Labor Theory Research Articles

Is beauty always good? Effects of visual presentation of Influencer’s aesthetic labor on brand purchase intention

Aesthetic labor plays a crucial role in social media influencer marketing. Based on the theories of aesthetic labor and social media influencers, this study aims to identify the psychological mechanism and boundary conditions of the effects of visual presentation of influencers’ aesthetic labor on consumers’ brand purchase intention. The results of five studies indicate that the visual presentation of influencers’ aesthetic labor and consumers’ regulatory focus have an interactive effect on brand purchase intention. Specifically, promotion-focused consumers (vs. prevention-focused consumers) are more willing to purchase brands endorsed by influencers with a high-level (vs. low-level) visual presentation of aesthetic labor through para-social relationships. Furthermore, the homophily between influencers and consumers moderates this interaction effect. These findings have significant managerial implications for influencers and other retailing marketers to leverage aesthetic labor to win consumers’ purchase intention towards related brands.

Perfunctory or faithful: The impact of self-professional identity on labor productivity of front-line employees in hotels

Based on the theories of professional identity and emotional labor, this study investigates the mediating role of emotional labor in the relationship between self-professional identity and labor productivity among front-line employees in hotels. Drawing upon a validated scale, a survey was conducted with 238 front-line employees working in high-star hotels to examine the impact mechanism of self-professional identity on labor productivity. The findings reveal that self-professional identity significantly and positively influences labor productivity among hotel front-line employees. Self-professional identity is identified as the antecedent variable of emotional labor, whereby it enhances the deep acting of front-line staff while reducing surface acting and improving natural acting. Emotional labor acts as an intermediary between self-professional identity and labor productivity. However, different dimensions of emotional labor exhibit notable variations in their mediating effects and influence on outcomes. Effective hotel human resource management should prioritize the cultivation of front-line employees' self-professional identity, harness the positive role of emotional labor, and enhance labor productivity. This approach can lead to reduced operating costs, improved service quality, staff stability, and increased hotel revenue.

중국의 2022 개정 초⋅중학교 실과(기술⋅가정) 교육과정 분석

Objectives The study was analyzing the Practical Arts(Technology & Home economics) Curriculum of Elementary and Middle School in the revised national curriculum of China in 2022, hoping to get enlightenment from the Arts(Technology & Home economics) education in China. Methods The content analysis of literature study method for this study was used. Results This paper analyzes the changes of Practical Arts(Technology & Home economics) curriculum in China, the overall composition of the revised Practical Arts(Technology & Home economics) curriculum documents of Elementary and Middle School in 2022 and various parts of the text. Finally, through the comparison of Practical Arts(Technology & Home economics) Curriculum of Elementary and Middle School in 2022 between South Korea and China, the enlightenment is drawn. Conclusions First, The compilation and operation of Practical Arts(Technology & Home economics) Curriculum of Elementary and Middle School in China is centered on the hierarchy, cohesion and coherence of its nature, goal and content system. Second, the goal of Practical Arts(Technology & Home economics) Curriculum of Elementary and Middle School in China is to cultivate knowledge, skills and attitudes about labor(technology), and it also emphasizes starting from the professional and ideological levels. Thirdly, the content system of Practical Arts(Technology & Home economics) Curriculum of Elementary and Middle School in China is “daily life labor”, “productive labor” and “service labor” based on Marx's labor theory of value. Fourth, the teaching and learning methods of Practical Arts (Technology and Home economics) Curriculum of Elementary and Middle School in China are based on experience activities called “Lao Dong Zhou” and labor projects. Fifthly, the evaluation of Practical Arts(Technology & Home economics) Curriculum of Elementary and Middle School in China takes into account the development level of learners, and is carried out in grades (groups) around the core literacy of subject.

Digital Capitalism Behind the “Broadcast Yourself” Tagline: (Study of Digital Discourse on the Popularity in Indonesia’s YouTube Content Industry)

Through its phenomenal jargon "Broadcast Yourself", YouTube seems to be an important instrument for social life because this platform is designed for amateurs who want to publish their content so that it can be recognized by the whole world. But is it true that this jargon has changed the position of the audience from being just consumers on conventional media to becoming prosumers on the YouTube platform? This research attempts to examine popular content on YouTube in 2018-2020 to obtain an overview of the growing YouTube content industry in Indonesia as well as competition between user-generated content and professional-generated content. ). Digital labor theory from Christian Fuchs is used to read digital capitalism practices that occur on the YouTube platform, while the research methodology used is digital discourse by looking at four dimensions including text, context, action and interaction as well as ideology and power. This research concludes that there has been a practice of digital capitalism on the YouTube platform which can be seen from how the audience has experienced multiple layers of exploitation as free labor on the YouTube platform. Audiences do not only work for capitalist corporations that sell personal data to advertisers, they also become the backbone of capital corporations through the video content they produce. Apart from that, the audience also works for other audiences who are content creators.

