Eine Plattform für die Wissenschaft: Bauingenieurwesen, Architektur und Urbanistik
Eine Plattform für die Wissenschaft: Bauingenieurwesen, Architektur und Urbanistik
Offices and capital accumulation in the United Kingdom
The thesis is an attempt to apply the historical dialectical method of social analysis to the phenomenon of offices in capitalist societies, with particular reference to Britain. Office activities are identified as making an essential contribution to the expansion of the productive base. Thus the social relations of office work are developed from the relations of production and the basic contradiction between capital and labour. The notion of a service class is rejected in favour of an intermediate group buffered between the two main classes. A survey of manufacturing firms in Leicester examines the in-house service provisions of manufacturing firms and their requirements of 'producer' services from outside. Offices are conceived to be an integral part of the accumulation process and therefore examined as a particular form of fixed capital with its attendant problems and contradictions. The use value of offices derives from its function as fixed capital in a specific locational context. Offices as buildings and commodities have exchange value as well as use value. It is shown that the concept of rent provides the link between both types of value. Rent in the urban context is analysed in relation to the production process in general, and to property investment in particular. By dividing the category of fixed capital into land and building (including fixtures) on the one hand, and into machines employed in the labour process on the other, it is argued that under certain conditions of valorisation there are tendencies towards lower building densities at the same time as higher levels of organic composition. However, strong opposing forces are identified which, supported by state regulation and investments, are mobilised by fractions of capital with ownership or equity interests in predominantly city centre property. Given the tendency toward a declining profit rate in production, it is shown that the contradictions attached to property become increasingly problematic. Unitisation and securitisation are interpreted ...
Offices and capital accumulation in the United Kingdom
The thesis is an attempt to apply the historical dialectical method of social analysis to the phenomenon of offices in capitalist societies, with particular reference to Britain. Office activities are identified as making an essential contribution to the expansion of the productive base. Thus the social relations of office work are developed from the relations of production and the basic contradiction between capital and labour. The notion of a service class is rejected in favour of an intermediate group buffered between the two main classes. A survey of manufacturing firms in Leicester examines the in-house service provisions of manufacturing firms and their requirements of 'producer' services from outside. Offices are conceived to be an integral part of the accumulation process and therefore examined as a particular form of fixed capital with its attendant problems and contradictions. The use value of offices derives from its function as fixed capital in a specific locational context. Offices as buildings and commodities have exchange value as well as use value. It is shown that the concept of rent provides the link between both types of value. Rent in the urban context is analysed in relation to the production process in general, and to property investment in particular. By dividing the category of fixed capital into land and building (including fixtures) on the one hand, and into machines employed in the labour process on the other, it is argued that under certain conditions of valorisation there are tendencies towards lower building densities at the same time as higher levels of organic composition. However, strong opposing forces are identified which, supported by state regulation and investments, are mobilised by fractions of capital with ownership or equity interests in predominantly city centre property. Given the tendency toward a declining profit rate in production, it is shown that the contradictions attached to property become increasingly problematic. Unitisation and securitisation are interpreted ...
Offices and capital accumulation in the United Kingdom
Luithlen, LH (Autor:in)
01.01.1992
Doctoral thesis, UCL (University College London).
Hochschulschrift
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
DDC:
720
Online Contents | 2000
British Library Online Contents | 2000
| British Library Conference Proceedings | 1998