Of value, measurement and social reproduction. Issue 4 (2nd October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Alessandrini, Donatella
• Is Part Of: Griffith law review. Volume 27:Issue 4(2018)
• Page Start: 393
• Page End: 410
• Publication Date: 2018-10-02
• Subjects: Economic value -- measurement -- social reproduction -- household -- financial innovations -- wages for and against housework -- basic income -- employer of last resort; Law -- Australia -- Periodicals; Law reviews -- Australia -- Periodicals; 349.94
• DOI: 10.1080/10383441.2018.1548332
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1038-3441

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article is an extended version of a plenary talk given at the 2016 Critical Legal Conference. 'The present is notoriously difficult to diagnose', the call reminded us, and yet we constantly hear claims about paradigmatic shifts and turning points. One recurrent theme concerns the shift that the post-Fordist economy seems to have entailed in terms of production - both production of goods and services and that of subjectivity. This argument is articulated through various claims, for instance that about immaterial and cognitive labour having become preponderant forms of labour. In this paper I reflect on the importance of thinking about continuities as well as discontinuities in such claims, and do so by engaging with the suggestion that just as immaterial and cognitive forms of labour become dominant, economic value becomes contingent and beyond measurement. The paper makes two points. The first is that the contingency of value is not a new phenomenon, one brought about by post-Fordism, and that measures indeed still play an important role. The second is that the argument ends up paying little attention to the connections that make up the global economy, and in particular the racial, gender and class articulations of both the productive and social reproductive fields within it.