Techno-Feudalism as Primitive Accumulation: A Marxist Perspective on Digital Capitalism

Abstract

This paper explores the concept of ‘techno-feudalism’ in digital capitalism, reframing it through the lens of Marxist crisis theory as a form of ‘primitive accumulation in digital space’ rather than a shift to a new feudal order. Analyzing digital monopolies and the enclosure of digital commons, the study argues that digital capitalism perpetuates crisis-driven expansion by creating new spaces for capital accumulation. Drawing on Marxist spatial and crisis theories, it highlights how digital capitalism intensifies capitalist strategies of dispossession and hierarchy, producing monopolistic platforms that extract rents and deepen social separations. These mechanisms, including platform-based ‘enclosure movements’, indicate that digital capitalism is not a departure from historical capitalism but a continuation of its crisis-response strategies. Ultimately, the paper contends that ‘techno-feudalism’ misrepresents these dynamics, proposing instead that digital capitalism’s monopolistic hierarchies align with the logic of ongoing capitalist accumulation in response to crisis.