The Mediations of Super-Exploitation

A Methodological Proposal for Understanding New Dependency
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-90-04-73553-8
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 328/16, 214 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 505 g

Reihe: Studies in Critical Social Sciences / Critical Global Studies

This work by Mexican theorist Adrián Sotelo Valencia succinctly analyses the process of super-exploitation in the present day context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Drawing upon methodological insights from Hungarian Marxist István Mészáros, Brazilian Marxist Ruy Mauro Marini, and others, Sotelo demonstrates the pivotal importance of analysing second order mediations as he builds an innovative, expanded model of structural dependency. The result is a more holistic, dialectical grasp of the contradictory dynamics of contemporary imperialism where Capital globally deploys technology for automation in an unsustainable drive for profit that displaces labor and increasingly threatens the reproduction of the global labor force. Empirical evidence presented throughout this work serves to reinforce its powerful, updated articulation of Marxist Dependency Theory.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Sotelo Valencia, Adrián

Weitere Mitwirkende

Stiles Sparks, David

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Entwicklungspolitik, Nord-Süd Beziehungen
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Wirtschaftssysteme, Wirtschaftsstrukturen
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Arbeitsmarkt
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Marxismus, Kommunismus
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Entwicklungsstudien

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Tables, Graphs and Figures IX

Foreword XI

Introduction

Part 1: The Mediations of Super-exploitation

1 Second Order Mediations in the Epistemology and Method of Mészáros Introduction 1.1 Dependency and the Super-Exploitation of Labor 1.2 Dialectical Totality, Implied Order, and Mediations in Social Thought 1.3 Mészáros’ First and Second Order Mediations 1.4 The Exploitation and Super-Exploitation of Labor in Second-Order Mediations 1.5 The Super-Exploitation of Labor: Categorical Attributes Conclusion

Part 2: Capitalism’s Polycrisis and the World of Work

2 Super-Exploitation, Dismeasure of Value, and Fictitious Capital: The Roots of the Crisis Introduction 2.1 Globalization and the New International Division of Labor Conclusion

Part 3: Labor, the Social Sciences, and Dependency

3 Exploring Dependency and the World of Work Introduction 3.1 The “Approach” of Dependency without Theory 3.2 Dependency within the Framework of World-System Analysis 3.3 The Transformation of Dependency Theory into the Marxist Theory of Dependency 3.4 Theoretical and Methodological Frameworks of the Marxist Theory of Dependency Conclusion

4 The Trajectory and Debates Surrounding Dependency Introduction 4.1 The Third Industrial Revolution and Theories of the “End of Work” 4.2 Work and Its Place in Dependency Currents 4.3 The Locus of Labor in Dependency Theory 4.4 Labor in the Marxist Theory of Dependency 4.5 Dissolving the Marxist Theory of Dependency to “Renew” It Conclusion

Part 4: Mediations, Super-exploitation, and Advanced Capitalism

5 Homogeneity and Heterogeneity: Two Morphologies of the Same Process Introduction 5.1 Structural Heterogeneity 5.2 Capital Homogenization in the Context of Globalization 5.3 Functional Super-Exploitation in Advanced Capitalist Countries Conclusion

General Conclusion

Appendix: Theoretical Currents

References

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Dr. Adrián Sotelo Valencia is Professor and researcher at the Center for Latin American Studies of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at the UNAM in Mexico City. He has authored numerous works on labor, capitalist crisis, and development, including Global Labour in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Brill, 2023), United States in a World in Crisis (Brill, 2020), Sub-Imperalism Revisited (Brill, 2017) and The Future of Work (Brill, 2015).