Abstract

PRESTA, Susana R.. Labour and value in cooperative work processes. Considerations from a free software cooperative case. Estud. trab. [online]. 2022, n.63, pp.118-145. ISSN 0327-5744.

In relation to the capitalism’s socio-technical mutations that have been unblocked, especially since the 2007 crisis, from a refinement of transformations that had begun in the 1960s; the production processes linked to “immaterial work” have been considerably extended. In this framework, the extension of free software cooperatives (and the values ​​and practices they represent) are not only immersed in a highly concentrated capitalism that, at the same time, tends towards decentralization, but also that the criteria of competitiveness, profitability and market efficiency are constantly challenging them. In this sense, “indirect” transfers of unpaid work time are generated, under various mediations. In this article, based on our fieldwork in a free software cooperative (Tandil, Buenos Aires), our aim is to argue around a central hypothesis: under the imperatives of competitiveness, efficiency and profitability, the reduction in cooperative work processes’ costs implies the transfer of free work time, under the mediation of the market, to the public and private sectors. Faced with this situation, the forms of construction of subjectivities around cooperative and self-managed work privilege "emotional" retribution. Therefore, the forms of subjectivities’ construction around cooperative and self-managed work privilege "emotional" retribution, which leads us to argue about indirect forms of creation and appropriation of value.

Keywords : Capitalism socio-technical mutations; Technological cooperatives; Surplus value; Meanings of work.

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