Abstract: The evolution of capitalism has led to a new stage in its history. The new configuration of the global cultural complex as a whole and many of its features have been observed and discussed since its early days and over the course of decades from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Concepts like post-industrial society, knowledge economy, knowledge society, data capitalism, and platform capitalism, among others, have been advanced to describe them. More comprehensive views have produced "high-pressure capitalism," "cognitive capitalism," and "knowledge capitalism" from economic, political-economic, and sociological perspectives, respectively.
I contend that the most useful and accurate concept is knowledge capitalism, albeit reinterpreted through the lenses of a general evolutionary theory of history. The key defining factor in this perspective is the commodification and capitalization of knowledge. It implies the resignification of knowledge through evolutionary processes. This includes a relocation of the commodity frontier to absorb a different type of commodity—one that is not naturally limited and thus is not naturally valuable from the perspective of mainstream economics. It also implies the resignification of knowledge-producing entities and the reorganization of societal structures and power distributions—hence, of political structures as well.
This implies a transformation of global geopolitics and its regional expressions. Key resources increase and change their position in the global hierarchy of commodities and capital, thus modifying some of the major economic drivers of geopolitical processes. The redistribution of processes has brought about the emergence of major and medium-level actors (China first and foremost) and has fueled a shift in the global power distribution. There is significant evidence in support of a hegemonic transition in course. I propose to explain that transformation within the framework of the evolution of capitalism as a globalized mode of production as it transitioned to its knowledge era.
