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Article
Publication date: 27 February 2023

Bhabani Shankar Nayak and Nigel Walton

The paper argues that the classical Marxist theory of capitalist accumulation is inadequate to understand new forms of capitalism and their accumulation processes determined by…

Abstract

Purpose

The paper argues that the classical Marxist theory of capitalist accumulation is inadequate to understand new forms of capitalism and their accumulation processes determined by “platforms” and “big data”. Big data platforms are shaping the processes of production, labour, the price of products and market conditions. “Digital platforms” and “big data” have become an integral part of the processes of production, distribution and exchange relations. These twin pillars are central to the capitalist accumulation processes. The article argues that the classical Marxist theory of capitalist accumulation is inadequate to understand new forms of capitalism and their accumulation processes determined by “platforms” and “big data”.

Design/methodology/approach

As a conceptual paper, this paper follows critical methodological lineages and traditions based on non-linear historical narratives around the conceptualisation, construction and transition of the “Marxist theory of capital accumulation” in the age of platform economy. This paper follows a discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2003) to locate the way in which an artificial intelligence (AI)-led platform economy helps identify and conceptualise new forms of capitalist accumulation. It engages with Jørgensen and Phillips' (2002) contextual and empirical discursive traditions to undertake a qualitative comparative analysis by exploring a broad range of complex factors with case studies and examples from leading firms within the platform economy. Finally, it adopts two steps of “Theory Synthesis and Theory Adaptation” as outlined by Jaakkola (2020) to synthesise, adopt and expand the Marxist theory of capital accumulation under platform capitalism.

Findings

This article identifies new trends and forms of data driven capitalist accumulation processes within the platform capitalism. The findings suggest that an AI led platform economy creates new forms of capitalist accumulation. The article helps to develop theoretical understanding and conceptual frameworks to understand and explain these new forms of capital accumulation.

Originality/value

This study builds upon the limited theorisation on the AI and new capitalist accumulation processes. This article identifies new trends and forms of data driven capitalist accumulation processes within platform capitalism. The article helps to understand digital and platform capitalisms in the lens of digital labour and expands the theory of capitalist accumulation and its new forms in the age of datafication. While critiquing the Marxist theory of capitalist accumulation, the article offers alternative approaches for the future.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 37 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 August 2021

Erik Radio and James Kalwara

The aim of this article is to analyze the trajectory of library linked data in light of the ideological machinations of late capitalism. This is accomplished in order to…

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this article is to analyze the trajectory of library linked data in light of the ideological machinations of late capitalism. This is accomplished in order to understand how and why its development currently occupies a place of contradiction and provide avenues for examining how this tension can be resolved.

Design/methodology/approach

Our approach relies on the work of Boltanski and Chiapello's “new spirit of capitalism” to understand the rise of the network and situate linked data within that history by examining various technologies, projects and agents involved in its development. We use this history to outline the growth of contradictory tensions within linked data necessitated by capitalistic growth.

Findings

Library linked data has found itself in a contradictory position because of the nature of late capitalist expansion, but this development has been facilitated largely by hegemonic agents within libraries and related institutions. We suggest that a counter-hegemonic lens be applied to envisioning linked data's future and its infrastructures.

Originality/value

To our knowledge this article represents one of the first attempts to provide a critique of late capitalist designs on linked data with a particular emphasis on hegemonic control over library technology and infrastructures.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 78 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 10 September 2021

Ignas Kalpokas

Abstract

Details

Malleable, Digital, and Posthuman
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80117-621-7

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 16 August 2023

Abstract

Details

Digital Transformations of Illicit Drug Markets: Reconfiguration and Continuity
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-866-8

Abstract

Details

The Smart City in a Digital World
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-138-4

Book part
Publication date: 27 January 2023

Zoe Hurley

Abstract

Details

Social Media Influencing in The City of Likes
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-756-5

Book part
Publication date: 30 September 2021

Ricarda Hammer and Tina M. Park

While technologies are often packaged as solutions to long-standing social ills, scholars of digital economies have raised the alarm that, far from liberatory, technologies often…

Abstract

While technologies are often packaged as solutions to long-standing social ills, scholars of digital economies have raised the alarm that, far from liberatory, technologies often further entrench social inequities and in fact automate structures of oppression. This literature has been revelatory but tends to replicate a methodological nationalism that erases global racial hierarchies. We argue that digital economies rely on colonial pathways and in turn serve to replicate a racialized and neocolonial world order. To make this case, we draw on W.E.B. Du Bois' writings on capitalism's historical development through colonization and the global color line. Drawing specifically on The World and Africa as a global historical framework of racism, we develop heuristics that make visible how colonial logics operated historically and continue to this day, thus embedding digital economies in this longer history of capitalism, colonialism, and racism. Applying a Du Boisian framework to the production and propagation of digital technologies shows how the development of such technology not only relies on preexisting racial colonial production pathways and the denial of racially and colonially rooted exploitation but also replicates these global structures further.

