---
title: "Abstract and concrete labour"
chunk: 6/6
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_and_concrete_labour"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T15:40:03.138517+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

the existence of normal labour-averages applying to different work tasks, which function as "labour norms" in any society;
the gradation of many different labour efforts along one general, hierarchical dimension of worth, for the purpose of compensation;
the universal exchangeability of labour efforts themselves, in a developed labour market;
the general mobility of labour from one job or worksite to another; and
the ability of the same workers to do all kinds of different jobs.
Some further aspects of the concept of abstract labour are provided by Marxian anthropologist Lawrence Krader and the mathematician Ulrich Krause. Possibly, these conceptual issues can be resolved, through a better empirical appreciation of the political economy of education, skills and the labour market.

== Recent discussion ==
In his book Crack Capitalism, John Holloway considers abstract labour as the most radical foundational category of Marx's theory, and therefore he recommends the struggle against abstract labour as the centrepiece of the political struggle against capitalism.
The British computer scientist Paul Cockshott in 2013 wrote a piece critical of the German Marxist academic Michael Heinrich who, Cockshott argued, wrongly reinterpreted the concept of abstract labour so that it is no longer a scientifically testable concept.

== See also ==
Abstraction
Critique of political economy
Exchange value
Labour power
Labour theory of value
Law of value
Socially necessary labour time
Value-form
Working time

== References ==