{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed","title":"Digital Capitalism","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"2021022153","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed","id":"50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed","uuid":"50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed","title":"Digital Capitalism","normalized_title":"digitalcapitalism","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"2021022153","isbns":["2021022153","9781032119182","9781032119205","9781003222149","2405518376"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":343,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Digital%20Capitalism","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed/search"},"page":{"printed_page":27,"pdf_page":41,"physical_index":41,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"359b921b5486b6ff467e15285991f95e34853e6ae0c4c4e228ed9cea51ba55f5"},"chapter":"DIGITAL CAPITALISM","content":"In this respect, many works on digital capitalism stand more in the tradition of Sombart, Schumpeter and Weber than Marx because they just like these three authors define capitalism and digital capitalism as an economic system. In contrast, for Marx capitalism is a Gesellschaftsformation (formation of society, societal formation) and for the present author digital capitalism is a dimension of the capitalist formation of society that emerged in the 20th century and has ever since shaped society. Digital capitalism is not a new totality, not a new formation of society. It is not a new society, but rather a novel feature and dimension of the capitalist formation of society.\n\nSabine Pfeiffer (2021) understands digital capitalism as a phase of capitalism that she characterises as capitalism of distribution (Distributivkapitalismus, 191). She characterises advertising, marketing, transport, storage, planning, and forecasting as distributive forces.\n\nI define all technological and organisational measures and activities associated with (securing) the realisation of surplus-value as distributive forces. Distributive forces thus aim at value realisation – the successful act of selling – and the optimisation of the associated processes that aim to shorten the time between production and sale and minimise the risk for a sale. (Pfeiffer 2021, 159)<sup>1</sup>\n\nAccording to Pfeiffer, digitalisation has advanced the development of the distributive forces so that capitalism where the distributive forces play a key role has emerged (191). For Pfeiffer, digital capitalism is a capitalism of distribution. Pfeiffer uses the term digital capitalism in a specific economic sense, namely as limited to the economic system and with a focus on the distribution and consumption of commodities. But digitalisation also plays an important role in contemporary capitalism as means of production of surplus-value. Think for example of software such as Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop that writers use for creating electronic books and digital images that are sold as commodities. Adobe and Microsoft sell software licences, which is not an aspect of the distribution of commodities but the production and sale of digital commodities in order to accumulate capital. In 2020, Microsoft was with annual profits of US\\$ 46.3 billion the world’s 13th largest transnational corporation and Adobe with annual profits of US\\$ 21.2 billion the 418th largest one.<sup>2</sup> What Pfeiffer terms the distributive forces are an important aspect of capitalism, but not the only realm where digitalisation shapes capitalist society. Rudi Schmiede (2006, 2015) therefore speaks in the context of digitalisation and capitalism of the informatisation of the economy and society, whereby he understands “the process nature of the penetration of all social dimensions by new contents, forms, and techniques of information” (Schmiede 2006, 352–353).\n\nChapter One | Introduction: What is Digital Capitalism?\n\n27\n\nWhat is Digital Capitalism?\n\n1 Translated from German: „Alle mit der Mehrwertrealisierung verbundenen, technologischen und organisatorischen Maßnahmen und Aktivitäten (zur Sicherung) der Wertrealisierung fasse ich als Distributivkräfte. […] Die Distributivkräfte zielen also auf die Wertrealisierung – den gelungenen Verkaufsakt – und die Optimierung der damit einhergehenden Prozesse, mit denen die Zeit zwischen der Produktion und dem Verkauf verkürzt und das Risiko für einen Verkauf minimiert werden soll” (Pfeiffer 2021, 159).","previous_page":26,"next_page":28}