Abstract:
The “rent theory” is one of the core theories that Marx used to decode the mode of production in capitalist society and is a model content of applying historical materialism to political economy. Capitalist rent is a specific form of the monopolistic possession of surplus value by capitalist ownership under the dominance of capital logic. From the ownership of physical land content to that of virtual platform content, the legal basis formed by land rent has undergone digital transformation and reconstruction in terms of ownership form. The transformation of the labor organization form for the realization of surplus value production from “factory centralized labor” to “platform gig labor” has led to the reconstruction of the logic of land rent’s participation in the distribution of surplus value due to the change in labor forms. The capital accumulation model has shifted from “expanded reproduction” based on physical means of production to “digital expanded reproduction” relying on digital means of production. The ultimate realization form of the land rent form has completed the transformation to the “cloud land rent” form in a topological way. From the legal basis to the generation premise and then to the survival guarantee, the intervention of digital technology has led capitalist rent to shift in form to the cloud rent of technological feudalism, completing the latest transformation of Marx’s rent theory in the digital age.