Abstract

RODRIGUEZ FREIRE, Raúl. The Value of Theory. The Intellectual as a Producer. Acta poét [online]. 2018, vol.39, n.1, pp.17-43. ISSN 2448-735X.  https://doi.org/10.19130/iifl.ap.2018.1.813.

From the transformation of each subject into a self-employed entrepreneur, this article reflects on the possibilities and limits of contemporary intellectual work. Following Walter Benjamin in his essay, “The author as a producer”, the condition of the university intellectual worker is analyzed, subject to constant measurement. This is because the circulation of what is called “critical theory” also develops as a market with its own producers and consumers under the logic of the theory of value wielded by Marx, which provides the accumulation of capital as He criticizes it. However, it is not a question of condemning this situation, but of making explicit the ambivalence of the place of the critical intellectual under the neoliberal university condition. The university, therefore, would be one of the main areas of resistance, where the concept of the communality and alternative means of spreading knowledge could be used as weapons to wage the battle against the commodification of critical thinking.

Keywords : communality; university; intellectual work; Walter Benjamin; modes of production.