Representations of Global Capital

It is obvious to those familiar with the culture of television advertising that the medium demands tight compression and abbreviation of references. Most references to work or to workplace relationships must be compressed into a matter of seconds, and sometimes fractions of seconds. Ads rarely dwell on the workplace for the purpose of spelling out an extended narrative about the meanings of labor. That said, we can begin by observing some stock signifiers of work and workplaces.

SIGNIFIER	IMAGE	SIGNIFIED	REFERENT
hardhat		construction worker; blue-collar worker, working class	A hat devised to protect the skull from falling objects.
briefcase		executive, lawyer	A leather or leather-like case used to carry papers about - frequently associated with lawyers.
Fordist assembly line		muscle-assisted machine labor early industrialization	Economiies of scale Centralization Detailed Division of Labor
Post-Fordist assembly line		high tech robot precision	Economies of scope Decentalization Flexible labor
cubefarm		corporate workspaces for those without status or position	an "efficient" means of organizing spaces as standardized work areas, aka cubicles; hence also an aspect of proletarianized white collar work
keyboard		office work secretarial	a device for typing or inputting data into computers
computer screen		computers technology	the window to cyberspace
skyscraper		corporate power urban centers	part of the built environment of global cities; mostly developed as rent property of, and for, corporate capital.