL, 1997; 2017), immaterial labour (GORZ, 2005); LAZZARATO; NEGRI, 2001), concepts of smooth and striated spaces (DELEUZE; GUATTARI, 2012b), modes of individuation and singularization (GUATTARI; ROLNIK, 1996), and modes of living in displacement (BAUMAN, 1999; 2011). Cartography as a method allowed the researcher to experiment as a flâneur-cartographer in Porto Alegre - RS and enabled participation-intervention in a territory formed by 36 events-activities, five key informants and 16 economic migrants and refugees who develop work in the areas of music, dance, food, fashion, language and political-cultural representation with references from their countries of origin: Venezuela, Haiti, Syria, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Nigeria. From the participant observations and interviews, four analytical dimensions were produced: Leaving, Arriving, Endeavoring (oneself) and (Re)Inventing (oneself). The thesis is that through immaterial labour emerges the (re)invention of ways of living for migrants and refugees in the country of destination. This argument is based on the frequent attempts to draw lines of flight from an individuating striated space towards a singularizing smooth space that highlights the immaterial labour of migrants and refugees, evidenced, mainly, by the use of references from the countries of origin and the situation of migration or refuge. The preponderant moments of the procedurality of these passages and overlaps can be seen in the restrictions of life due to the limiting situations installed in their countries of origin; in the effort to migrate or take refuge, raising the paradox of pushed and autonomous migrations; in the legal, bureaucratic and political devices that manage their lives (and work possibilities) in the crossings and in the country of destination; in the direction of the "labour market for migrants and refugees" linked to precariousness, social devaluation and aporophobia; in the investments in education; in the ways of creating artistic, technical-manual and communicational activities of immaterial labour; in what they bring in their luggage; in the (co)participation of clients and in the use of Internet social networks in the production cycle; in the formation of a new "labour market for migrants and refugees" linked to affection and politics; in the affective, social, profitable and emancipatory networks cooperation consubstantiated in the immaterial labour and managed along the paths; and finally, in the becoming-migrant and becoming-refugee as a reading of the ways of living in displacement. Without abandoning who they are, the activities of immaterial labour provide other ways of living, of feeling, of getting involved in the already existing life and, at the same time, ways of continuing in displacement, provoking other becomings.

Following Lazzarato’s hypothesis, the increasing incidence of antiproduction in the productive system would lead to questioning the “progressive” character of capitalism, a vision shared by both Liberalism and Marxism when they associate the logic of capital with the development of productive forces. It is proposed the exploration of this thesis–the problem of the vitality of capitalism– through the development of the concept of antiproduction, which is traced through its sources –Deleuze and Guattari, Baran and Sweezy– and related to the theorical baggage of Marx himself. Siguiendo la hipótesis de Lazzarato, la creciente incidencia de la antiproducción en el aparato productivo llevaría a cuestionar el carácter «progresista» del capitalismo, visión compartida tanto por el liberalismo como por el marxismo cuando asocian la lógica del capital al desarrollo de las fuerzas productivas. Se propone la exploración de esta tesis –el problema de la vitalidad del capitalismo– por medio del desarrollo del concepto de antiproducción, el cual es rastreado a través de sus fuentes –Deleuze y Guattari, Baran y Sweezy– y puesto en relación con el bagaje teórico del propio Marx.

Commodifying the Nordic Welfare State in the Age of Cognitive Capitalism investigates how the Nordic welfare state is turned into a commodity in contemporary global capitalism. In this dissertation, this is explored through the phenomenon of ‘welfare export’ of Nordic childcare know-how from Denmark to China. Through this phenomenon, the dissertation explores how Nordic childcare know-how is the outcome of a prevalent reconfiguration of the welfare-state construction, as capital has to ‘capture’ the productive aspects of abstract and common resources such as cultural products, traditional knowledges, or social institutions in its process of valorisation. Tracing each step of Nordic childcare know-how, the dissertation illustrates how such phenomenon cannot be perceived as an isolated phenomenon but as something that involves several societal transformations, both historical and contemporary in different local contexts. With concepts such as the pedagogical factory, the subjective figure of the pedagogised and the total subsumption of the pedagogical, the dissertation illustrates the political economy of welfare export which is tied to current tendency of cognitive capitalism. Commodifying the Nordic Welfare State in the Age of Cognitive Capitalism investigates how the Nordic welfare state is turned into a commodity in contemporary global capitalism. In this dissertation, this is explored through the phenomenon of ‘welfare export’ of Nordic childcare know-how from Denmark to China. Through this phenomenon, the dissertation explores how Nordic childcare know-how is the outcome of a prevalent reconfiguration of the welfare-state construction, as capital has to ‘capture’ the productive aspects of abstract and common resources such as cultural products, traditional knowledges, or social institutions in its process of valorisation. Tracing each step of Nordic childcare know-how, the dissertation illustrates how such phenomenon cannot be perceived as an isolated phenomenon but as something that involves several societal transformations, both historical and contemporary in different local contexts. With concepts such as the pedagogical factory, the subjective figure of the pedagogised and the total subsumption of the pedagogical, the dissertation illustrates the political economy of welfare export in the age cognitive capitalism.

