{"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":277,"pdf_page":291,"physical_index":291,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"e7074620f52893c6c1fee768eb4fc31da92ae51686d083a5419ec262ed36677c"},"chapter":"DIGITAL CAPITALISM","content":"In this chapter, section 12.2 studies an example case – the German information economy – with the help of the labour theory of value in order to formulate some assumptions. Section 12.3 tests based on the same case, the assumption that the labour theory of value cannot be applied to the information sector.\n\n12.2 The Information Industry and Marx’s Labour Theory of Value\n\nSome representatives of Autonomist Marxist theory argue for example that the law of value does not apply to the information economy because it is networked and based on co-operation. Antonio Negri (1991, 172) writes for example that Marx in the Grundrisse argues for the death of the law of value. Paolo Virno (2004, 100) says that the development of capitalism refutes the law of value. Hardt and Negri (2004, 145) claim that the law of value in contemporary capitalism “makes no sense”. Vercellone (2010, 90) speaks of capitalism’s “crisis of measurement”. But Marx (1857 [1858], 705), in the specific passage that these authors refer to, does not talk about the law of value in capitalism, but rather about the death of the law of value in a communist society (Rosdolsky 1977, 428). The law of value is a foundation of all forms of capitalism (Postone 2008, 126).\n\nA comparable argument has been made by Nicholas Garnahm, who assumes that the labour theory of value is invalid in the information industries. Nicholas Garnham is one of these scholars. Garnham (1998, 103) says that the labour theory of value works if “labour time is largely a matter of energy and expended” and productivity rises due to saving of human energy expenditure based on technology. He questions whether this works in a “non-entropic economy of bits”. The labour theory of value for Garnham works well “in an economy based […] on the measurable increase in the productivity of human work-time and especially on the saving of human energy inputs through the substitution of natural energy sources” (Garnham 2000, 146). “In an economy dominated by information production any stable relation between labour and value breaks down” (Garnham 2000, 146). Garnham (2011, 47–48) writes that the economic concepts of productivity and efficiency cannot be applied to culture because of an “uncertain relationship between labour inputs and outputs” (Garnham 2011, 47). Information labour could not easily be automated and mechanised.\n\nChapter Twelve | The Information Economy\n\n277\n\nThe Information Industry and Marx’s Labour Theory of Value","previous_page":276,"next_page":278}