Alekseenko A.G.¹ (Krasnodar, Russian Federation) – harbourage@yandex.ru; Sirotkin V.A.¹ (Krasnodar, Russian Federation) – v.a.sirotkin@mail.ru

¹Kuban State Agrarian University named after I.T. Trubilin

Abstract. The subject of this article is the transformation of the relationships underlying the work of individuals in the context of the transition from an industrial to an information economy. The purpose of the research is to systematize the theoretical concepts of labor as an economic category from the point of view of modern challenges of the development of society. In the course of the research, historical and monographic methods, the dialectical method, and the method of institutional analysis were used. The methodological basis of the research consists of theoretical concepts of classical political economy, neo-institutional economic theory, and A. Maslow’s theory of needs. The research clarifies the content of the concept of an individual’s labor activity in the production process in the era of the information society as an independent creative activity aimed at self-actualization, the search for new knowledge and the creation of innovations. A comparison of the individual’s motivations to work is carried out from the point of view of classical political economy and neo-institutional economic theory. The key limitations of the creative component of an individual’s labor activity in the concept of an industrial economy, which consist in market employment relations, are revealed. These restrictions are concluded within the framework of an institutional employer-employee contract and are associated with the depersonalization of work, the lack of personal interest in the results of production, and the dominance of the material component in motivation for work. It is concluded that in the information economy, the individual’s work is based on creative activity, which ensures the individual’s personal interest in its results. The individual is subjectively involved in the outcome of the production process at all its stages. Creative activity contributes to the improvement of both the individual’s own labor resource and the increase in the potential of human capital.

Keywords: labor, human capital, information economy, needs, innovation, creativity, needs.

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For citation: Alekseenko A.G., Sirotkin V. A. From classics to neo-institutionalism: transformation of the labor concept. CITISE. 2025, no. 2, pp. 237-245.