Capitalism, Post-Capitalism and the Creative Revolution (critical reflections on the article by D.A. Davydov)

Capitalism, Post-Capitalism and the Creative Revolution (critical reflections on the article by D.A. Davydov)


Buzgalin A.V.

Dr. Sci. (Econ.), Director of the Center for Modern Marxist Studies; Prof. of the Department of Political Economy, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia. buzgalin@mail.ru

Kolganov A.I.

Dr. Sci. (Econ.), Prof., Head of the Laboratory on Comparative Studies of Socio-Economic Systems at the Faculty of Economics; Chief Researcher of the Institute of Economy RAS, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia. onaglo@mail.ru

ID of the Article:


This article was prepared with the support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the CASS, project number 21-511-93006, and within the framework of the activities of the MSU Scientific-Educational School “Preservation of World Cultural-Historical Heritage”.


For citation:

Buzgalin A.V., Kolganov A.I. Capitalism, Post-Capitalism and the Creative Revolution (critical reflections on the article by D.A. Davydov). Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2022. No 9. P. 100-109




Abstract

The article analyzes the contradictions of the genesis of post-capitalist social relations and the resulting values and motives of activity. It is shown that such relations and values arise objectively but develop mainly in forms subordinated to the total market of simulacra and global corporate capital, which determine the dominance of the perverse forms of germs of post-capitalism. The article provides a constructive criticism of the D.A. Davydov theses. In particular, it is shown that prestige and self-realization, assessed by the number of subscribers or likes, etc., are perverse forms that are formed through social networks and Internet resources in the conditions of their subordination to the manipulative influence of corporate capital. The conclusion is substantiated that the real foundations of the genesis of post-capitalist relations are the progress of labor that is creative in its content and the relations arising on this basis, including: 1) the relations of creating unlimited public goods that have the form of ownership of everything by everyone; 2) relations of development of the individual in labor, acquiring the status of a need; 3) the relationship of co-creation. Additionally, the conclusion is argued that these relations, contradictory, but steadily developing over the past decades, form a basis of real post-capitalist trends, while the ones studied by D.A. Davydov perverse forms that are indeed generated by late capitalism lead to the strengthening of market-capitalist principles, and not to the genesis of a qualitatively new society and person.


Keywords
creativity; capitalism; post-capitalism; personality; alienation; intellectual private property; the ownership by everybody of everything
Content No 9, 2022