{"id":8,"date":"2008-08-20T17:11:41","date_gmt":"2008-08-20T17:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gentlejunk.net\/research\/?p=8"},"modified":"2008-09-01T19:48:24","modified_gmt":"2008-09-01T19:48:24","slug":"immaterial-labour-maurizio-lazzarato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gentlejunk.net\/research\/2008\/08\/immaterial-labour-maurizio-lazzarato\/","title":{"rendered":"Immaterial Labour &#8211; Maurizio Lazzarato"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Immaterial Labor&#8221; in the Classic Definition<br \/>\nAll the characteristics of the postindustrial<br \/>\neconomy (both in industry and society as a whole) are highly present<br \/>\nwithin the classic forms of &#8220;immaterial&#8221; production: <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">audiovisual<br \/>\nproduction, advertising, fashion, the production of software, photography,<br \/>\ncultural activities, and so forth. The activities of this kind of immaterial<br \/>\nlabor force us to question the classic definitions <em>of work<\/em> and<br \/>\n<em>workforce,<\/em> because they combine the results of various different<br \/>\ntypes of work skill: intellectual skills, as regards the cultural-informational<br \/>\ncontent; manual skills for the ability to combine creativity, imagination,<br \/>\nand technical and manual labor; and entrepreneurial skills in the management<br \/>\nof social relations and the structuring of that social cooperation of<br \/>\nwhich they are a part. <span style=\"color: #000000;\">This immaterial labor constitutes itself in forms<br \/>\nthat are immediately collective, and we might say that<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> it exists<br \/>\nonly in the form of networks and flows. The organization of the cycle<br \/>\nof production of immaterial labor (because this is exactly what it is,<br \/>\nonce we abandon our factoryist prejudices\u2014a cycle of production) is<br \/>\nnot obviously apparent to the eye, because it is not defined by the<br \/>\nfour walls of a factory. The location in which it operates is outside<br \/>\nin the society at large, at a territorial level that we could call &#8220;the<br \/>\nbasin of immaterial labor.&#8221; Small and sometimes very small &#8220;productive<br \/>\nunits&#8221; (often consisting of only one individual) are organized<br \/>\nfor specific ad hoc projects, and may exist only for the duration of<br \/>\nthose particular jobs. The cycle of production comes into operation<br \/>\nonly when it is required by the capitalist; once the job has been done,<br \/>\nthe cycle dissolves back into the networks and flows that make possible<br \/>\nthe reproduction and enrichment of its productive capacities. Precariousness,<br \/>\nhyperexploitation, mobility, and hierarchy are the most obvious characteristics<br \/>\nof metropolitan immaterial labor. Behind the label of the independent<br \/>\n&#8220;self-employed&#8221; worker, what we actually find is an intellectual<br \/>\nproletarian, but who is recognized<br \/>\nas such only by the employers who exploit him or her. It is worth noting<br \/>\nthat in this kind of working existence it becomes increasingly difficult<br \/>\nto distinguish leisure time from work time. In a sense, life becomes<br \/>\ninseparable from work.This labor form is also characterized by real<br \/>\nmanagerial functions that consist in (1) a certain ability to manage<br \/>\nits social relations and (2) the eliciting of social cooperation within<br \/>\nthe structures of the basin of immaterial labor.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Immaterial Labor&#8221; in the Classic Definition All the characteristics of the postindustrial economy (both in industry and society as a whole) are highly present within the classic forms of &#8220;immaterial&#8221; production: audiovisual production, advertising, fashion, the production of software, photography, cultural activities, and so forth. The activities of this kind of immaterial labor force us [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8,9],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-immaterial-labour","tag-precariousness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gentlejunk.net\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gentlejunk.net\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gentlejunk.net\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gentlejunk.net\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gentlejunk.net\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/gentlejunk.net\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gentlejunk.net\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gentlejunk.net\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gentlejunk.net\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}