Creativity is at the heart of the video game industry. Industry professionals, especially those producing blockbuster games for the triple-A market, speak fondly of their creative labour practices, flexible work schedules, and playful workplaces. However, a cursory glance at major triple-A franchises reveals the persistence of sequel game production and a homogeneity in genres and narratives. Herbert Marcuse's critique of one-dimensionality may help to account for this discrepancy between the workers' creative aspirations and the dominant homogeneity in game aesthetics. What I call 'one-dimensional creativity' defines the essence of triple-A game production. In the name of extolling the pleasure principle at work, one-dimensional creativity eliminates the reality principle, but only superficially. One-dimensional creativity gives game developers the opportunity to express themselves, but it is still framed by a particular technological rationality that prioritises profits over experimental art. One-dimensional creativity negates potential forms of creativity that might emerge outside the industry's hit-driven logics. Conceptually, 'one-dimensional creativity' renders visible the instrumentalisation of play and the conservative design principles of triple-A game production - a production that is heavily structured with technological performance, better graphics, interactivity, and speed. Multi-dimensional video game production and aesthetics, the opposite of one-dimensional creativity, is emerging from the DIY game production scene, which is more invested in game narratives and aesthetics outside the dominant logics of one-dimensionality in triple-A game production., NA

Karl Marx theorized capitalism as a relation between labour, capital and machines. For Marx, capital, the process of self-augmenting value appropriated from human labour, is inherently driven by competition to replace labour in production with machines. Marx goes as far as to describe machines as capital’s “most powerful weapon” for suppressing working class revolt. Marx, however, could not have predicted the computing machines – such as artificial intelligence – which now form the basis for an increasingly cybernetic capital. Since Marx’s time, many Marxist thinkers have sought to apply or update his approach to the cybernetic era. The influential post-operaismo school argues that fundamental revisions to Marx’s approach are necessitated by the changed nature of high-tech capital wherein arises a novel “immaterial” type of labour. Immaterial labour, the argument goes, appropriates the machines of capital and achieves a new autonomy from capital, which can no longer control labour and instead, can only attempt to capture the fruits of its autonomous productive capacities. This dissertation’s goal is to assess the validity of post-operaismo’s claim for a new autonomy of immaterial labour from capital. It does so by conducting an analysis of work in the contemporary artificial intelligence (AI) industry. Work in the AI Industry should be, according to post-operaismo, immaterial labour par excellence. Therefore, this dissertation answers the following research question: does work in the AI Industry evince the new autonomy from capital attributed to immaterial labour by post-operaismo? I argue that it does not. I mount this argument with a multimodal methodology. I employ documentary analysis and qualitative interviews with workers and management in the AI Industry to produce a history, political economy analysis and labour process analysis of the AI Industry. This is followed by a theoretical analysis which assesses the claims of post-operaismo by the example of the AI Industry. I argue that work in the AI Industry remains under the control of capital and that, antipodally to claims of a new autonomy of labour, this industry evinces an increasing autonomy of capital. I conclude the post-operaismo mistakes obsolescence for autonomy.

Cinema, as a popular entertainment, has frequently been understood as a leisure activity, something undertaken in one’s free time, the hours during which one has been freed from the demands of work. Cinema’s plenitude—its abundance of image, sound, narrative, incident, and spectacle—differentiates itself, so the story could be told, from the physical and cognitive demands of the working day. Of course, critical theory taught us long ago that such a conceptualization of cinema was false: cinema, like other “amusements,” was a continuation of the working day by other means, “the prolongation of work,” an “after-image of the work process itself.”1 This illuminating insight, whatever its critical purchase of what is really at stake in cinema spectatorship, enjoys a counterfactual relation to what it is most people imagine themselves to be doing when they elect to go to the cinema and sit in the dark for ninety or more minutes. However false their consciousness may be, going to the movies is undertaken ostensibly as a dropping of tools.

In contemporary marketing, corporations often work to induce consumers to participate in co-creating their brand value. Consumers, therefore, can be considered marketers, who are then used by marketing managers to create competitive advantage and market opportunities. Through processes of co-creation, companies also obtain valuable information about consumer preferences and values, which, in turn, can lower production costs. This thesis uses Coca-Cola as a case study to explore the ways international companies work to incorporate elements of Chinese culture and employ Chinese social media platforms in their promotional messages and activities in order to encourage Chinese consumers to co-create their brand value. The thesis contends that the brand value co-creation process has many implications for Chinese society, including accelerating transformations in Chinese consumers’ cultural values and identities.

This practice-based thesis investigates how contemporary artists are using generic artistic strategies and ambivalent affect to inhabit post-digital conditions. It proposes that artists reproducing and re-performing generic post-digital aesthetics both engender and are enveloped by ambivalent affect, and that these strategies are immanently political rather than overtly critical. I argue that ambivalent artworks secede from requirements for newness and innovation, and the exploitation of creative labour that are a feature of post-digital environments. Drawing on Sianne Ngai’s affect theory and Paolo Virno’s post-Fordist thinking, I summarise contemporary conditions for creativity as a ‘general intellect of the post-digital’; proposing that artists’ and workers’ relations with this mode of production are necessarily ambivalent. Throughout this research I produced several performance and video works that exemplify this ambivalence. These works reproduce standardised electronic music, stock imagery and PowerPoint presentations, alongside re-performances of digital labour such as online shopping, image searches, and paying rent online. Through these examples I develop concepts for discussing generic aesthetics, framing them as vital to understanding post-digital conditions. I address works by other artists including Amalia Ulman’s Excellences and Perfections (2014), which I argue is neither critical nor complicit with generic post-digital routines, but rather signals affective ambivalence and a desire to secede from social media performance. I also discuss works by Cory Arcangel and others to develop the ‘preset’ as a tool for understanding the generic. These works indicate ambivalent affective relations with generic digital tools, and I argue they perform an immanent critique of newness and innovation as cultural values. Lastly, I argue that software-mediated tasks and gestures also produce ambivalent affect, and draw on my curatorial practice alongside Alexander Galloway’s concept of the ‘interface effect’ to read Emile Zile and Kiah Reading’s works as re-performing the ambivalent affect immanent to office software. Overall, this research addresses a gap in art-scholarship around generic post-digital aesthetics, identifying strategies in contemporary art that increasingly speak to questions of standardisation. It analyses and enacts artists’ reproduction and re-performance of generic post-digital aesthetics as indicative of an ambivalent affective engagement that gestures towards secession from contradictions immanent to post-digital aesthetic production.