The ‘look’! Aesthetic labour, aesthetic norms and appearance-based recruitment in the runway modelling industry

Aesthetic labour in the runway modelling industry refers to the practice of recruitment of models-workers on the basis of desired corporeal and facial dispositions. Aesthetic labour theory foregrounds embodiment, which situates the value of physical appearance and aesthetic norms in the workplace context showcasing how the models-workers get recruited and stratified based on their looks. The study employs an explanatory sequential mixed-method design to investigate aesthetic norms including the desired corporeal and facial dispositions that are expected from models-workers in the runway modelling industry. The study included two phases, a quantitative phase and a qualitative phase. The main objective of the first, quantitative research phase, was to investigate the aesthetic norms among 609 international runway models who were recruited to perform in designer exclusive fashion shows during seven consecutive annual fashion week seasons from 2013 to 2020 in New York, Paris, London and/or Milan. The main objective of the second qualitative research phase was to qualify aesthetic norms through a visual content analysis, and in-depth exploration of 40 unretouched professional modelling snapshots (photographs of face and body) for the top new model talents in the 2019–20 fashion season. Model photos were extracted from the popular industry website, Models.com. The rationale for collecting both quantitative and qualitative data was to form a robust and comprehensive assessment of aesthetic norms in the runway modelling industry. The same level of comprehensiveness would not be obtained by using either type of data individually. This article advances academic research on aesthetic labour in the fashion and modelling industry by showcasing why appearance-based recruitment in this sector represents the practice of occupational segregation that creates social inequalities and negatively impacts the labour market.

Moderating for a friend of mine: Content moderation as affective reproduction in Chinese live-streaming

Bridging the theory of affective labor and reproductive labor, this paper proposes “affective reproduction” as a critical framework to analyze the unpaid work of volunteer content moderation. Findings from this study problematize the one-sided focus on streamers in the extant literature on platform labor vis-à-vis live-streaming. It contends that fan moderators help streamers reproduce the live-streaming atmosphere as friendly, pleasant, and relevant, facilitating Internet celebrities’ money-making. This study contributes to studies of digital labor in two ways: 1) it expands the labor and work perspective to the study of content moderation and discloses the indirect value-generating nature of this work; 2) the designation of moderator in Chinese live-streaming platforms reveals a new form of work organization that exploits digital intimacy, transforming platform users into non-professional, secondary cultural workers. The proposed framework is applicable to various forms of participatory media, in which users are encouraged to manage and regulate their peers.

1Affect Theory

Abstract This chapter reviews a range of scholarship working at the intersection of theories of digitality, affect, and labour published in 2022 under the following headings: 1. Introduction; 2. Work (Daniel Nehring and Kristina Brunila, Affective Capitalism in Academia: Revealing Public Secrets; Anna Deumert, ‘Wash Your Hands! Domestic Labor and the Affective Economy of Racial Capitalism’; Carlo Perrotta, Neil Selwyn, and Carrie Ewin, ‘Artificial Intelligence and the Affective Labour of Understanding: The Intimate Moderation of a Language Model’); 3. Play (Aleena Chia, ‘The Artist and the Automaton in Digital Game Production’; Stephanie Jennings, ‘Only You Can Save the World (of Videogames): Authoritarian Agencies in the Heroism of Videogame Design, Play, and Culture’; Paolo Ruffino, ‘There Is No Cure: Paratexts as Remediations of Agency in Red Dead Redemption 2’); 4. Queer Affects (Jacob Gaboury, ‘Queer Affects at the Origins of Computation’; Bo Ruberg, ‘After Agency: The Queer Posthumanism of Video Games That Cannot Be Played’; Charnell Peters, ‘Asexuality, Affect Aliens, and Digital Affect Cultures: Relationality with the Happy Objects of Sexual and Romantic Relationships’); 5. Conclusion.

