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Mariano Zukerfeld
CONICET / e-TCS -CCTS- UM
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Guillermina Yansen
Guillermina Yansen has been a CLACSO grant-holder and is currently a doctoral fellow with CONICET. She has a BA degree in Sociology (UBA) and is completing a MA degree at FLACSO Argentina. She is an teaches Sociology of Informatics and Sociological Theory in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the UBA. She is a member of the e-TCS team, as well as various research projects at the University of Buenos Aires. Centro Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad (CCTS), Universidad Maimónides. Valentín Virasoro 732 (C1405BDB), Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.
Keywords:
Social classes, Informational Capitalism, Materialism
Abstract
This article aims to apply some concepts from cognitive materialism to the sociological problem of social stratification in capitalism, both in theoretical and abstract terms and through concrete historical examples. After discussing the necessity for a theory of social classes, a division is presented between two types of resources: those intensive in material and energy, and those which are knowledge intensive. At the same time three alternative conditions of access to these resources are theorized: exclusive access (applicable to physical or intellectual property), non-exclusive access, and no access. Combining the different types of resource with the different types of access, we obtain a proposal for a theory of classes (reclaiming this theory as the most powerful for the analysis of social stratification) which we apply, in a simplified and schematic way, to various periods. Thus, we analyze social strata in the transition from feudalism to mercantile capitalism, the subsequent transition to industrial capitalism (in which we distinguish two clearly differentiated stages), and finally, in the current transformation into informational capitalism.
Author Biographies
Mariano Zukerfeld, CONICET / e-TCS -CCTS- UM
Mariano Zukerfeld is a CONICET researcher, PhD in Social Sciences (FLACSO), MA in Political Science and Sociology (FLACSO) and BA in Sociology (UBA). He is lecturer on Sociology of Informatics (UBA) and teaches MA in Science, Technology and Society (UNQ) and Intellectual Property (FLACSO). He currently coordinates the Team for Studies on Technology, Capitalism and Society (e-TCS) in the Centre for Science, Technology and Society (CCTS). He published three books and several papers in peer reviewed journals.
Guillermina Yansen, Guillermina Yansen has been a CLACSO grant-holder and is currently a doctoral fellow with CONICET. She has a BA degree in Sociology (UBA) and is completing a MA degree at FLACSO Argentina. She is an teaches Sociology of Informatics and Sociological Theory in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the UBA. She is a member of the e-TCS team, as well as various research projects at the University of Buenos Aires. Centro Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad (CCTS), Universidad Maimónides. Valentín Virasoro 732 (C1405BDB), Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.
Guillermina Yansen has been a CLACSO grant-holder and is currently a doctoral fellow with CONICET. She has a BA degree in Sociology (UBA) and is completing a MA degree at FLACSO Argentina. She is an teaches Sociology of Informatics and Sociological Theory in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the UBA. She is a member of the e-TCS team, as well as various research projects at the University of Buenos Aires. Centro Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad (CCTS), Universidad Maimónides. Valentín Virasoro 732 (C1405BDB), Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.