This article critiques post-operaist conceptualisations of immaterial labour from the perspective of Marxian value-form theory. Critiquing the idea of the ‘crisis of measurability’ created by immaterial labour and the contention that this makes redundant the law of value, it contests the novelty, immediate abstractness and immeasurable productivity post-operaists attribute to contemporary labour using the New Reading of Marx. The first part explores this theoretical conflict, asserting that post-operaismo refutes Marx’s value theory only insofar as it holds a productivist understanding of value to begin with. The second reflects upon the political implications through a consideration of the post-operaist advocacy of a universal basic income. Appeals to reward, recompense and redistribution rest upon the veracity of the claims made in the post-operaist treatment of labour, value and their immateriality and immeasurability. A value-form analysis exposes flaws in the assumptions about value and labour that support their case for a universal basic income.

This article questions whether readings of Francis Veber’s Le Placard (2001) as simply a parody of political correctness have tended to overlook the allegorical significance of its depiction of a middle-aged executive forced to pretend to be gay, simulating libidinal investments he does not in fact possess, in order to protect his job. It argues that the film merits reinterpretation as being not only a parody of political correctness but also a powerful allegory for the increasing demands placed on employees to invest their most personal affects and aptitudes in their work. Drawing on the work of Yann Moulier Boutang, the article interprets such demands as symptomatic of a regime of ‘cognitive capitalism’, in which ‘immaterial’ forms of labour represent the primary source of surplus value. The article thus offers an alternative reading of the film’s treatment of questions of work, gender, sexuality, family and nation, before situating Le Placard in the context of a broader range of recent French filmic representations of the contemporary workplace.

The expansion of creative and cultural industries has provided a rich source for theoretical claims and commentary. Much of this reproduces and extends the idea that autonomy is the defining feature of both enterprises and workers. Drawing on evidence from research into Australian development studios in the global digital games industry, the article interrogates claims concerning autonomy and related issues of insecurity and intensity, skill and specialisation, work–play boundaries, identity and attachments. In seeking to reconnect changes in creative labour to the wider production environment and political economy, an argument is advanced that autonomy is deeply contextual and contested as a dimension of the processes of capturing value for firms and workers.

À la différence de l’organisation industrielle classique, le travail immatériel, dans les champs universitaires et artistiques, se caractérise par un éclatement des cadres spatio-temporels de l’activité ainsi que par la dilution des collectifs de travail. Les grèves ont des buts fondamentalement politiques qui impliquent leur médiatisation par une dramatisation liée à l’incertitude organisée du futur. Mais, en rompant la relation de service qui lie les universitaires et les artistes aux étudiants et spectateurs, elles ont plusieurs effets qui limitent leur efficacité. D’une part, les professionnels disparaissent des espaces de travail et de lutte, et l’activité se poursuit dans de multiples lieux. Les grèves se réduisent alors souvent à une interruption partielle et limitée de l’activité. D’autre part, elles se heurtent à la logique dominante des champs respectifs qui interdit de rompre réellement cette relation de service. Par exemple, dans le cas du champ universitaire, sous peine de s’isoler radicalement, notamment des étudiants et de leurs familles, les enseignants sont conduits à maintenir certains enseignements ainsi que les examens. By contrast with traditional industrial organisation, immaterial labour within the academic and artistic fields is characterized by a fragmentation of the spatiotemporal frameworks of activity and by a dilution of labour collectives. Strikes fundamentally have political goals which require strong media coverage to dramatize the organized uncertainty of the future. However, their efficacy is limited by a rupture in the service relationship linking academics and artists to students and audience. On the one hand, the professionals disappear from the spaces of work and social struggle, while activities continue in multiple locations, in which case strikes become nothing more than partial interruptions of activities. On the other hand, they come into conflict with the dominant principles of their respective fields, which preclude any real breakdown in this service relationship. In the academic field, for example, university teachers continue to maintain certain classes and exams, since they would otherwise run the risk of radical isolation from students and their families.

International audience; By contrast with traditional industrial organisation, immaterial labour within the academic and artistic fields is characterized by a fragmentation of the spatiotemporal frameworks of activity and by a dilution of labour collectives. Strikes fundamentally have political goals which require strong media coverage to dramatize the organized uncertainty of the future. However, their efficacy is limited by a rupture in the service relationship linking academics and artists to students and audience. On the one hand, the professionals disappear from the spaces of work and social struggle, while activities continue in multiple locations, in which case strikes become nothing more than partial interruptions of activities. On the other hand, they come into conflict with the dominant principles of their respective fields, which preclude any real breakdown in this service relationship. In the academic field, for example, university teachers continue to maintain certain classes and exams, since they would otherwise run the risk of radical isolation from students and their families.; À la différence de l’organisation industrielle classique, le travail immatériel, dans les champs universitaires et artistiques, se caractérise par un éclatement des cadres spatio-temporels de l’activité ainsi que par la dilution des collectifs de travail. Les grèves ont des buts fondamentalement politiques qui impliquent leur médiatisation par une dramatisation liée à l’incertitude organisée du futur. Mais, en rompant la relation de service qui lie les universitaires et les artistes aux étudiants et spectateurs, elles ont plusieurs effets qui limitent leur efficacité. D’une part, les professionnels disparaissent des espaces de travail et de lutte, et l’activité se poursuit dans de multiples lieux. Les grèves se réduisent alors souvent à uneinterruption partielle et limitée de l’activité. D’autre part, elles se heurtent à la logique dominante des champs respectifs qui interdit de rompre réellement cette relation de service. Par exemple, dans le cas du champ universitaire, sous peine de s’isoler radicalement,notamment des étudiants et de leurs familles, les enseignants sont conduits à maintenir certainsenseignements ainsi que les examens.

