A succinct analysis of the process of super-exploitation in the present-day context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Drawing upon methodological insights from Hungarian Marxist István Mészáros, Brazilian Marxist Ruy Mauro Marini, and others, Adrián Sotelo Valencia demonstrates the pivotal importance of analyzing second order mediations as he builds an innovative, expanded model of structural dependency. The result is a more holistic, dialectical grasp of the contradictory dynamics of contemporary imperialism where Capital globally deploys technology for automation in an unsustainable drive for profit that displaces labor and increasingly threatens the reproduction of the global labor force. Empirical evidence presented throughout this work serves to reinforce its powerful, updated articulation of Marxist Dependency Theory.
Publication date: July 14, 2026
List of Tables, Graphs and Figures
Foreword
Introduction
Part 1: The Mediations of Super-exploitation
1 Second Order Mediations in the Epistemology and Method of Mészáros
Introduction
1.1 Dependency and the Super-Exploitation of Labor
1.2 Dialectical Totality, Implied Order, and Mediations in Social Thought
1.3 Mészáros’ First and Second Order Mediations
1.4 The Exploitation and Super-Exploitation of Labor in Second-Order Mediations
1.5 The Super-Exploitation of Labor: Categorical Attributes
Conclusion
Part 2: Capitalism’s Polycrisis and the World of Work
2 Super-Exploitation, Dismeasure of Value, and Fictitious Capital: The Roots of the Crisis
Introduction
2.1 Globalization and the New International Division of Labor
Conclusion
Part 3: Labor, the Social Sciences, and Dependency
3 Exploring Dependency and the World of Work
Introduction
3.1 The “Approach” of Dependency without Theory
3.2 Dependency within the Framework of World-System Analysis
3.3 The Transformation of Dependency Theory into the Marxist Theory of Dependency
3.4 Theoretical and Methodological Frameworks of the Marxist Theory of Dependency
Conclusion
4 The Trajectory and Debates Surrounding Dependency
Introduction
4.1 The Third Industrial Revolution and Theories of the “End of Work”
4.2 Work and Its Place in Dependency Currents
4.3 The Locus of Labor in Dependency Theory
4.4 Labor in the Marxist Theory of Dependency
4.5 Dissolving the Marxist Theory of Dependency to “Renew” It
Conclusion
Part 4: Mediations, Super-exploitation, and Advanced Capitalism
5 Homogeneity and Heterogeneity: Two Morphologies of the Same Process
Introduction
5.1 Structural Heterogeneity
5.2 Capital Homogenization in the Context of Globalization
5.3 Functional Super-Exploitation in Advanced Capitalist Countries
Conclusion
General Conclusion
Appendix: Theoretical Currents
References
Index
