Cutting Edge: Technology, Information Capitalism and Social Revolution [Paperback]

Jim Davis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1998

A robot can build a car. But a robot cannot buy a car ...The explosion in the development of computer- and robotic-based manufacturing is seeing the rapid expansion of laborless production systems. Such systems create enormous instability, both for the overall economy where money previously paid in wages is now invested in labor-saving technology and therefore cannot be spent on goods, and for workers whose jobs are being deskilled or are simply disappearing. Bringing together contributions from workers employed in the new electronics and information industries with work from theorists in economics, politics and science, Cutting Edge provides an up-to-the-minute analysis of the complex relations between technology and work. Individual essays look at topics including the cyclical nature of a technologically driven economy, the privatization of knowledge that new information industries demand, and the strategies that trade unionists and governments might deploy to protect jobs and living standards. Technology has the potential ro end material scarcity and lay the foundations for higher forms of human fulfilment. But under existing power structures, it is more likely to exacerbate the poverty and misery under which most people live. Cutting Edge weighs that balance and, in helping us to understand how technology interacts with the production of goods and services, tips it in the direction of a more equal and creative world.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Contributors: Abdul Alkalimat, George Caffentzis, Guglielmo Carchedi, Jim Davis, Thomas A. Hirschl, Martin Kenney, Jonathan King, Sally Lerner, Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Gerardo Otero, Nelson Peery, Ramin Ramtin, Dan Schiller, Steffanie Scott, Michael Stack and Nick Witheford.

Product Details

• Paperback: 316 pages
• Publisher: Verso; First Edition edition (January 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859841856
• ISBN-13: 978-1859841853
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,149,460 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Considerably advanced my revolutionary understanding!, April 12, 1998

By 

Dick Schoessow ([e-mail]) (Moorpark CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cutting Edge: Technology, Information Capitalism and Social Revolution (Paperback)

Cutting Edge has considerably advanced my revolutionarly understanding. I intend to read parts of it again & again. My 10 rating should be applied only to parts of this collection of essays. The balance of the book I would rate a 5. I was particularly impressed with chapter 8, The Digital Advantage by Jim Davis & Michael Stack. Warning! Don't read this chapter before bed time. My brain was so stimulated, I had a hard time getting to sleep after I read it. This chapter alone is worth the price of the book. Great stuff! On a scale of 1 to 10, it's a 20! The other chapters that got the a lot of yellow from my hilighter: Introduction, Robots & Capitalism, High-Tech Hype, The Digital Advantage, The Biotechnology Revolution, Structural Unemployment & the Qualitative Transformation of Capitalism, The New Technological Imperative in Africa, and The Birth of a Modern Proletariat by one of my heroes, Nelson Peery. I strongly recommend this book to any thinking person!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Information excellent, Index would be appreciated, February 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Cutting Edge: Technology, Information Capitalism and Social Revolution (Paperback)

The book and modern application and interpretation of classical Marxist economics is excellent. It would have been helpful to have an Index as this text is excellent as a reference and the editors could have taken time to properly index pertinent topics (e.g. When value is created by labor p.75)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New productive forces, new class, new society, October 28, 2004

By 

Frank Ferrum (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cutting Edge: Technology, Information Capitalism and Social Revolution (Paperback)

A great collection of essays for those looking to understand and begin their studies of the new technological/electronics revolution occuring in the productive forces of society and its resultant new class formations and alignments. A praise to Herr Marx!! The productive forces do take the lead and along with the deeper proletarianization and destitution of the masses(to the point of their labor becoming redundant) and the high level of technology and robotics in production, there is but only one way to go.