Social reproduction in the realm of the intangible

The discourse of intellectual property rights demonstrates an almost total marginalisation of questions of social reproduction. This rhetorical aporia in what is already an invisible space has operated to obscure these questions in at least two significant ways. First, it has resulted in a failure to engage with the sublimation of social reproduction in the creation of a range of culturally, politically and economically distinct and significant property relations. Secondly, it operates to obscure the role of social reproduction in legal regimes governing technological innovation. By focusing on the figure of the “author” in copyright law and the “inventor” in patent law, this article aims to sketch the formation of a strategic position in the so-called “intellectual property wars” that is capable of recognising the role of social reproduction in the realm of the intangible.