The problem is proletarianisation, not capitalism: A critique of Bernard Stiegler’s contributive economy

In the wake of the Gilets Jaunes movement, the late Bernard Stiegler proclaimed, in one of his final interviews: ‘what I’m interested in is to put down capitalism, for good. Or to do something else in the meanwhile.’ 1 Stiegler’s anti-capitalist statement signals his debt to Marx, who is frequently invoked in his writings. Indeed, […]
Stone mosaic showing a boot, hammer, pliers and the letters 'E. L.'

Android paranoia

Reivew of Aaron Benanav, Automation and the Future of Work; Jason E. Smith, Smart Machines and Service Work
Aaron Benanav, Automation and the Future of Work (London: Verso, 2020). 160pp., £12.99 hb., 978 1 83976 129 4 Jason E. Smith, Smart Machines and Service Work: Automation in an Age of Stagnation (London: Reaktion, 2020). 160pp., £14.95 hb., 978 1 78914 318 8 Is a future where jobs currently done by humans are carried […]
Image of a robot

Proletarianisation isn’t working

Reivew of Bernard Stiegler, Automatic Society
Bernard Stiegler, Automatic Society: The Future of Work, Volume 1, trans, Daniel Ross (Cambridge: Polity, 2016). 341pp., £55.00 hb., £17.99 pb., 978 1 50950 630 9 hb., 978 1 50950 631 6 pb. Despairing over the conditions of living and working in Foxconn’s ‘factory city’ in China, a total of 14 workers leapt to their […]