Sociology 5055 - MODERN MARXIST THEORY

Important categories of analysis and conceptual differences:

Commodities' twofold nature:
physical form - use values
value form - exchange values

Labor power: the physical and intellectual capacity to work

Laborer: the owner of labor power

Labor: the use value of labor power which emerges in the process of transformation of raw materials and intermediate goods into commodities; i.e., human labor power in motion.

Useful labor = physical form of labor power - produces use values.

Abstract labor = value form of labor power - it produces value BUT IS NOT ITSELF VALUE - IT BECOMES VALUE ONLY IN ITS CONGEALED STATE, WHEN EMBODIED IN THE FORM OF AN OBJECT.

Exchange-value = value form common to all commodities

A. ELEMENTARY OR ACCIDENTAL FORM OF VALUE

The two poles of the expression of value are the Relative form and the Equivalent form. The linen and the coat play different roles. The linen expresses its value in the coat and plays an active part. The coat serves as the material in which that value is expressed and plays a passive part. The value of the linen appears or is represented in relative form. The coat officiates as equivalent or appears in equivalent form.

The relative form and the equivalent form are intimately connected, mutually dependent elements of the expression of value and, at the same time, mutually exclusive, antagonistic extremes. The value of the linen can be expressed only relatively; i.e., in another commodity, not in linen; the relative value of the linen presupposes the presence of some other commodity (e.g., the coat) under the form of an equivalent. On the other hand, the commodity that figures as the equivalent cannot at the same time assume the relative form. The equation can be reversed, with the linen becoming the equivalent instead of the coat but a single commodity cannot simultaneously assume, in the same expression of value, both forms.

In the value equation in which the coat is the equivalent of the linen, the coat officiates as the form of value. The value of the commodity linen is expressed by the bodily form of the commodity coat. As a use value, the linen is something palpably different from the coat - as value, it is the same as the coat, and now has the appearance of a coat. The linen acquires a value form different from its physical form.

By means of the value relation expressed in the equation, the bodily form of the commodity B becomes the value form of commodity A, or the body of commodity B acts as a mirror to the value of commodity A. By putting itself in relation with commodity B as value, as the matter of which human labor is made up, the commodity A converts the value in use, B, into the substance in which to express its (A's) own value. The value of A, thus expressed in the use-value of B, has taken the form of relative value.

B. TOTAL OR EXPANDED FORM OF VALUE