"During a busy day I don't get much done" In this quote from a client consultant condenses the dilemma discussed in this paper: what officially counts as creditable, "real work" rarely corresponds to the daily lived praxis in the office. The case study is based on my ethnographic research in a professional services firm and shows how the organisational understanding of what is recognised as work focuses on ascertainable deliverables such as presentations or spreadsheet reports. The lived praxis at the offices, however, is coined by relational and affective work (Hardt 1999) - paradoxically even more in situations of pressing delivery deadlines. The paper discusses these two conflictive perceptions of work/non-work in the (claiming to be) post-Fordist field of "immaterial" labour (Lazzarato 1996) and questions the proclaimed change towards an immaterial quality of labour of the "informational economy" (Hardt and Negri 2000).

America's Army, the official and free downloadable US Army video game franchise, has been continually updated with new versions for the past twelve years. Formerly managed out of the Office for Economic and Manpower Analysis (OEMA) at West Point, it has been an immersive, interactive advertisement for the Army, resting its rationale within in a military desire to recruit in a cost-effective way a new kind of 'talented' soldier. This reflects a military desire to, in the words of an OEMA publication, 'move the Army beyond personnel management to talent management'. Drawing on a 2009 interview with OEMA director Colonel Casey Wardynski (retired), I argue that America's Army has been primarily oriented towards recruiting the labour of a new kind of post-Fordist soldier-one who is part of the growing mass of immaterial labourers who can be identified as 'the cognitariat'. [Our] charter is to build the Army of the future. It’s about recruiting talent, assessing talent, deploying talent, and retaining talent.

In this paper, we propose a new ethnographic method for the study of produsage (Bruns 2008) in social media contexts. The proposed method is based on three lines of thought: Marx’s method of ‘A Workers’ Inquiry’, the autonomists’ method of co-research, and recent critical theory of Web 2.0. To show the applicability and usefulness of the proposed method, we first compare it to other Marxist inspired methodological approaches and then we describe a case study to illustrate the method’s diversity and its potential for providing new insights into the processes of produsage and the commodification of audiences as described in previous work by Smythe (1977), Bruns (2008), Cohen (2008), and Fuchs (2011). The case study consists of a critical examination of the mode of produsage as it takes place in Flickr, one of the largest photo-sharing communities on the Internet.

Normal 0 0 1 171 979 8 1 1202 11.1287 0 0 0 This paper will examine the immaterial labour thesis as proposed by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri through a case study of reality television production practices, specifically those of the MTV program, The Hills . Because immaterial labour is rooted in individual intelligence, affect, and social communicative capacities, Hardt and Negri contend that economic value in the form of labour power can no longer be adequately measured and quantified and that this immeasurability contains revolutionary potential. But, given the current global economic meltdown, and the persistent and very material suffering of people all over the globe, how legitimate and responsible are these claims? Drawing from interviews with reality television workers and the work of George Caffentzis, Massimo de Angelis, David Harvie and others, this paper will test the limits of the immaterial labour thesis, arguing that, rather than disappearing, capital continues to impose measurement systems to determine socially necessary labour time no matter how diffuse or social that labour might be, and that this imposition continues to produce the alienation and exploitation of many for the benefit of a few.

Neste trabalho são revistos, organizados e discutidos conceitos e estratégias em torno das formas colaborativas de produção na sociedade da informação, particularmente aqueles relacionados com o trabalho imaterial e o compartilhamento de informação. O capitalismo no seu modo de desenvolvimento informacional produz mudanças nas relações entre as formas sociais de produção e as tecnologias de informação e comunicação. A produção capitalista atual centraliza os bens imateriais a informação em primeiro lugar. O compartilhamento de informação é parte de processo de produção e, ao mesmo tempo, o seu principal produto. O compartilhamento possibilita a construção de modos de organização inteligentes e solidários, e modos de produção “não-capitalistas”. O compartilhamento produz o comum, em comum. Cria-se uma densa esfera do comum, base para uma recriação incessante. Conclui-se que as formas colaborativas de produção são particularmente importantes para que se singularizem as subjetividades e se produzam modos autônomos de vida.In this work there are reviewed, organized and discussed concepts and strategies around the collaborative production forms in the information society, particularly those related with the immaterial labour and the information sharing. The capitalism in its way ofinformational development produces changes in the relationships between the social forms of production and the technologies of information and communication. The current capitalist production centralizes the immaterial goods - the information in firstplace. Information sharing is part of production process and, at the same time, its main product. Sharing makes possible the construction of intelligent and solidary organization manners, and "no-pitalists" production manners. Sharing produces the common, in common. It grows up a dense sphere of the common, base for an incessant re-creation. It is ended that collaborative production forms are particularly important for single out the subjectivities and to produce autonomous manners of life.

