Dear Colleagues,
on behalf of the Finnish Karl Marx Society I would inform you that we have
just published a book on the Marxist critique of the so-called "information
capitalism". Finland, as the homeland of Nokia, is not an altogether
unexpected place for such a book to appear. Unfortunately, the book is in
=46innish only, but several articles (e.g. by Bischoff, Garnham, Nick,
Stallman, Honkanen) can be obtained in English or German from the authors
by request.
Here follows, for your information, a short resum=E9e of the book's theme an=
d
the content. If you will know more about the Finnish Karl marx Society, you
can take a look at our homepage in the web address
http://www.marx-seura.kaapeli.fi
With best regards
Vesa Oittinen
Chairman
+++++++++++++++++++++
A New Book (In Finnish)
MarxIT
Critical Examinations into
Information Capitalism
Ed. by Jukka Heiskanen & Jorma M=E4ntyl=E4
Karl Marx -seura, Helsinki, 2003
155 p.; ISBN 952-99110-0-9
All texts in Finnish
The book is based on the selected materials of a Finnish-German symposium
held in May 2002 in Helsinki and organized by two Finnish societies: 'Karl
Marx Society' and 'Technology For Life'. The articles from the
english-speaking world - that is, by Nicholas Garnham (London, UK) and
Richard M. Stallman (Boston, USA) - are added to the materials later.
Contents:
Jukka Heiskanen & Jorma M=E4ntyl=E4 (Finland):
Karl Marx in Information Society - An Introduction
Joachim Bischoff (Germany): Modern Capitalism and Information
Technology
Nicholas Garnham (UK): 'Information Society' as Theory or Ideology?
Pertti Honkanen (Finland): IT-Capitalism and the Theory of Value
Jorma M=E4ntyl=E4 (Finland): The Case Microsoft: From Free Competiti=
on
to the Millenium of
Monopols?
Tere Vad=E9n (Finland): Technological Interests and Contexts of Use
- Notes on Hacker Ethics and Propriety
The Hacker Community, Ethics and Globalization
- Richard M. Stallman interviewed by Tere Vad=E9n
Jussi Silvonen (Finland): Linux and Free Software - a Challenge to
Information
Capitalism?
Harry Nick (Germany): The Development of Technology in 'Real
Socialism': Why did the
attempt fail?
The face on modern capitalism has changed dramatically under the influence
of new information and communication technologies. This has given rise to a
variety of very optimistic philosophical and economical visions, such as
'Homo Intelligens' capable of freeing himself rapidly from all burdensome
work, or extreme productive and ecologically promising 'weightless economy'
replacing the flow of material goods by circulating information and
services.
This excessive enthusiasm has somewhat weakened since the spring 2000, a
juncture when some well-known e-commerce-firms went bankrupt and it became
in many ways clear that the changes in economy and society cannot be so
rapid and beneficial as supposed. Still, some of the claimed changes are
real. In this volume the German sociologist and economist Joachim Bischoff
states in a manner that signifies the trend of other articles too:
"I do not argue that nothing has profoundly changed in capitalism. The
contrary is true: labour process and corporate governance are reorganized,
the class-structure in the highly developed capitalistic society is
transformed. But these changes produce new contradictions: between the
accumulation of real capital and financial assets, between production and
solvent demand, between investment and macro-economic innovation. The
potential of information and communication technologies cannot be fully
exploited under these conditions."
In spite of the mentioned transformations it's not true - stresses Bischoff
- that our society has moved from fordism to post-fordism, no longer based
on the industry but on services. The fordist type of industrialism with its
forms of economic accumulation has indeed been a long time in crisis, but
this crisis has not been overcome, and there are tendencies towards deeper
social divisions and even towards an authoritarian society where big
industrial corporations would belong to the winners.
In these circumstances it's obvious, that the claimed 'new economy' cannot
be an independent phenomenon but a kind of top storey resting on the
building of the 'old economy'. If we want to understand it, we must not
turn away from classical studies of the nature of the latter, especially
from Karl Marx's theories. For example, Marx's analysis of the formation of
monopolies (grounded on the tendency of the rate of the profit to fall) may
today be used as an instrument to explain, how Microsoft has achieved its
sovereign position in software business or how it came possible, that a
handful of gigantic media companies are now struggling to control the
cultural resources of the world.
Also in his philosophy influenced by the Enlightenment ideas Marx has some
themes relevant here, such as the ability of mankind to create gradually a
'general intellect', the development of communication as a mean to relieve
the 'alienation', the special nature of science as 'general labour' which
presupposes the free flow of ideas in society, and the tendency of all this
to get into conflict with capitalism. These themes are not very far from
recent media-theoretical discussions, and we can e.g. ask, in which sense
the Linux-type free software or the 'copyleft' invented by Richard M.
Stallman might today carry on the heritage of Enlightenment and Marx, or
even in which sense they are potentially anti-capitalist.
Vesa Oittinen
PD, Docent (Institute of Philosophy, Helsinki), Researcher of the Finnish
Academy
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
HOME:
Haahkakuja 1 B 28
=46IN-00200 HELSINKI
=C5dgr=E4nden 1 B 28
=46IN-00200 HELSINGFORS
Home tel. +358-(9)-621 56 75
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
OFFICE:
Aleksanteri-instituutti
PL 4 (Yliopistonkatu 5, 6. krs.)
=46IN-00014 HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Alexander-institutet
PB 4 (Universitetsgatan 5, 6. v=E5n.)
=46IN-00014 HELSINGFORS UNIVERSITET
Aleksanteri Institute
P.O.Box 4 (Yliopistonkatu 5, 6th floor)
=46IN-00014 UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI
Office tel. +358-(9)-191 24 175
=46ax +358-(9)-191 23 822
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Mar 01 2003 - 01:00:06 PST