Whose Labor? Labor, Appropriation, and the Very Idea of Full Automation

Is a “fully automated” capitalism possible? According to Marx's labor theory of value (LTV) and the theory of surplus-value derived from it, a fully automated economy cannot be profitable. To refute the theory, critics have put forth various thought experiments claiming to show that a fully automated but profitable capitalist economy is conceivable. I argue that the thought experiments fail to demonstrate conceivability, because they misunderstand the role of labor in a commodity economy. In the latter, labor is a means for acquiring the property of others, and so it cannot be eliminated so long as the economy is based on the commodity form. Quite apart from issues of technical feasibility, then, the idea of a fully automated commodity economy is conceptually incoherent. The ineliminability of labor under the commodity form reflects the limits to the socialization of production this form imposes.

A Fine Balance? Value-relations, Post-capitalism and Forest Conservation—A Case from India

The serious need for anti-capitalist theory and action in a crisis-ridden world is widely acknowledged. Recent scholarship in conservation abides by this understanding, and finer deliberation on the links between radical theory and ongoing practices have grown but are still marginal. In this article, we study a case of community forest governance in Korchi, Maharashtra in India, where 87 village institutions and their federation have been striving to govern and manage surrounding forests in ecologically-sustainable and democratically-collective ways. Using Marx’s labour theory of value and metabolic rift concept, in combination with Ariel Salleh’s notion of metabolic value, we explore how Korchi’s attempt at eco-sufficiency is premised upon a fine balance between different values its villagers associate with their forests. This requires us to see Korchi’s villagers as meta-industrial labourers, a term Salleh uses for workers whose labouring practices—marked by care and reciprocity—typically lie on the margins of capitalism. Using the (analytical) lens of value relations, we show how such practices towards forests help sustain a healthy metabolic relation between humans and nature, not dominated by exchange value concerns. We thus offer conceptual nuance on how post-capitalist theory can better support the real-world practice of alternatives to mainstream conservation.

Employment Intensity of Economic Growth in Southern Europe: Evidence from Multidimensional Panel Data

This paper examines the employment intensity of economic growth in Southern Europe during the so-called “post-crisis” recovery years. A labor demand estimation model based on multidimensional panel data from 2010 to 2019 was utilized. Findings from our macroeconomic analysis of eight different industries refute the predictions of neoclassical labor theory in the region. The results further indicate the presence of jobless growth in the areas of overall employment, fulltime employment, and overall employees. They also signal that economic growth may have created job opportunities in part-time and youth employment, and among temporary employees, rather than full-time jobs. The paper links these findings to particular characteristics of the regional labor market, discusses their implications for understanding unemployment and formulates recommendations for future policy.

How algorithms are reshaping the exploitation of labour-power: insights into the process of labour invisibilization in the platform economy

Marx conceives of capitalism as a production mode based on the exploitation of labour-power, whose productive consumption in the labour process is considered as the main source of value creation. Capitalists seek to obscure and secure workers’ contribution to the production process, whereas workers strive to have their contribution fully recognized. The struggle between capitalists and workers over labour-time is thus central to capital’s valorization process. Hence, capital–labour antagonism is structured over the capture and exploitation of unpaid labour-time. Building on Marx’s labour value theory, as well as on some of its contemporary interpretations, I call this struggle over labour-time capture a process of ‘invisibilization’ of labour. I claim that this invisibilization process is still a relevant form of surplus-value extraction in contemporary capitalism, especially in the platform economy, characterized by remote but pervasive control by algorithms. The rediscovery of this form of surplus-value extraction and its manifestation in platform labour is the main contribution of this study. To corroborate this contribution, I compare the case of platform labour with that of textile-clothing, where value production is more clearly based on the classical forms of surplus-value extraction (i.e., absolute and relative). This comparison helps to cast a new light on the nexus between work-process transformations and surplus-value creation, which is the core of the Marxian labour theory of value, and which – I argue – is crucial to understanding contemporary capitalist developments.

Value equilibrium analysis based on the New Theory of Value. I

The (traditional) labor theory of value, founded by Smith with the basic axiom that labor determines value, and supplemented and improved by Marx with the axiom that labor creates surplus-value. Neoclassical economics newly studied the utility theory of value, but it abandoned the traditional labor theory of value and theory of surplus-value. Under the basic axiomatic system analogous to theoretical mechanics, the above three theories of value has been included and developed by the new theory of value, which established the value complex variable function including three basic quantities of quantity, quality and time, as well as labor value, use-value and surplus-value. Starting from the value complex variable function, with the mathematical methods of Euler equation and Euler formula, this paper conduct a thorough and comprehensive analysis on the theory of value, under satisfactions of Marx’s first and second laws, focusing on value equilibrium by giving the mathematical explicit expressions of both value equilibrium function and price equilibrium function in various forms applicable to the general commodity economic movement process, so as to prove the existence and stability of the extremum solutions to the corresponding functions.

