Andrea Fumagalli

Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art (SFSIA) is pleased to present the public lecture “Value in platform capitalism: where is the (surplus) value created and where is it going?” by Andrea Fumagalli. The aim of this lecture is to analyse the features of the digital labour connected with the so-called platform economy. Many platform-based business models rely on a new composition of capital capable of capturing personal information and transforming it into big data. It is relevant to explain the valorisation process at the core of platform capitalism, stressing the relevance of digital labour, to clarify the crucial distinction between labour and work. This task implies to redefine new critical concepts as: subordination, subsumption, labour and capital composition, free work.

Andrea Fumagalli is professor of economics in the Department of Economics and Management at University of Pavia. He teaches also Theory of Firm at University of Bologna. He is member of Effimera Network, founder member of Bin-Italy (Basic Income Network, Italy. His research activity deals with the structural changes of accumulation process, labour precarity, monetary theory of production and basic income.Among his recent publications, see The crisis of the Global Economy. Financial markets, social struggles and new political scenarios, Semiotext(e), Mit Press, 2010 (with S.Mezzadra), “Twenty Theses on Contemporary Capitalism (Cognitive Biocapitalism)”, in Angelaki. The Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, Volume 16, Issue 3, 2011, “Life put to work: towards a theory of life-value”. Ephemera, vol. 10, p. 234-252, 2011 (with C. Morini), “Finance, Austerity and Commonfare”, in Theory, Culture and Society, vol.32, n. 7-8, 2015; La vie mise au travail. Nouvelles formes du capitalisme cognitif, Etherotopie France, Paris, 2015. Economia politica del comune, Derive Approdi, Roma, 2017. Forthcoming (2019): Cognitive Capitalism, Welfare, Labour, Routledge, London (with A. Giuliani, S, Lucarelli, C. Vercellone).

ABOUT SFSIA
Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art (SFSIA) is a nomadic, intensive summer academy with shifting programs in contemporary critical theory. SFSIA stresses an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the relationship between art and politics. The program consists of seminar-style lectures, deep readings, and workshops. An evening lecture program is free and open to the public. SFISA was founded and is directed by Warren Neidich and is co-directed by Barry Schwabsky. Sarrita Hunn is the artistic coordinator.