The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power

Karl Marx, perhaps the most influential critic of capitalism in history, is a regular reference point for Zuboff throughout The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. Some of Zuboff’s strategies for defining surveillance capitalism even mimic Marx’s own strategies for defining and critiquing industrial capitalism, reflecting the continued influence of Marx in the field of economics and exhibiting the extent to which Zuboff is inspired by Marx’s work and philosophy. Nevertheless, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is a post-Marxist book, proven by the very nature of its titular concept. Surveillance capitalism, being an entirely unprecedented force and involving technologies that would have been inconceivable to Marx, could not have been predicted by the philosopher. As such, his critiques of industrial capitalism cannot be applied to surveillance capitalism. While Zuboff uses Marx as a foundational touchstone to provide a framework for her own capitalist critique, she also uses Marxism as a contrast point, developing her own post-Marxist economic perspective to accurately analyze the unique animal of surveillance capitalism and prove how it is different from industrial capitalism. Therefore, in considering that Zuboff both pulls from and contends with this German philosopher, post-Marxism is a consistent theme throughout Zuboff’s book.