An enactive account of labor

Andrea Gambarotto () and Thomas van Es ()
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Andrea Gambarotto: Université du Luxembourg Department of Humanities
Thomas van Es: University of the Basque Country

Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 24, issue 1, No 10, 147-164

Abstract: Abstract This paper aims to build a theoretical bridge between the Marxist and enactive traditions by focusing on the concept of labor. While labor represents a central component of human experience, it remains largely overlooked in cognitive science. We contend that the enactive approach provides a strong theoretical framework to account for labor as a key instance of ecologically and socially distributed cognition, where cognitive processes are shaped by material environments and embedded in evolving social practices. When not alienated by modes of production that appropriate its product, labor fosters skilled sensorimotor identities and sustains intersubjective norms within communities of practice. Connecting the Marxist and enactive traditions, we articulate labor as the driver of social metabolism—the mediator between society and nature—articulating the continuity and scaffolding of the various ways in which organisms bring forth a world.

Keywords: Labor; Cognitive science; Enactive approach; Dialectics; Marxism; Social metabolism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s11299-025-00323-2

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