Details

Global Historical Sociology of Race and Racism
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80117-219-6

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 9 May 2022

Dan-Richard Knudsen, Anatoli Bourmistrov and Katarina Kaarbøe

Research suggests that centers of calculation, empowered by accounting inscriptions, are similar to maps: they provide a useful, albeit simplified, version of reality. The…

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Abstract

Purpose

Research suggests that centers of calculation, empowered by accounting inscriptions, are similar to maps: they provide a useful, albeit simplified, version of reality. The purposes of this paper are to examine whether and how digital platforms change the nature of centers of calculation, and to improve the understanding of the relationship between digital platforms and accounting.

Design/methodology/approach

An in-depth, single case-study design is used to empirically investigate how a Nordic hotel chain competed with global online travel agencies (OTAs) in the quest for the “new oil”—customer data.

Findings

The paper demonstrates how the case organization created a local alternative to global digital platforms with the aim of acquiring customer data, thereby moving from a center of calculation (CoC) to what authors label a “center of data appropriation” (CDA). While CoCs are guided by accounting inscriptions that enable “mapping”, CDAs are constructed around accounting inscriptions with other properties that enable digital “mirrors” of the economic domain. The authors find that this has two governing effects. First, multiple centers emerge that compete for access to the periphery. Second, future forms of competition can follow dynamic trajectories, where mutual dependence between CDAs may lead to coopetition.

Originality/value

Scholars have suggested that surveillance capitalism creates market-power imbalances. This study indicates that the transformation of local organizations into CDAs enables them to challenge global digital-platform organizations. Therefore, authors argue that local organizations may retain some market power by establishing local CDAs.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 35 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 19 January 2024

Alexandre Chirat

Do digital technologies of early 21st century capitalism promote or reduce consumer sovereignty? This chapter addresses this question by examining John Kenneth Galbraith’s…

Abstract

Do digital technologies of early 21st century capitalism promote or reduce consumer sovereignty? This chapter addresses this question by examining John Kenneth Galbraith’s critique of consumer sovereignty during the post-war period of industrial society and looks at the insights he provides to understand the impact of platform capitalism on consumer sovereignty today. This chapter has the following sections: (1) I review the main postulates of Galbraith’s theory; (2) I highlight the main differences between traditional advertising and online behavioral advertising; (3) I explain how online behavioral advertisement strengthens Galbraith’s dependence effect and revised sequence theories; (4) I then discuss normative challenges raised by digital platform corporations to individual sovereignty; and (5) finally, I argue that platform capitalism is a mature form of Galbraith’s “new industrial state.”

Details

Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology: Including a Symposium on John Kenneth Galbraith: Economic Structures and Policies for the Twenty-first Century
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-931-4

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 2003

Aneirin Sioˆn Owen

This paper examines the relationship between UK accounting firm mergers and increases in profit margins enjoyed by large UK accounting firms. Cowling’s monopoly capitalism model…

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Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between UK accounting firm mergers and increases in profit margins enjoyed by large UK accounting firms. Cowling’s monopoly capitalism model provides the theoretical framework. The empirical parts of this paper draw on a number of quantitative sources, including the fees and staff numbers disclosed by UK accounting firms, official salary data and salary survey data. Correlation is used to show that the accounting firm data is a reliable source of evidence. The data are then used to construct an indicator of concentration, merger impact on concentration, and an indicator of big firm profit margins. Regression is used to estimate the close positive relationship between concentration and profit margins. The results confirm Cowling’s hypothesis that mergers lead to increases in profits. This paper complements Hanlon’s “commercialisation of accounting” thesis by providing an alternative theoretical framework for examining accounting firms and by bringing quantitative sources of evidence to bear.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 16 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

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