Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.6, 2015

 

The Coupling Effect Produced by the Intervention of Capital in Culture

(Abstract)

 

Hu Xiao

 

As operational rules that originated in spiritual cultural production and the material commodity economy respectively, the logic of cultural production and the logic of capital used to belong to two realms with little interconnection. With the advancement of modern technology and its widespread use in social production, however, modern technology has increasingly become a key factor in capital. Especially since the introduction of capital into cultural production, the two are no longer independent; they are interwoven with one another and have developed a rich and intricate coupling mechanism. At present, the logical coupling of cultural production and capital is demonstrating a new trend. The commodification and marketization of spiritual cultural production has created a new situation; the changing format of the intangible economy has developed a new mechanism for the interaction of cultural production and capital; and the modernization of information technology has enabled the logical embedding of capital in cultural production to produce new paradigms of time and space. At the same time, the special features of cultural production in the humanities (social sciences) mean that they face special challenges and opportunities in their logical encounter with capital. That requires that we correctly understand the two-sided value of capital’s intervention in cultural production, be consciously aware of the relations between the two, and promote the great development and prosperity of socialist culture.