1

Exploitation capitalist class. The surplus value generated

by workers in the labor process will be real-
ANA CECILIA DINERSTEIN
ized (and then appropriated by the capitalist
class) in the sphere of circulation through the
In the social sciences, the term “exploitation”
exchange of commodities in the market, where
has been used to designate (i) the “use or
commodities are sold.
treat[ment of] somebody/something in an
Marx suggested that labor power – the
unfair and selfish manner for one’s advantage
energy spent by the workers in the activity of
or profit” (Oxford English Dictionary 1995: 406)
work – was the source of value. The wage (or
and (ii) the unfair relationship between devel-
the price of the labor commodity) could not be
oping and developed nations. After the first
calculated regarding the amount of time incor-
industrial revolution (late eighteenth- and early
porated into the commodity produced by the
nineteenth-century Britain), the industrial and
worker. Instead, the wage would be calculated
commercial uses of “exploitation,” for example,
according to the necessary time deemed for the
the exploitation of raw material, begun to be
reproduction of labor under certain conditions
applied to people, that is, the exploitation of
and in a specific period of history. Although
labor, slavery, exploited classes (Williams 1988:
it seems so, prices are not determined by the
130). Exploitation now described the exploi-
concrete labor incorporated into a commodity
tation of the working class by capital in the
but by abstract labor, that is, socially necessary
form of wage labor (Encyclopedia of Marxism).
labor time to produce commodities at a deter-
Since its emergence in agrarian form, the capi-
mined level of knowledge and technological
talist system has undergone different stages
development in a society. The exploitation of
underpinned by a ceaseless transformation in
wage labor occurs on the bases of an unequal
the forms of production and control of labor,
relation between the class of wage earners
seeking increases in productivity and profit. In
(who are compelled to sell their labor power to
Capital (1867/1990), Karl Marx (1818–1883)
survive) and the class of owners of the means
highlighted that, although exploitation had
of production. Private property is a precondi-
always existed, it adopts a peculiar form under
tion of this relationship. The state legitimizes
capitalism, producing the indispensable con-
this unequal relationship (and the power and
stituent of accumulation of capital: value.
resource disparity that it creates) through laws
By establishing a contract among practically
guaranteeing private property. This is a neces-
equal and free citizens in the labor market,
sary premise of capitalist accumulation, not-
the capitalist hires the worker’s labor power in
withstanding wage increases or relatively high
exchange for a wage. Thus, under capitalism,
salaries, constituting the basis of disputes over
labor power is a commodity. At the factory, the
working time and wages between workers and
worker interacts with raw materials, tools, and
the owners of capital.
other workers and, with the help of technology,
In the last three decades, a new interna-
produces goods. The working day can be ana-
tional division of labor has emerged with the
lytically divided into (i) necessary labor time
help of multinational corporations – the new
and (ii) surplus labor time. During the former,
“movers and shapers” of the global economy
workers produce enough value to cover the
(Dicken 2001) – facilitating the division of
costs of their own reproduction. During the
the world according to comparative costs.
latter, workers generate a surplus value, i.e., an
Labor-intensive forms of production are
additional value which is appropriated by the

The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization, First Edition. Edited by George Ritzer.

© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2012 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
2
destined for low-wage areas, i.e., cheap labor
zones, where greater exploitation permits
higher profits, while technologically inten-
sive production is destined for areas offering
suitable infrastructures and environment (De
Angelis 1997). Multinational corporations
lobby governments and international organi-
zations to eliminate barriers and conditions
that might affect their investments. They
impose new rules on the production and cir-
culation of goods and change the methods of
production to “flexible specialization” (Piore
& Sabel 1984) and “lean production” (Moody
1997). Significant to their modus operandi is
the geographical variation of wages (impor-
tant to reduce costs), labor productivity (the
performance capacity of labor), labor con-
trollability (levels of trade union activism),
and relative labor mobility (Dicken 2001).
Companies try to minimize costs and take
advantage of the unprecedented flows of
migrant workers that are a direct result of
economic liberalization (see Shelley 2007).
Sweatshops, with their appalling working
conditions and legal abuses, are commonly
the sites of manufacture of a wide variety of
worldwide recognized goods. “Export pro-
cessing zones,” Klein (2001: 347) suggests, are
“globalization’s dirty little secret – secured
‘labor warehouses’ where the unsightly busi-
ness of production was contained behind
high walls and barbed wire.” She also calls
attention to “the obscene disparity of the
global economy: corporate executives and
celebrities ranking in salaries so high that
they defy comprehension, billions of dol-
lars spent on branding and advertising –
all propped up by a system of shantytowns,
squalid factories and the misery and tram-
pled expectations of young women” (2001:
329) who form the main part of the new
globalized labor force (Lacsaman & Aguilar
2004; see also Robotham & Linkogle 2001).
The uneven relationship between the
developing and the developed nations, or the
third world (see Kiely 1998), and the growth
of global inequalities between the North and
the South (Ritzer 2010: ch. 14), are aspects
of economic globalization which contribute
to severe differences in access to, and influ-
ence over, the institutions of global govern-
ance. Examples of these are the unfair trade
conditions faced by poor farmers in the South
(Raynolds 2007; Jaffee 2007), the trafficking
of humans and the creation of new forms of
slavery (Sage & Kasten 2006), and child labor
in poor countries (Seabrook 2001). As a result,
economic globalization has been described by
its opponents as the “globalization of exploi-
tation” (Subcomandante Marcos 1997) of
labor by capital and of poor countries by rich
countries.
SEE ALSO: Accumulation; Childhood and
migration; Economic globalization; Flexibiliza-
tion; Migrants; Multinational corporations;
Social class; Sweatshops.
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