The ‘Google Model’ of Production - The Entrepreneurial Function, the
Immaterial and the Return to Rent
Presenter: Gerard Hanlon, Queen Mary’s University of London
Respondent: Geoff Lightfoot, University of Leicester
Research Seminar, 3:30 – 5 pm. Wednesday, 25th January 2012
University of Leicester School of Management
501 Ken Edwards Building, University of Leicester
Abstract
This paper argues that one of the most salient features of the move to post-fordism is the capturing
of free labour and of the common (Hardt 2010) and that this tendency has enabled rent to re-emerge
as a major category. The re-emergence of rent stands in stark contrast to fordism wherein it
declined as a form of value. This demise occurred because management sought to directly control
the production process in order to extract profit – indeed the history of management thought is to a
large extent a history of struggle for control of the production process (see for example, Taylor
1919, Mayo 1933, 1949). The reappearance of rent highlights the emerging tendency in postfordism for capital to take on the appearance of the Austrian School of Economics’ ‘entrepreneurial
function’ – most especially, the function as outlined by Kirzner (1973, 1997). For Kirzner, the
entrepreneurial function is one of capture rather than creation - it is a model based on an alertness to
see already existing opportunities and to seize them. However, the development of such a tendency
contains within it an inherent contradiction; this contradiction emerges because more and more
products are immaterial and, in capturing this immaterial value, capital is forced to use property
rights to limit the reproduction of resources that once created are virtually free to re-produce e.g.
this paper. In so doing, capital restricts the ability of users to access resources thereby limiting
production and innovation. Today we argue capitalism is becoming defined by entrepreneurial
capture, rent seeking and property rights as a fetter on production (Vercellone 2007, 2008).
Biography
Gerard Hanlon’s research interests include social theory, the nature of market societies, the
relationship between the state and the market, political economy, the work of the middle class,
professional organisations, and industrial sociology. These interests coalesce around the contested
goals of organisations, how labour is mobilised to achieve these, the reasons why, and the ways
within which, these goals are reconfigured. Such processes take place within a broader societal
environment that, under capitalism, is structured by the shifting relationship between state and
market. Today he argues represents an interesting time because of the fundamental changes wrought
by the shift from Fordism to post-Fordism, by the rise of mass intellectuality and the changing
nature of where value is created. He has previously acted as Director of the School of Business and
Management at Queen Marys University of London and is currently a member of the editorial board
of Organization.