Labor at Network Nodes: Network Society and Digital Capitalism

This article examines the problems of labor in the digital age from the point of view of social philosophy. Conceptualization of the modern digital society related to labor issues is carried out by referring to the network approach. The advantage of this change in theoretical optics is the ability to shift the fo­cus of attention from infinitely diverse digital practices to the systematic orga­nization of social reality. The author begins with an approach that the modern world is a product of the union of labor and capital, and it is necessary to accu­rately reflect and analyze these two elements and the principles of their inter­action. The situation with the analysis of capital, which receives “cloud” prefix, is much better than with labor analysis. The latter, which became im­material, literally melts into air, absorbing free time and leaving nothing for the theory that could allow to see the potential for a significant transformation of the world. The article shows that the aggregate of networked labor at the sys­tem level is not homogeneous, but is a place of labor application that helps to accumulate capital. There are special nodes that require efforts to maintain functioning (from society to finance). It is important to analyze network nodes as the basis for the functioning and application of the digital economy, as well as the accumulation of invisible unpaid labor of social individuals, who are re­duced to the atoms of the network. The author believes that the expansion of the field of labor research within the framework of the network approach and critical analysis of atypical new forms of labor is important for contempo­rary social philosophy.