Systemic Propaganda as Ideology and Productive Exchange

  • Gerald Sussman Portland State University
Keywords: Marxism, Ideology, Propaganda, Prosumer, Labor

Abstract

Abstract: Informed by the works of Marx and his progeny (Lukács, Gramsci, Althusser) as well as more recent marxian scholarship, the purpose of this paper is to explore the role of ideology and propaganda in the production and circulation of commodities and in the informalization of the contemporary workplace, particularly in the context of the promotional economy, politics, and culture of the United States.  The heightened functions of media and communication technologies  mark the pinnacle expression of late capitalism—the  production, reproduction and colonization of the sphere of consciousness as a necessary condition for the maintenance of the corporate state as it faces its most profound contradictions in production and governance. The central question is whether the present dialectic is leading to a more liberated commons or to a society of exploited prosumers in what Italian Autonomistas call the “social factory.”

Author Biography

Gerald Sussman, Portland State University
Gerald Sussman is Professor of Urban Studies & Planning and International Studies at Portland State University.
Published
2012-05-25
Section
Marx is Back-The Importance of Marxist Theory and Research for Critical Comm. Studies Today, ed C. Fuchs & Vincent Mosco