Labor culture, associative production and production of knowledge

Abstract

Which knowledge can contribute to the constitution of a new labor culture and the potentiation of social-economic relations that somehow contradict the logic of capital? In order to bring up some polemical issues related to the production and legitimization of knowledge, I retrieve some discoveries made in the course of my activity as a researcher. It should be stressed that in the history of capitalism workers haven been excluded from the right to basic education, which makes it extremely difficult for them to become masters of their labor. Then, distinguishing the perspectives of labor and capital, I emphasize that in the regime of flexible accumulation the new technologies of production and management of the labor force presuppose the valuing, legitimization and certification of work-related knowledge. Thirdly, taking into account the need to mobilize and articulate forms of knowledge in order to render associative labor technically and politically feasible, I resume some contributions made by Gramsci that help us to reflect on the labor culture that is developing within the popular economic organizations. With a view to the strengthening of the popular solidarity economy, I conclude with some theoretical-practical references of a “pedagogy of associative labor” that takes into consideration the processes of the production and socialization of knowledge in associative labor.

Key words: labor and education, popular solidarity economy, labor culture, production of work-related knowledge, pedagogy of associative production.