Class Composition in Cognitive Capitalism (The "Knowledge Economy")
20/08/2001
An International Seminar
Paris, 16-17 February 2002
Dear Friends,
I am writing to inform you that I am organising a seminar based on the above topic, to be held in Paris on the weekend of 16-17 February 2002.
The basic issue is simple. We are in a new phase of capitalist development. The preceding class composition which generated the mass struggles of the period up to the 1980s has been destroyed (miners, dockers, building workers, auto workers, railways workers, road transport workers etc).
We are now in a new class composition, built in the new technologies. Broadly speaking, the "knowledge economy", or "cognitive capitalism".
To organise the coming phase of class struggle means that we have to understand the contours of this new class composition.
That is the purpose of our Seminar: to prepare papers and to compare notes on the new class composition.
One of the starting points for the Seminar will be the materials on "Intellectual Property, Free Software and Internet Subjectivities" prepared for the May 2001 issue of the Paris-based journal "Multitudes". Details of that issue can be found at the Website at http://www.samizdat.net/multitudes.
This will be an international gathering. This invitation is being sent to comrades all round the world. We invite you to attend the Seminar. And if you feel that you have something to say, we invite you to present a paper.
Papers may be presented in English, French or Italian. Papers will eventually be published, either on the Website or in book format.
There is no charge for attending the Seminar. We have not applied for funding, so no travel expenses can be paid to contributors. As regards accommodation, we shall do what we can to find cheap or free accommodation, but no promises...
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PRESENT A PAPER at the Seminar, please write to ed.emery@cwcom.net, presenting an outline of your proposed theme.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ATTEND the Seminar, please send your name and contact details to the same address.
Further details of the Seminar will be posted on the Website.
