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Expanding the labor theory of value

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Abstract

This paper revisits debates over the labor theory of value in the 1970s and 1980s and proposes an expansion and revision for the neoliberal era. It draws on three empirical cases of social movements grappling with contemporary changes in the societal division of labor and argues that they can best be understood as “revaluation” projects seeking to bring recognition to aspects of the economy that are necessary for its long-term sustainability but are not “counted” as important.

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Notes

  1. The first view was put forward by Benston (1969) but was made most famous by Hartmann (1979); the second was espoused by Harrison (1973); the third was associated with the work of Gardiner (1975); the fourth with Wally Secombe (1974). See Collins and Gimenez, eds. (1990).

  2. Nicholson (1986, chapter 6), Beneria (1999), and Fraser (2011).

  3. Kasmir and Carbonella (2008), Silver (2003), Peet and Watts (2004), and Foster (1994).

  4. “Bringing money back down to earth” is an informal slogan of the Slow Money movement. See Tasch (2008).

  5. Amin (1976), Lewis (2003), Hirschman (1958), and de Janvry (1983).

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  1. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 312 Agricultural Hall, 1450 Linden Dr., Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Jane L. Collins

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Correspondence to Jane L. Collins.

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The University of Wisconsin-Madison Institutional Review Board for Human Subjects Research approved the research on which this article is based on April 2, 2013.

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Collins, J.L. Expanding the labor theory of value. Dialect Anthropol 40, 103–123 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-016-9418-5

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