Yamamoto Taizo

In this paper the author combines the issues of valuation and becoming-rent of profit to seek clues to analyze the modern state of capitalism. In recent years “valuation studies” has become active, and in particular, approaches of Convention theory and Actor-network theory are significant. On the other hand, the concept of becoming-rent of profit is presented as a concept that briefly describes the characteristics of modern capital in the cognitive capitalism hypothesis. Both are discussed in different research contexts in terms of their origin, but are based on a not-so-distant perception of the present state of things. In Section 2, this study interprets the current situation in which “value” has come to be re-questioned from the perspective of cognitive capitalism. Section 3 theoretically examines the problem of valuation, focusing on the merchandise in the market. In Section 4 examines the issue of becoming-rent of profit in relation to contemporary mode of valuation and attempts to depict one aspect of modern capitalism.