From the General Intellect to the theses of “cognitive capitalism”: Contributions to the study of 21st-century capitalism

Abstract

This paper proposes a systematic approach to the cognitive capitalism and its contributions to the understanding of the development of contemporary capitalism. This new stage of capitalist development is characterized by placing knowledge and technological change in the centre of the recovery processes for capital and, simultaneously, generates new contradictions arising from the increasing complexity of production processes resulting from the “cognitive” division of labor. The social consequences of these new socio-productive configurations are in full development and however the place of “common” in the complex networks of the new capitalism.