The Impact of Socialized Agricultural Machinery Services on the Labor Transfer of Maize Growers

Socialized agricultural machinery services, effectively cracking the “who to plant, how to plant” dilemma, are an important grasp of the development of modern agriculture. Based on the specialization division of labor theory, using the 2019 national survey data of maize growers in 13 provinces, the instrumental variable method and systematic generalized moment estimation (GMM) were used to overcome the endogeneity problem of mutual causality between socialized agricultural machinery services and labor transfer, analyze the impact of socialized agricultural machinery services on the labor transfer of maize growers and its link to heterogeneity, and explore the impact effect in different terrain conditions, part-time. We also explored the cohort differences in the effect in different terrain conditions and degree of part-time work. The endogenous switching regression model (ESR) was also applied to construct a counterfactual framework to further analyze the impact effect of socialized agricultural machinery services on labor transfer. The results showed that socialized agricultural machinery services could effectively promote labor transfer among maize farmers. Compared with maize farmers in other terrain conditions and part-time degree, the impact effect of agricultural machinery socialization services on labor transfer of flatland and pure farming households was more significant. Socialized agricultural machinery services play an important role in driving traditional farming households to labor transfer and realizing their organic connection with modern agriculture.

The Working Sovereign: A conversation with Axel Honneth

In the summer of 2021, Axel Honneth was invited by the Centre for Social Critique Berlin to give the Walter Benjamin Lectures. The lectures have now been published in German under the title Der arbeitende Souverän ( The Working Sovereign). In a conversation with the directors of the Centre for Social Critique, Rahel Jaeggi and Robin Celikates, Axel Honneth explains why he believes a political theory of labor is necessary, how the world of work has changed, and what opportunities and risks this entails for democratization processes.

A multidimensional interpretation of Marxist globalization theory based on decentralized internet

Abstract To achieve a multidimensional interpretation of Marxist globalization theory, this paper provides a fecundation network facility based on a decentralized internet, thus overcoming various drawbacks of the network where traditional spatial services are located. In the Marxist theory of globalization, the rise from concrete rigor to abstract rigor is an important dialectical transformation of materialist epistemology. It is implied that Marx, based on the principle of mathematical expression of intuition and detail, refined, and deepened the paradigm itself through mathematical tools and mathematical methods, and used mathematical ideas to condense the theory of political economy, making the property of precision reflected in the logic of the paradigm. The 3PL model is established and the basic principles are accurately understood and grasped from mathematical logic according to the labor theory of value, surplus value theory and reproduction theory in Marxism, which provides an important generative logic for constructing a mathematical paradigm of Marxist political economy. The results of the study show that the output efficiency and benefits of fully cooperative networks (L = 0.92, Q = 281.5), after a long period of competition makes the output of the network less efficient, which in turn makes the network as a whole obtain lower returns (L = 0.73, Q = 96.18). In a competitive coexistence network structure, although there are competitive relationships at the core firm level, the network is not greatly affected by this (L = 0.83, Q = 202.92) instead, it will break the monopoly alliance and enliven the local economy. By constructing a rigorous and sophisticated mathematical and theoretical model, the theory of political economy can be made more abstract and scientific, and the analytical and explanatory power of the theory of political economy can be improved.

Wage Differentials in the Post Liberalized Labor Market in Paksitan

ABSTRACT: In this paper, we investigate the wage differentials that exist in the post-liberalized labor market in Pakistan. The increasing wage differential contradicts standard labor theories and models. The literature also confirms the existence of wage differentials across different labor markets both in industrialized and non-industrialized countries. The firms compensate the workers both on their observable and unobservable characteristics. The mincer equation used in its semi-logarithmic decomposed form to derive wage differentials. The weighted adjusted standard deviation technique is used for further decomposition of the level and regional variations in sectoral wage gaps, as suggested by Horrace and Oaxaca. The sectoral heterogeneity, skill characteristics and regional dispersions derived by using the micro labor force data sets spread over thirty years. The results confirm the existence of inter-industry wage differentials. However, the size varies across the regions, levels of education, and types of occupations. A substantial difference in the wage gap observed in firms both in the formal and informal sectors. The financial services firms pay higher than the average national wage followed by firms in utility services, the services sector, and the mining sector. The firms in the agricultural sector pay lower than the average national wage. The dispersion in wages has risen to the magnitude of almost 25 percent over the last three decades. Firms pay higher wages to high-skill workers, while industries requiring jobs with low skills pay lower wages. The wage differentials in various regions are attributable to the persistent and relative backwardness of provinces. The high-skilled occupations in general are likely to have more benefits than those involving low-skilled workers. Individual and household characteristics account for almost 50 percent of variation regardless of the sectoral affiliation. The increase in the minimum wage, with targeted social policies in educational attainment, increased participation of women, and provision of social services in the informal sector may reduce the gap in wage difference.