Esports gaming is a new subject within various fields of research. Typically, research explores the relationships between games and its players or the developers. By contrast this thesis examines the highest level of play within gaming, professional players. To do so, it utilizes the example of League of Legends. Created in 2009, League of Legends has rapidly grown to become one of the largest online multiplayer games with a massive Esports scene that matches or exceeds that of traditional sports such as Basketball or Baseball. But what factors contribute to this sudden rise in League of Legends Esports popularity and how have professional players adjusted over the years? This thesis explores these questions and the overall evolution of professional teams and League of Legends over the course of its Esports growth. It finds that League of Legends is unique in its use of the immaterial labour and digital labour of professional players. Through a concept called the “Meta”, League of Legends is able to mimic traditional sports and maintain interest in its game. Further for professional players the existence and evolution of the “Meta” sharply influences the need for organizational restructuring over the years. Players and teams become complex organizations in which players’ transition from gamers to become workers in Esports. Exploring the League of Legends Esports setting uncovers a unique combination of sport and work within a new digital context. Thesis Master of Philosophy (MA) The goal of this work is to explore the lives and labour of League of Legends professional players. Created in 2009, League of Legends rapidly grew to be one of the most played and watched Esport game in the world. Professional players are often heralded as celebrities and their decisions impact the larger League of Legends and Esports community. This work examines the realities of Esports for professional players. It further analyzes the structure and organization of play and work in the League of Legends Esports setting. For the developer, Riot Games, Esports serves a variety of purposes and this thesis explores this and the contributions of Esports professionals to the development of the game.

Osnovna tema rada je fenomen konstitucije brendovskih zajednica kao neotribalnih oblika društvenog udruživanja. Teorijska elaboracija tog fenomena dopunjena je analizom slučaja brendovske zajednice Velebitskog piva. Taj slučaj potvrđuje dva važna teorijska aspekta brendovskih zajednica. Prvo, objekti potrošnje u suvremenim potrošačkim društvima u određenim situacijama mogu imati društvenokonstitucijsku funkciju. U slučaju analiziranih grupa konzumenata Velebitskog piva, pivo kao objekt konzumacije funkcioniralo je kao »dodatni marker« kolektivnog identiteta. Drugo, potrošačke zajednice prostor su unutar kojeg tzv. »komunalna potrošnja« poprima funkciju sredstva za proizvodnju specifične sociokulturne vrijednosti koja se najčešće izražava kroz koncept brenda. Taj tip proizvodnje potvrđuje teoriju o »nematerijalnom radu« kao bitnoj odrednici proizvodnje unutar suvremenoga kapitalističkog sustava. Slučaj Velebitskog piva potvrđuje da je specifičnu inačicu nematerijalnog rada moguće pronaći i u procesu konzumacije – u ovom slučaju potrošnje koja se odvijala unutar specifičnoga komunalnog konteksta., The basic topic of this paper is the phenomenon of brand communities’ constitution as neo-tribal forms of social association. Theoretical elaboration of this phenomenon is supplemented by the case study of the Velebit beer brand community. This case confirms two important theoretical aspects of the brand communities’ phenomena. Firstly, objects of consumption in certain situations in modern consumer societies could be functional in community constitution. In the case of analyzed groups of Velebit beer consumers, beer as the object of consumption operated as an “additional marker” of collective identity. Secondly, brand communities are the space where “communal consumption” functions as a means of production of specific socio-cultural value that is most often expressed through the concept of brand. This type of production affirms the theory of “immaterial labour” as an important mode of production in the contemporary capitalist system. The Velebit beer case confirms that a specific version of immaterial labour can be found in the process of communal consumption as well – in this case, consumption that took place within a specific communal context.

The essay acts as a blueprint over my artistic practice. It is through the friction caused by th relations between the Keywords mentioned above I strive to achieve a dynamic which will act as an interlocutor between the fields, which are not separated but which fail to understand each others' logic and instead more or less intentionally seek to overwrite each other. [I examensarbetet ingår utställningen: "Taking care of business":] The show was a total installation spanning over 7 days in which Studio Stök (Fredrik Fermelin and I) were constantly keeping the exhibition going: One room was filled with gelatine and lasers, was connected to another room by a tunnel in which a robotic vacuum cleaner constantly active. The other room was filled with +20 office chairs with incense sticks. Fredrik and I were never seen, but for 13 hours a day (07:00am-06:00pm), we mopped up the water from the "melting" gelatin so people could walk, lightning new incense, switching vacuum cleaners and mixing playlists with binaural beats for the tunnel. It was a way of catering an immediate sensation experienced as a viewer, no textualization was presented and enunciated indicating the exhibition was to be read in a certain way, and no artist was present creating a somewhat eerie sensation of a presence or absence. The smells were carried through the exhibition by the draft from the open doors and each room thus pre-empted the other. . Each room had an entrance and people were thus entering from two directions, there was no wrong way of entering and experiencing, the choreography of the exhibition created a sort of moebious strip which ended as quickly as it had lasted. During the week various flash events were held where the backspace which in normal circumstances acts as the entrance was opened. Material: Various Teknik: Installation The exhibition and partially the essays was a completely collaboration between Cecilie Hundevad Meng and Fredrik Fermelin as the artist group Studio Stök. The Exhibition and the essay(s) was only indirectly connected. The essay was abstractly linked to the exhibition.

