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⭐ Core Definition: Use-value

Use value (German: Gebrauchswert; Nutzwert) or value in use is a concept in classical political economy and Marxist economics. It refers to the tangible features of a commodity (a tradeable object) which can satisfy some human requirement, want or need, or which serves a useful purpose. For Karl Marx's critique of political economy, any commodity has a value and a use-value — the former manifestly appearing as exchange-value in any exchange-relation in which bearers of commodities mutually alienate and appropriate each-others commodities on the market, it's foremost the proportion in which any commodity is exchangeable for any commodities, its form as the money form within money economies.

Marx acknowledges that commodities being traded also have a general utility, implied by the fact that people want them, but he argues that this by itself says nothing about the specific character of the economy in which they are produced and sold.

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👉 Use-value in the context of Socialist mode of production

The socialist mode of production, also known as socialism, is a specific historical phase of base and superstructural development and its corresponding set of social relations that emerge from capitalism in the schema of historical materialism within Marxist theory. Communist states that claimed to have established socialist material relations claimed to have established socialist states.

The Marxist definition of socialism is that of production for use-value (i.e., abolition of commodity production, direct satisfaction of human needs, or economic demands), therefore the law of value no longer directs economic activity. Marxist production for use is coordinated through conscious economic planning. According to Marx, distribution of products is based on the principle of "to each according to his needs"; Soviet models often distributed products based on the principle of "to each according to his contribution". Marx characterized the social relations of communism, the first stage of which is now called socialism, by the abolition of class distinctions and the common ownership of the means of production. As classes are abolished, the state withers away. Later self-titled communist states revised this definition of socialism and used the term more loosely as a rough equivalent to the dictatorship of the proletariat.

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⭐ Core Definition: Use-value
👉 Use-value in the context of Socialist mode of production
Use-value in the context of Sign value

Use-value in the context of Sign value

In sociology and in economics, the term sign value denotes and describes the value accorded to an object because of the prestige (social status) that it imparts upon the possessor, rather than the material value and utility derived from the function and the primary use of the object. For example, the buyer of a Rolls-Royce limousine might partly value the automobile as transport, yet might also value it as a sign that signifies his or her wealth to a particular community and to society in general. The automobile's transport-function is primary, from which arises its use-value, whilst the social prestige function is secondary, from which arises its sign-value.

The French sociologist Jean Baudrillard proposed the theory of sign value as a philosophic and economic counterpart to the dichotomy of exchange-value vs. use-value, which Karl Marx recognized as a characteristic of capitalism as an economic system.

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Use-value in the context of "Socialist mode of production"

⭐ In the context of the socialist mode of production, use-value is considered a defining characteristic primarily because it represents a shift away from…

⭐ Core Definition: Use-value

👉 Use-value in the context of Socialist mode of production

Use-value in the context of Sign value