There will be two sessions based on the following questions and themes:

Theme 1: Digital labour, Marx and Dallas Smythe:

In 1977, almost 40 years ago, Dallas Smythe published his seminal article “Communications: Blindspot of Western Marxism”, in which he introduced the notions of audience labour and the audience commodity.

This session asks: What is the relevance of “audience labour” for the political project of Marxism and the analysis of online participants and user generated content in the age of commercial social media such as Facebook, YouTube and Google? Does it matter for Marxism as a political project if the analysis of digital capitalism is based on the concepts of surplus-value or rent?

Theme 2: Exploitation 2.0: Class and Exploitation in the Digital Age:

Capitalism is a dynamic, dialectical system that changes in order to maintain its fundamental structures of exploitation. The rise of the computer, digitisation and the Internet’s role in the economy and society has brought about changes of class structures.

This session asks: How have class and exploitation changed in the age of digital media? How can we analyse unpaid activities on commercial platforms with the help of class and other concepts such as the multitude and exploitation? What is the role of conflicts and struggles between users and the owners of corporate Internets platforms (such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, Weibo, Amazon, Pinterest, Tumblr, Flickr, etc.). Can peer production and non-commercial, alternative online media challenge capitalism? What are the implications of digital Marxism and media Marxism for Marxist theory and socialist politics?