Abstracting value from life processes enables new commodified social relations

Evidence

Marx differentiated formal subsumption and “real subsumption,” in which various social relations emerge from capital itself. The movement from formal to real, from incorporation to invention—this is how we should understand influencer culture. … Everything, rather than appearing as labor—the ultimate source of value—appears as capital, as something to exchange, as a material good to be owned, bought, and sold. — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 104 (#expands, via linked claim)

In this chapter, I drew on the work of Massimo de Angelis and David Graeber, who have sought to understand capitalism as a system based on the subordination of social values to economic value. Social life, for these authors, is driven by human cooperation (species being) that is coordinated through a dialectic of value: on the one hand, values shape the social actions of individuals and groups which reproduce society and its individuals; on the other, the actions of individuals and groups help reproduce values, reinforcing or undermining established notions of worth, propriety, rank, station or decorum. … As John McMurtry (1999; 2002) argues, capitalism represents a rogue value paradigm, one which shapes our individual and shared sense of what and who is valuable in such a way as to orient social activity towards the endless reproduction of the system of accumulation, even when that accumulation jeopardizes our own social and biological reproduction. … McMurtry (1999) defines our moment as the “cancer stage” of capitalism, when deregulation, globalization, ecological pollution and the voracious consumption of natural resources threaten to overwhelm society’s and the planet’s capacity to survive this pathological value system. — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 561 (#expands, via linked claim)

Capitalism has survived the longue durée less because of any specific capability and more because of its plasticity. It survives and thrives by periodically renewing its roots in the social, finding new ways to generate new wealth by meeting new needs. Its evolution has been marked by a convergence of basic principles—private property, the profit motive, and growth—but with new forms, norms, and practices in each era. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1647 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Data extraction annexes life processes beyond productive labor — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 143; Real subsumption makes social relations emerge from capital itself — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory: A Marxist…, 104; Capitalism subordinates social values to economic value via a rogue value paradigm — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 561 (+8 more)

Related

• Real subsumption makes social relations emerge from capital itself (similarity 0.87)
• Capitalism’s defining move is abstracting exchange value from ordinary life processes (similarity 0.85)
• Capitalism subordinates social values to economic value via a rogue value paradigm (similarity 0.82)
• Capitalism now annexes life processes beyond labor, which orthodox labor-centered Marxism cannot explain. (similarity 0.82)
• Capitalism functions by redirecting social reproduction toward its own ends (similarity 0.81)
• Data extraction annexes life processes beyond productive labor (similarity 0.80)
• Capital is a social relation conferring extractive power, not just machinery (similarity 0.80)
• Under real subsumption, social life itself becomes object of capitalist speculation (similarity 0.80)
• Capitalism’s resilience comes from its plasticity in adopting new social forms (similarity 0.80)
• Capital is both a tool and a coercive force over others (similarity 0.79)
• Subordinating social values to economic value is capitalism’s fundamental logic (similarity 0.79)
• Capital extracts value from unwaged domestic labor that remains formally outside value (similarity 0.79)
• Data can be added to Marx’s fetishized trinity as the fruit of life processes (similarity 0.79)
• Capitalism commodified things for their exchange value, not their intrinsic worth (similarity 0.79)
• Culture is not superstructural but is where financialized capitalism subjugates social values (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Real subsumption makes social relations emerge from capital itself #expands (0.85) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 104
• Capitalism subordinates social values to economic value via a rogue value paradigm #expands (0.80) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 561
• Capitalism’s resilience comes from its plasticity in adopting new social forms #corroborates (0.78) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1647
• Resilience forms a subject between biology and social context #exemplifies (0.72) — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 3798