Travail, genre et protection sociale dans la transition vers le capitalisme cognitif

Much recent research investigating the actual capitalism changes based upon the knowledge-based economy development ignore the crucial role played by the welfare state expansion and by the various configurations of gender relations linked with the fordist model. Similarly, studies based on the welfare state models and the expansion of the social state functions use generally a static classification methodology. They also ignore the dynamics of capitalist transformations and the role of gender relations. The article tries to show how important has been the role played by the welfare-state expansion and the gender relations during the transformations from the fordist industrial capitalism to the cognitive capitalism. But the transition to the cognitive capitalism is a complex and contradictory process which can give rise to conflicting evolutions. Two extreme models are therefore proposed as potential issues. They are built regarding the main characteristics of the outlines of the cognitive capitalism institutional forms.