A que conceitos de trabalho, valor e classe social as teses que consideram o trabalho imaterial a forca produtiva central nas sociedades contemporâneas se referem? O objetivo deste artigo e o de responder a essa questao. Para tal, faremos uma breve incursao nas teses centrais da chamada “economia do conhecimento”, para confrontar a interpretacao que realizam dos conceitos de trabalho, valor e classe social a uma interpretacao alternativa que, pensamos, procura desenvolver os preceitos mais gerais da teoria marxiana. Concluimos, ao final do texto, que ha, nos teoricos da “economia do conhecimento”, um reducionismo analitico, sobretudo quando restringem o trabalho ao trabalho fisico executado na fabrica, o valor a uma expressao mensuravel aritmeticamente da exploracao do trabalho manual e a classe trabalhadora ou proletariado a classe operaria. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Trabalho imaterial. Materialidade. Karl Marx. Valor. Classes sociais. Exploracao do trabalho. THEORIES OF IMMATERIAL LABOR: a critical reflection from Marx Henrique Amorim Which concepts of work, value and social class the theses that consider the immaterial labor as the central productive force in contemporary societies refer to? The aim of this article is to answer that question. In order to do it, we will undergo a brief incursion in the central theses of the “economy of knowledge” to confront the interpretation of the concepts of work, value and social class performed by them to an alternative interpretation that we think tries to develop the more general precepts of the Marxian theory. We conclude, at the end of the text, that there exists a sort of analytical reductionism in the “economy of knowledge “ scholars, especially when they reduce “work” to the physical work performed in the factory, the value to an arithmetically measurable expression of manual labor exploitation and the working class or proletariat to the labor class. Key-Words: Immaterial labour. Materiality. Value. Social classes. LES THEORIES DU TRAVAIL IMMATERIEL: une reflexion critique a partir de Marx Henrique Amorim A quels concepts de travail, de valeur et de classe sociale les theses qui considerent le travail immateriel comme etant la force productive centrale des societes contemporaines se referent-elles? L’objectif de cet article est de repondre a cette question. Nous ferons donc une breve incursion dans les theses centrales de la dite “economie de la connaissance” afin de confronter l’interpretation faite des concepts de travail, de valeur et de classe sociale a une interpretation alternative qui, nous l’estimons, essaie de developper les preceptes les plus generaux de la theorie du marxisme. Finalement nous pouvons conclure qu’il y a parmi les theoriciens de “l’economie de la connaissance” un reductionnisme analytique, essentiellement lorsqu’ils reduisent le travail au travail physique effectue dans les usines, la valeur a une expression mesurable arithmetique de l’exploitation du travail manuel, et la classe des travailleurs ou des proletaires a la classe ouvriere. MOTS-CLES: Travail immateriel. Materialite. Karl Marx. Valeur. Classes sociales. Exploitation du travail. Publicacao Online do Caderno CRH no Scielo: http://www.scielo.br/ccrh Publicacao Online do Caderno CRH: http://www.cadernocrh.ufba.br

Costuma-se argumentar que a teoria do valor-trabalho de Marx nao mais se aplica ao mundo contemporâneo, em que partes crescentes da populacao estao envolvidas em trabalho “imaterial” ou trabalho “digital”. Este ensaio argumenta que essa teoria ainda e relevante, mas que, a fim de entender como ela pode ser aplicada ao trabalho imaterial e ao trabalho de modo mais geral, e necessario analisar criticamente os tres principais componentes da teoria: a natureza particular de qualquer forma de trabalho, o valor que e criado por esse trabalho e os meios de subsistencia do trabalhador. Essa analise nos permite nao apenas distinguir entre “tempo de trabalho necessario” e mais-valia, mas tambem identificar o local de producao. Em um mundo em que novas atividades estao sendo constantemente trazidas para dentro da esfera das relacoes sociais capitalistas e novas mercadorias sendo produzidas, e importante identificar esses locais de producao e os trabalhadores que estao diretamente envolvidos na producao de mais-valia, porque sao esses trabalhadores que tem o potencial, ao retirar seu consentimento, de se organizar de forma eficaz junto aos interesses comuns da classe trabalhadora global. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Teoria do valor trabalho. Trabalho imaterial. Mercadorizacao. Monetarizacao da internet. Trabalho. Trabalho digital. Trabalho produtivo e improdutivo. LIVING, LABOUR AND VALUE IN THE XXIST CENTURY: unpicking the knot Ursula Elin Huws It is often argued that Marx’s labour theory of value no longer applies in the contemporary world in which increasing proportions of the population are involved in “immaterial” or “digital” labour. This article contends that the theory is still relevant, but that in order to understand how it can be applied both to immaterial labour and to labour more generally, it is necessary to examine critically the three key components of the theory: the particular nature of any given form of labour, the value that is created by that labour, and the worker’s means of subsistence. Such an analysis enables us not only to distinguish between “necessary labour time” and surplus value but also to identify the point of production. In a world in which new activities are constantly being brought within the sphere of capitalist social relations and new commodities are being produced, it is important to identify these points of production and the workers who are directly engaged in the production of surplus value because it is these workers who have the potential, by withdrawing their consent, to organise effectively in the common interests of the global working class. KEY WORDS: labour theory of value, immaterial labour, commodification, monetisation of the Internet, labour, digital labour, productive and unproductive labour. LIVING, LABOUR AND VALUE IN THE XXIST CENTURY: unpicking the knot Ursula Elin Huws It is often argued that Marx’s labour theory of value no longer applies in the contemporary world in which increasing proportions of the population are involved in “immaterial” or “digital” labour. This article contends that the theory is still relevant, but that in order to understand how it can be applied both to immaterial labour and to labour more generally, it is necessary to examine critically the three key components of the theory: the particular nature of any given form of labour, the value that is created by that labour, and the worker’s means of subsistence. Such an analysis enables us not only to distinguish between “necessary labour time” and surplus value but also to identify the point of production. In a world in which new activities are constantly being brought within the sphere of capitalist social relations and new commodities are being produced, it is important to identify these points of production and the workers who are directly engaged in the production of surplus value because it is these workers who have the potential, by withdrawing their consent, to organise effectively in the common interests of the global working class. KEY WORDS: labour theory of value, immaterial labour, commodification, monetisation of the Internet, labour, digital labour, productive and unproductive labour. Publicacao Online do Caderno CRH no Scielo: http://www.scielo.br/ccrh Publicacao Online do Caderno CRH: http://www.cadernocrh.ufba.br

