Workforce, subject of law and education: introductory notes

Abstract

This article consists of an introductory exposition to the Marxist critique of law that, as we aim to demonstrate, provides relevant conceptual contributions to critical reflection on the specifically capitalistic social relations of education. It is an analysis of the fundamental concepts that circumscribe the social function of massive education in capitalism, under hegemony of the school form: workforce and subject of law. The mercantile social nexus, under the aegis of the blind and automatic movement of capital accumulation foresees not only the generalization of the worker "free" from the means of production, but also the universalization of the law-form, which conceals the economic subordination under the mask of equality between private owners. In the first section we briefly resumed a critical interpretation of the work presented by Karl Marx in Capital, in order to move on to the Marxist critique of law and in the second part, based on Evgène Pachukanis, Walter Benjamin and Bernard Edelman´s studies. Based on this presentation, we extract, by way of conclusion and in a preliminary way, some theoretical consequences for the apprehension of the specifically capitalist way of education.

Keywords: Education. Work. Merchandise.