Valorization and financialization in cognitive biocapitalism

The structural changes that occurred in the last 30 years have substantially modified the capitalistic organization of society, both at national and international level. A new regime of accumulation, devoid of a stable mode of regulation and centred on financial valorisation of new socio-economic growth perspectives, has been consolidating. Conditions imposed by financial markets in order to create the shareholder’s value consisted of promoting downsizing, reengineering, outsourcing and M&A processes. The flexibilization of labor force and precarization of existence has been the result of the established valorization norm. But why should the corporate restructuring sustain the enterprise value by creating income stock? The definition of a new regime of accumulation involves a research on the criteria of valorization and the prevailing technological paradigm. The main changes of new capitalism concern mainly two spheres: the role played by knowledge in the new technological paradigm, valorization process and the importance of finance. The dominant technological paradigm and the role, played by knowledge within it, lead to a redefinition of the nexus between living and dead labor, between abstract and concrete labor, between space, network and cooperative relationships Then, after describing the main features of the accumulation paradigm that many scholars have not hesitated to name as cognitive capitalism, a specific attention is due to the role of finance as biopower.