[ICTs-and-Society] Vincent Mosco - Marx is Back, but Will Knowledge Workers of the World Unite? On the Critical Study of Labour, Media, and Communication Today

[Christian Fuchs]

I will in the coming weeks/months here once in a while post one of the 
abstracts of the plenary talks of the Uppsala conference and try to 
bring up, based on the abstracts, some questions for discussion.

Feel free to discuss, comment, voice critique, etc. The list is intended 
for pre-conference discussion and controversy (please send no general 
announcements for publications and events over it, there are other lists 
suited available for that)... The keynote speakers are also part of this 
list, and if they find time, they may even join the discussion if good 
conversations and controversies develop.

Best, Christian
--

Vincent Mosco - Marx is Back, but Will Knowledge Workers of the World 
Unite? On the Critical Study of Labour, Media, and Communication Today

In one the two opening lectures, Vincent Mosco will ask a question that 
is fundamental for the Uppsala conference: What is the role of Marxist 
theory for understanding contemporary society and the role of the media 
in contemporary society? For Critical Media/Communication scholars, Marx 
was never away, but he certainly tended to disappear in public discourse 
and institutions during the past decades. How useful (or not) are some 
of Marx's concepts today for understanding and changing the world?  Why 
is it that he was "away" and has now "come back"? What are the 
perspectives for Marxian-inspired studies of media and communication?
Vinny will furthermore, based on Marx, discuss what he sees as the 
blindspot of media and communication sociology - knowledge labour. What 
are fundamental qualities of knowledge labour? What experiences of its 
exploitation can be found? How does knowledge labour resist 
exploitation? What is the role of class struggles in contemporary 
capitalism and contemporary movements? What is typical for the class 
struggles of knowledge workers? In the contemporary situation of global 
capitalist crisis, will knowledge workers of the world unite, struggle 
and establish alternatives?

Abstract

This paper begins by addressing the revival of popular and academic 
interest in Karl Marx and explains why, for some of us, he never went 
away. Certainly, the global economic crisis has fuelled headlines 
announcing that it is “Springtime for Marx”. But so too has the failure 
of governments to deal with the crisis. Indeed Marx is back partly 
because of the profound political and moral crisis of capitalism as much 
as for its economic failings. All of these attest to Marx’s return in 
popular discourse whether in the mainstream press or on the signs 
carried by activists at Occupy sites around the world. For some of us, 
Marx never left because, from his early work on conscious-ness, ideology 
and culture, which has informed critical cultural studies, through to 
his later writing on the structure and dynamics of capitalism that 
provides bedrock for critical political economy, he offers invaluable 
guidance on how to understand the world and how to change it.
In addition to addressing these fundamental themes in Marx’s work, I 
have been re-cently interested in exploring the need for all of us, but 
especially for communication scholars, to pay more attention to work 
that does not fit so neatly into either of these foci, namely Marx of 
the Grundrisse and Marx, the professional journalist. This is neces-sary 
because we have paid insufficient attention to labour in the 
communication, cul-ture and knowledge industries. The Marx of these two 
streams of work directs our at-tention to what I have called the 
labouring of communication. It prompts one to ask a Marxian question 
with a contemporary accent: Will knowledge workers of the world unite?
The remainder of the paper takes up this question by reporting on an 
eight-year pro-ject that examines how knowledge workers have responded 
to globalization, corporate concentration, technological change and the 
ensuing economic crisis. It begins by tak-ing up the meaning of 
knowledge work focusing on subterranean streams of thought that draw 
from Marx. Next, it addresses an all too persistent blind spot in 
communica-tion research by assessing tendencies to labour and trade 
union convergence in the media, information and cultural industries 
primarily through merger, internationalism and the formation of new 
worker associations. The paper covers research sites in the United 
States, Canada, Europe, India, and China where interviews with workers 
and their leaders shed light on whether knowledge workers will indeed 
unite. The conclusion considers the implications of current labour 
strategies and the need for alternatives, including lessons from the 
Occupy movement.

SPEAKER INFO: Vincent Mosco is Professor Emeritus at Queen's 
University's Department of Sociology. He is a leading expert in the 
political economy of communication and was Canada Research Chair in 
Communication and Society and Professor of Sociology.