Marx, Automation and the Future of Work

Authors

  • Arif Kosar The Theory and Action

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15173/glj.v15i2.5402

Abstract

The ever-increasing use of automation technologies in the manufacturing process has again raised concerns about the future of work. A considerable number of left-wing thinkers argue that, with the wave of automation, we see a dissolution of the foundations of a work-based capitalist society, and that a new society has emerged spontaneously. Marx’s studies have been referenced, more or less, in most of these analyses. Efforts to base this thesis that we are moving into a post-work society on Marx are highly speculative. In Marx’s analysis, automation and proletarianisation are two facets in the process of accumulation of capital that function together. A small number of workers and technology-intensive manufacturing in some sectors make labour-intensive production necessary in other sectors and countries. Today’s available data and trends also indicate that Marx’s analysis of automation in the context of accumulation of capital is still applicable.

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Published

2024-05-31

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 2 (2024): May 2024

Section

ARTICLES

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