The Theory of Labor after Marx: Labor as a Structure of Mediation
The Theory of Labor after Marx: Labor as a Structure of Mediation

Summary/Abstract: This article problematizes Marx’s theory of labor. It shows that Marx’s understanding of labor is not a coherent and non-contradictory whole, but contains different, sometimes incompatible, moments. My main argument is that Marx analyzes labor as a structure of mediation. This is the case regardless of whether he refers to labor as mediation between human and nature on a more abstract philosophical level, or, on the contrary, stresses its concrete historical character, where the self-movement of capital is mediated by labor. Returning to Marx’s theoretical legacy, I show how, beyond his multidimensional reflections on labor, a specific view of labor as mediator persists. The purpose of the distinction between multiple levels of analysis in Marx’s work is to explicate the limits of his concept of labor. In the spirit of Weber’s “disenchantment of the world”, it may be asserted that Marx reduces labor to its “disenchanted” form. Moreover, the article argues that it is possible to conceptualize other forms of labor by engaging with and against Marx’s work, where those other forms remain marginal in his analyses. This is done by juxtaposing Marx’s notions with the concepts of the theory of structures of mediation and its organon – the non-classical logic of the dialectical – developed by the Institute for Critical Theories of Supermodernity.

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