Digital Capital Reading Group

Description

"The influence of Karl Marx’s writing on twentieth century critical thought is plain to see. Defined, in Fredric Jameson’s terms, as “the science of the inherent contradictions of capitalism” Marxism provides us with a wide ranging framework for the analysis of political economy and its cultural manifestations. But today, the story goes, we live in an era when the form of capitalism Marx examines, rooted as it is in an industrial mode of production, is in the process of being supplanted by a new, informatic mode. Whether we define this current stage as post Fordist, networked,communicative or neoliberal, it is clear that questions around its relative novelty or continuity with‘classical’ forms of capitalist political economy have seen several contemporary thinkers return toMarx with fresh eyes.

This reading group will read excerpts from a range of Marx’s economic, philosophical and political works alongside examples drawn from contemporary critical writing in order to think through the key terms for a critique of political economy that is rooted in the digital present but which recognises the ongoing need to refigure and reformulate a Marx for our times." (http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/microsites/arc/news_and_events/news_archive_2011.Maincontent.0081.file.tmp/digital_capital_reading_group.pdf)