The New International Division of Cultural Labor Revisited

Radical political economy birthed the notion of the New International Division of Cultural Labor (NICL). It starts from the understanding that inequality colors everyday work and domestic life, stressing that although workers generate value, they rarely benefit commensurately, due to the power of capital. Whereas neoclassical or bourgeois economics assumes that supply and demand effectively determine the price of commodities, political economy examines the role of the state and capital in controlling labor and ideologizing consumers and citizens. In other words, orthodox economics concentrates on markets, regarding them as jewels of human behavior; the heterodox approach challenges this focus on consumption, stressing production as a source of value and a site of control. This paper analyse that the NICL has become a model for exploitation across territories, industries, and occupations, so thinking about it critically remains vital. Analytically, we need to focus on the division of labor as a theoretical, empirical, and organizational tool if we are to understand everyday work in a way that can enrich and liberate it in accord with ecological and employee experiences and necessities.