Research On Digital Labor Process From The Perspective Of Marx’s Labor Process Theory

According to Marx,the capitalist labor process is not only the process of producing material wealth,but also the process of realizing capital power and relations under capital control in production.The capitalist labor process is the process of capital consumption of labor goods,and at the same time,it is the process of hiring workers to object labor in labor products.The process of capitalist labor is the process of the form of production,that is,commodity,and the process of the relations of production under the cover of the form of production.Based on the study of capitalist labor process,Marx found the source of capital multiplication and the secret of employing workers being exploited by capital,and established the criticism of capitalist mode of production on the basis of scientific criticism of political economy.Digital labor under capitalist mode of production,as a new form of labor,combined with its social and historical attributes,the understanding and grasp of digital labor in the process of capitalist labor are examined.However,the study of digital labor has left Marx’s critical perspective of political economy,and some even doubt on Marx’s labor theory of value,surplus value theory and historical materialism.The response to these attacks and criticisms on Marxist theories in the study digital labor constitutes the realistic need of political economy criticism of digital labor process.Digital labor is manifested as digital labor process in its reality.The study of digital labor process first needs to be clarified and defined conceptually.It needs to distinguish the relevant core concepts in digital labor process based on Marx’s research on the capitalist labor process.Compared with the capitalist labor process during mechanization era,digital content in the process of labor factor,human factor has changed,digital starting point,expand,and the results of each link in the process of labor makes dynamic mechanism have also changed,especially digital labor products as building network space form of the element of digital goods,it also has the basic characteristics of commodity,ideology and cultural communication.However,the characteristics of the digital labor process cannot fundamentally change the essence and significance of the capitalist labor process,especially the logic of capital multiplication,capital materialization and capital control that run through the digital labor process have not been fundamentally changed because of the digital form of labor.The essential relationship of digital labor process,that is,the relationship between capital and labor,the relationship between science and technology and coercive power,and the relationship between division of labor and collaboration,have not undergone substantially changes.Based on this,the significance of digital labor process to digital workers,the significance of material production and the significance of political economy critique constitute the significance of digital labor process.This requires a further distinction between the meaning of digital workers and data contributors to digital labor process,digital surplus value and production relations.In reality,the digital labor process presents such as data monopoly,algorithm hegemony and artificial intelligence system’s questioning of labor and labor time.These problems are essentially problems at the level of production relations,that is,capital’s control of digital and digital exploitation,digital labor and its subject.There are different ways to analyze these problems: some people exaggerate the manifestation of capital power at the level of phenomenon as the decisive significance at the level of essence,so they ignore the digital labor and its subjectivity as the opposite of capital;Some people exaggerate the subjectivity of digital workers,but ignore the control of capital over digital labor and the dependence of digital labor on capital,thus falling into utopia.This shows that only by adhering to Marx’s historical materialism and the critique of political economy can we make a scientific explanation and find a fundamental solution to these problems.In the process of the globalization and digital expansion,China also has to faces various problems in the digital labor process.Under the condition of socialist market economy,how to regulate the control of capital,prevent the barbaric growth of capital,and how to highlight the subject status of laborers and adhere to the value orientation of people first have been widely concerned by the Party,the government and all aspects of society.To solve these problems,is necessary to regulate the objective production conditions through system,law and policy,get rid of the collusion between capital and science and technology,and give fall play the superiority of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics in giving consideration to both wealth production and value orientation.