ABSTRACT
In his theory of value, Marx analyses critically the economic processes and relations that regulate social reproduction under capitalism.1 This chapter interprets the meaning and significance of Marx’s value analysis in the light of the materialist dialectics developed in chapter 1. This is achieved in three sections. The first analyses the relationship between the division of labour, exploitation and the value relation. Although Marx’s analysis is valid for capitalism only (see section 1.1), its background is broader: the need to divide labour in order to reproduce human society. This can be achieved in potentially very different ways, one of which is capitalism.2