How (and How Not) to Study Porn

Abstract Over the past several decades, porn studies has cohered as an interdisciplinary field built by scholars of feminism, race, media studies, history, literature, sociology, gender studies, and queer theory. The most compelling recent work in the field, like Heather Berg’s Porn Work (2021) and Steven Ruszczycky’s Vulgar Genres (2021), approaches pornography as a broad textual and cultural field rich with information about how we imagine, consume, and construct sex. They show that the category of pornography expands and deepens as texts are written, excerpted, and republished; as sex workers invent new outlets and conditions for their labor; and as new technologies increase access for user interaction. Such work shows us not simply how pornography indexes pleasure, but how it creates politics, community, and labor theory. Some scholarship, meanwhile, remains wearily sedimented in polarizing arguments for or against pornography’s value, like Bernadette Barton’s The Pornification of America (2021). Locked into an assumption that pornography is harmful and irredeemable, such work avoids engaging with pornographic texts themselves and ignores recent work in the very field to which it claims to make urgent contributions.[T]he best work [in porn studies] defines pornography not as identifiable texts, videos, or films, but as a field that connects sex to the myriad social relations that shape it: gender, labor, pop culture, and consumption.

Addressing labour exploitation in the data science pipeline: views of precarious US-based crowdworkers on adversarial and co-operative interventions

PurposeUnderlying much recent development in data science and artificial intelligence (AI) is a dependence on the labour of precarious crowdworkers via platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk. These platforms have been widely critiqued for their exploitative labour relations, and over recent years, there have been various efforts by academic researchers to develop interventions aimed at improving labour conditions. The aim of this paper is to explore US-based crowdworkers’ views on two proposed interventions: a browser plugin that detects automated quality control “Gold Question” (GQ) checks and a proposal for a crowdworker co-operative.Design/methodology/approachThe authors interviewed 20 US-based crowdworkers and undertook a thematic analysis of collected data.FindingsThe findings indicate that US-based crowdworkers tend to have negative and mixed feelings about the GQ detector, but were more enthusiastic about the crowdworker co-operative.Originality/valueDrawing on theories of precarious labour, this study suggests an explanation for the findings based on US-based workers’ objective and subjective experiences of precarity. The authors argue that for US-based crowdworkers “constructive” interventions such as a crowdworker co-operative have more potential to improve labour conditions.

Revaluing work after COVID‐19

AbstractThe COVID‐19 pandemic and its aftermath instigated a series of debates about economic value. From early discussions about “who counts as an essential worker” to post‐pandemic arguments about what constitutes the “infrastructure” needed to rebuild the economy, the pandemic led to reexaminations of the kinds of investments and activities necessary for the continuity of our social system. This article examines these debates through the lens of the labor theory of value as expanded by feminists and ecologists. Drawing on my 2017 book, The Politics of Value, I discuss how the political‐economic upheaval that the pandemic unleashed laid bare the essential nature of care and social reproductive work, low‐wage labor, public sector provisioning, and ecosystem services. The stark dilemmas of holding body and soul together during the crisis created an opportunity to rethink the artificial lines between the market and the rest of life, highlighting the essential nature of activities formerly unrecognized or considered nonproductive. The article discusses how we might take advantage of this opening to create new vocabularies and measurement practices that take into “account” and fairly reward formerly invisible and unvalued forms of labor.

Business Organizations as Natural Objects of Ownership

Given the importance of “property rights” in American law and cul- ture, academic and judicial disagreement over the content of the con- cept is a problem. Professor Eric Claeys makes considerable progress toward resolving this problem in his forthcoming book, Natural Prop- erty Rights. Using John Locke’s labor theory of property, the treatise identifies intelligible limits to the kinds of objects that qualify as prop- erty and provides guidance on how legal rights should operate for a given category of objects. It also identifies several examples of American law that already follow a Lockean framework. The chapters Designing Property Rights and Dividing Property Rights pull examples from cases discussing rights in animals, land, and water. This Article is the first to use Claeys’s natural property rights approach to explain the law of busi- ness organizations.