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Re-inventing invention: new tendencies in capitalist commodification

2006/04/25 by Nigel Thrift · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Cultural Industries and Urban Development #Digital Economy and Work Transformation #Political Economy and Marxism

paper · doi:10.1080/03085140600635755

openalex publication_date 2006/04/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

This paper argues that a shift is taking place in the fabric of capitalism as a result of a change in how the business of invention is understood. Using theoretical approaches that rely on the notion that capitalism increasingly tries to draw in the whole intellect, in the first part of the paper I argue that the new understanding of innovation currently shows up as three associated developments: as the mobilization of forethought, as the deepening of the lure of the commodity through the co-creation of commodities with consumers, and as the construction of different kinds of apparently more innovative space suffused with information technology. The second part of the paper then argues that these disclosures are leading to new forms of value, based on generating moments of rightness. There is a brief conclusion.

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