Problems in Class Analysis by Guglielmo Carchedi;

Author:Guglielmo Carchedi;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Unlimited)
Published: 2023-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

where => indicates determination. Or, if we use the symbol to indicate a combination of two different aspects of the same process in which either one can be determinant and if we use the symbol LPr for the labour process, then

In other words, a labour process is always a unity in determination of material and mental transformation; the nature (material or mental) of the labour process will be given by which type of transformation (material or mental) is determinant in it; and the determinant aspect of the labour process (its nature) will determine the determinant aspect (material or mental) of the labour (concrete) employed in it. But this is not all. Given the necessarily ‘double’ nature of both the labour process and (thus) of the concrete labour needed for it, the nature of the product will also always be both material and mental. However, the product will appear as either material in nature or as conception, i.e. only one aspect (usually but not necessarily the determinant) will be empirically given. Therefore, if we distinguish the two levels of real transformation and of empirical appearance, the result is Figure 5.2.

Figure 5.2 The double nature of the labour process Now, the labour process under capitalism is subjected to the technical division of labour. One aspect of this is the fragmentation of the labour process in a number of positions which (if we disregard for the time being the fact that the CPF is also a production of surplus value and thus that each position has a social content, it is the performance of either the function of capital or of the function of labour) (6) are either (a part of) MaT or (a part of) MeT. The production of cars, for example, is a labour process of the MaT => MeT type but within this labour process there will be agents (positions) performing only MaT (no conception – as defined in chapter 3 – is required) and others only MeT. The former type of agent will perform material labour, the latter mental labour (even though both will expend, let us repeat it, both mental and physical energy). Thus, while it is correct to say that a position’s technical content requires either material labour (if concrete labour is applied to carry out an MaT) or mental labour (if concrete labour is applied to carry out an MeT), at the level of an individual labour process as a whole (where there must be always both MaT and MeT but where either one can be determinant), we can say that that labour process is material or mental (and thus that the concrete labour applied is material or mental) only as a short-cut. It is the level of the empirical appearance of the product which usually allows us to recognize the determinant aspect of the labour process. Moreover, given the determination of the concrete in thought by the real concrete, both on a societal level and on the level of the individual transformation units in which

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