Dal 1995 fino al 2003 l’economia statunitense ha sperimentato una bolla finanziaria e il suo successivo crollo, fondandosi sulle sorti della cosiddetta New economy, composta sostanzialmente dalle neonate start-up del ramo tecnologico, dei media e del settore delle telecomunicazioni. Queste imprese Dot.Com sono state segnate da una serie di caratteristiche che esemplificano i cambiamenti delle condizioni di produzione e di creazione della ricchezza nel capitalismo contemporaneo, tra cui, soprattutto, i mutamenti radicali relativi alle coordinate spaziotemporali delle attivita e dei processi produttivi. Utilizzando le risorse teoriche offerte dai pensatori marxisti dell’autonomia, si puo osservare come l’aumentata e crescente importanza della finanziarizzazione dilati il peso specifico del lavoro libero generato dalle infrastrutture digitali del capitalismo contemporaneo. Le valutazioni gonfiate delle Dot.Com, che hanno prima portato al boom e successivamente allo scoppio della bolla tecnologica, possono essere visti come dei tentativi sperimentali di produrre un qualche tipo di misura rispetto ad una quantita essenzialmente incommensurabile di lavoro immateriale agito in queste imprese.

Em Bakhtin, rir constitui um acto de regozijo popular, parte de um conjunto de práticas que invertiam a moral cristã. Actualmente, rir parece integrar-se numa ordem, não de festa, mas de trabalho. Cada vez mais, trabalhar equivale a participar numa dramaturgia social, em que a pessoa se sujeita a um processo de auto-apresentação. Tanto o seu meio, como o seu fim, parecem assentar na criação de afectos, um sentimento de bem-estar e/ou de excitação, criados – entre outros meios – pelo riso. Analisando-o enquanto parte do processo de produção, pretendemos reflectir em torno da ideia de capital humano, de como os mais íntimos traços do indivíduo se tornam objecto de uma auto-produção do trabalhador, com base nos critérios exigidos pelas empresas. In Bakhtin, laughing can be described as act of popular rejoicing, part of a set of practices that subvert the christian morality. Nowadays, laughing seems to be easily integrated in an order, not of feast, but of work. Increasingly, work implies the participation on a social dramaturgy, in which the person subjects herself to a process of self-presentation. Both its means and its ends seem to rely upon the creation of affective elements, a feeling of well-being and/ or enthusiasm, produced, among other means, by laughter. Analyzing it as part of the production process, we intend to reflect upon the idea of human capital, that is, how the most intimate features of the individual become object of the worker´s self-production, based upon criteria demanded by companies. D’après Bakhtine, le rire est un acte de réjouissance populaire, qui appartient à un ensemble de pratiques qui renverse la morale chrétienne. Actuellement, le rire semble s’intégrer à un ordre, non pas de célébration, mais de travail. Travailler équivaut de plus en plus à participer à un drame social, dans lequel l’individu est soumis à un processus d’auto-présentation. Aussi bien les fi ns comme les moyens utilisés paraissent s’appuyer sur la création d’attachements, d’un sentiment de bien-être et /ou d’excitation, créés - entre autres - par le rire. En analysant le processus de production, l’objectif est de réfl échir sur le concept de capital humain, d’expliquer comment les caractéristiques les plus intimes de l’individu deviennent sujet d´une autoproduction, sur la base des critères requis par les entreprises.

According to Maurizio Lazzarato, Michael Hardt, and Antonio Negri, immaterial labour is biopolitical in that it purchases, commands, and comes to progressively control the communicative and affective capacities of immaterial workers. Drawing inspiration from Michel Foucault, the above authors argue that waged immaterial labour reshapes the subjectivities of workers by reorienting their communicative and affective capacities towards the prerogatives and desires of those persons who purchased the right to control them. In this way, it is biopolitical. Extending the concept of immaterial labour into the Web 2.0 era, Tiziana Terranova and Christian Fuchs, for instance, argue that all of the time and effort devoted to generating digital content on the Internet should also be considered a form of immaterial work. Taking into account the valuations of ‘free’ social networks, these authors emphasize the exploitative dimensions of unwaged immaterial work and, by doing so, broaden the concept of immaterial labour to include both its waged and unwaged variants. Neither, however, has attempted to understand the biopolitical dimensions of unwaged immaterial labour with any specificity. Thus, while Hardt and Negri examine the biopolitics of waged immaterial labour and Terranova and Fuchs examine the exploitative dimensions of unwaged immaterial labour, this thesis makes an original contribution to this body of theory by extending both lines of thinking and bridging the chasm between them. Taking Flickr as its primary exemplar, this thesis provides an empirical examination of the ways in which its members regard all of the time and effort they devote to their ‘labours of love.’ Flickr is a massively popular Web 2.0 photo-sharing social network that depends on the unwaged immaterial labour of its ‘users’ to generate all of the content that populates the network. Via reference to open-ended and semi-structured interviews conducted with members of Flickr, the biopolitics that guide and regulate the exploited work of this unwaged labour force are disclosed. The primary research question this thesis provides an answer to, then, is: if waged immaterial labour is biopolitical as numerous scholars have argued, then what are the biopolitics of the unwaged immaterial labour characteristic of Flickr and what kinds of subjectivities are being produced by them?

