The economics of creativity and the prospects of post-capitalism

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Abstract

Some left-wing theorists see the current spreading of the “immaterial”, creative economy as a prototype of a future “kingdom of freedom”, in which robots work and people engage primarily in free creative activity. According to this point of view, the creative economy can become an economy of abundance, since the “immaterial” goods created are potentially free for everyone, and their consumption only leads to an increase in total wealth. However, one should not idealize the creative economy. The expansion of its scale and significance can entail a further deepening of socio-economic inequality (from the dominance of 1% to the dominance of 0.1% of the population), as well as lead to the emergence of new forms of alienation and deepening individualism. This situation poses many problems for left-wing political theory. New social contradictions cannot be resolved by criticizing neoliberal commodification. Instead of taking responsibility for putting forward “true” values and a corresponding way of life, one can advocate for the expansion of existing opportunities for an active and productive life.

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Dmitriy A. Davydov

Institute of Philosophy and Law, Ural Branch of RAS

Author for correspondence.
Email: davydovdmitriy90@gmail.com
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7978-9240

Candidate of Sciences (Political Science), Senior Research Fellow, Department of Philosophy

Russian Federation, 620990, 16, Sofia Kovalevskaya st., Ekaterinburg

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