Global Labour in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Dr. Adrián Sotelo Valencia is professor and researcher at the Center for Latin American Studies of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at the UNAM in Mexico City. He is author of numerous works on labor, capitalist crisis, and development, including United States in a World in Crisis (Brill, 2020), Sub-Imperalism Revisited (Brill, 2017) and The Future of Work (Brill, 2015).

• List of Tables, Figures, Graphs and DiagramsForewordIntroductionPart 1Capitalism and the Human Hecatomb1 The Coronavirus Pandemic Demolishes the “End of Work” Fallacy1 Introduction1.1 Debates and the Re-articulation of the World of Work2 Conclusion2 Precarious Labor and the Extension of the Super-Exploitation of Labor1 Introduction1.1 Globalization of the Law of Value and the Super-Exploitation of Labor1.2 The Extension of the Super-Exploitation of Labor Does Not Cancel the Dependency: It Only Redefines It2 ConclusionPart 2Expansion, Crisis, and the Deterioration of Capitalism3 The Crisis of World Capitalism1 Introduction1.1 Coronavirus-Accelerated System Decline1.2 The End of the “Long Expansion” in the United States: The Locomotive Slows Down1.2.1 The Hegemonic Crisis of U.S. Imperialism2 ConclusionPart 3The Sociology of Digitalization: The World of Dehumanized Labor in the Vicissitudes of the Global Hecatomb of Post-Pandemic Capitalism4 The Pandemic Accelerates and Deepens the Crisis of Capitalism and Enriches the Multibillionaires1 Introduction1.1 The World of Work in the Post-pandemic Period1.2 covid-Cide, Precariousness, and Death in Transnational Maquilas in Mexico2 Conclusion5 Remote Work, the Home Office, Digital Platforms, and the Super-Exploitation of Labor1 Introduction1.1 Platform Capitalism1.1.1 Remote Work1.1.2 The Home Office in the Fashion of the House1.1.3 Regulating Remote Work and the Home Office1.2 The Factory of the Future as a Builder of Skills and Talents2 Conclusion6 The Vicissitudes of the Fourth Industrial Revolution1 Introduction1.1 Marx’s Theory of Value and the Fourth Industrial Revolution1.2 Three Industrial Revolutions1.3 The Fourth Industrial Revolution in the Making1.3.1 Revolution 4.0: Variable or Constant Capital?1.3.2 Productive and Unproductive Work in the Fourth Industrial Revolution1.3.3 The Digital Factory and the Law of Value2 ConclusionConclusionBibliographyIndex