One of the biggest concerns about social media is the vast amount of personal data they gather. This causes users and media to think about their privacy. But this is no longer the only thing we should worry about. Once we dive deeper into the rabbit hole, we enter into a whole new world filled with personalised recommendations, search results, friend requests etc. This is part of a possible future described by Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google): "I actually think most people don't want Google to answer their questions," he elaborates. "They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next." But, what do Google and social media platforms need to suggest relevant in-formation? They are using a form of unpaid labour, called Immaterial Labour 2.0 (Cote and Pybus 2009). The input is made of User Generated Content that is either willingly provided or involuntary, through the use of tracking tech-nologies such as cookies. A squirrel dying in front of your house may be more relevant to your interests right nowthan people dying in Africa. Recent critics and scholars are afraid of the future scenario, often referred to as The filter bubble (Eli Pariser 2011). This bubble surrounds every Internet user and it defines what is relevant to you: "A squirrel dying in front of your house may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa." (Mark Zuckerberg in The filter bubble) If Foucault were still around, he would call this one of the clearest manifesta-tions of biopolitics. Users are willingly participating because it is free, but they are also segregated in a bubble of likeminded people, which is one of the sub-tlest ways of power to influence users.

In this interview taken shortly after the launch of the Italian translation of the Commonwealth, Antonio Negri, besides discussing details of his collaboration with Michael Hardt, addresses the most important topics of the book, which could remain unclear for the readers. He gives a wide range of answers for the questions on, for example, importance of revision and revitalization of seventeenth century’s categories, what does it mean to be a communist today, elaboration of the thesis of real subsumption. He also stresses the significance of the struggle over the common and processes of its institutionalization for contemporary revolutionary politics and faces criticism of the conception of immaterial and biopolitical labour.

Resumo Este artigo visa refletir sobre a construcao de identidades de marca na economia criativa a partir das dinâmicas informacionais de seus atores. Propoe um modelo de analise baseado em uma nova metafora organizacional e na opcao por uma abordagem em diferentes niveis daquela dinâmica. Demonstra sua aplicabilidade a partir do exemplo de uma empresa atuante na industria da moda. Palavras-chave: economia criativa; trabalho imaterial; industria da moda; centrais de criatividade; dinâmicas informacionais. Abstract This article aims to reflect on the development of brand identities in the creative economy from the point of view of its actors’ informational dynamics. It proposes a model of analysis based on a new organizational metaphor and on a multi-level approach to that dynamic. It also demonstrates its applicability using the example of an active company in the fashion industry. Keywords: creative economy; immaterial labour; fashion industry; creativity centrals; informational dynamics.

This essay reflects on the concept of the common as both natural good and human product. The common, in other words, refers to the land, water, and air as well as to language, knowledges, ideas, images, and affects. The primary argument is that capitalist production is increasingly reliant on and oriented toward the production of the common and yet the common is destroyed (and its productivity reduced) when transformed into either private or public property. The task is to institute free access and circulation of the common.

Neste trabalho são revistos, organizados e discutidos conceitos e estratégias em torno das formas colaborativas de produção na sociedade da informação, particularmente aqueles relacionados com o trabalho imaterial e o compartilhamento de informação. O capitalismo no seu modo de desenvolvimento informacional produz mudanças nas relações entre as formas sociais de produção e as tecnologias de informação e comunicação. A produção capitalista atual centraliza os bens imateriais a informação em primeiro lugar. O compartilhamento de informação é parte de processo de produção e, ao mesmo tempo, o seu principal produto. O compartilhamento possibilita a construção de modos de organização inteligentes e solidários, e modos de produção “não-capitalistas”. O compartilhamento produz o comum, em comum. Cria-se uma densa esfera do comum, base para uma recriação incessante. Conclui-se que as formas colaborativas de produção são particularmente importantes para que se singularizem as subjetividades e se produzam modos autônomos de vida.

Antonio Negri, Maurizio Lazzarato and Michael Hardt have been proposing for more than one decade a new theory for the interpretation of the transformations we are presently undergoing. According to them, today we see the total affirmation of a historical impulse that emmerged from the passage of a feudal Europe to a modern one, which is the 'motivation' for an 'ethical existence' which "transforms itself into love for the future time". Such historical tendency would be called today the 'immaterial labour', a complete and radical transformation of work and production. This text tries to explore and present with a critical approach the bulk of those authors' theory. Keywords: Labour. immaterial labour. marxism. Antonio Negri, Maurizio Lazzarato e Michael Hardt propõem, há pelo menos uma década e meia, uma nova teoria para a interpretação das transformações que vivenciamos. Segundo eles, hoje se afirmaria em sua plena potência um impulso histórico surgido com a passagem da Europa feudal ao período moderno, que é a "motivação" por uma "vivência ética" que se "faz amor para o tempo por se constituir". Tal tendência histórica, hoje, se consubstanciaria no "trabalho imaterial", uma reformulação completa e radical do trabalho e da produção. Este texto procura expor criticamente o núcleo duro da nova teoria proposta por esses autores. Palavras-chave: Trabalho. trabalho imaterial. marxismo.

Using the conceptual grid of "immaterial labour" in the age of Empire, this article is a preliminary portrait of work in the video and computer game development industry, a sector of creative, cognitive labour that exemplifies the allure but also the peril of new media work. Drawing on interviews we conducted with game developers in Canada , we examine the conditions of labour in game studios, this cultural industry's "work as play" ethos, the pleasures and potentialities of game production, the blemishes that mar this attractive vista, and the new infractions these tensions provoke. Confirming that Empire sets in motion potentialities it cannot fully control, we also observe an emergent counter-mobilisation of game labour, whose manifestations range from digital piracy to dissident games produced in the context of activism. These experiments of a playful multitude flow into the wider currents of tactical media, hacktivism, open-source software, and distributed computing that are generating tumults throughout the circuits of Empire.