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My First Recession starts when the party is over. This study maps the transition of critical Internet culture from the mid-to-late 1990s Internet craze to the dotcom crash, the subsequent meltdown of global financial markets, and 9/11. In his discussion of the dotcom boom-and-bust cycle, Geert Lovink lays out the challenges faced by critical Internet culture today. In a series of case studies, Lovink meticulously describes the ambivalent attitude that artists and activists take as they veer back and forth between euphoria and skepticism. As a part of this process, Lovink examines the internal dynamics of virtual communities through an analysis of the use of moderation and "collaborative filtering" on mailing lists and weblogs. He also confronts the practical and theoretical problems that appear as artists join the growing number of new-media education programs. Delving into the unexplored gold mines of list archives and weblogs, Lovink reveals a world that is largely unknown to both the general public and the Internet visionaries.
Most of the phenomena described in this book have arisen as a result of various crises, disasters, threats, and forms of violence (such as wars, refugee crises, and political regimes, but also devastating practices of the anthropogenic drive and environmental pollution). Others are a form of response to new political, social and cultural changes that we are experiencing due to the rapid development of technology or progressive economic stratification. The research perspective proposed in Postcollectivity draws on the authors' approaches, combining academic and theoretical discourse with social engagement and artistic practice with critical thought. Contributors are: Harshavardhan Bhat, Stephen Dersley, Adela Goldbard, Carly E. Gray, Agnieszka Jelewska, Peter H. Kahn, Jr., Michał Krawczak, Grant Leuning, Ania Malinowska, Anna Nacher, Andrzej W. Nowak, Julian Reid, Pepe Rojo, Sarena Sabine, Jens Schröter, Jan Stasieńko and Brett Zehner.
Dass der Mensch zur Freiheit verdammt ist, war für den Kapitalismuskritiker André Gorz eine unerschütterliche Gewissheit. Nicht nur der aufsehenerregende Freitod im Jahr 2007 legt darüber Zeugnis ab, sondern auch die sozialpolitische Phantasie, die in seinen Schriften zu erkennen ist. Zudem zeigt sich diese Grundhaltung in den Disputen, die er mit seinem Mentor Jean-Paul Sartre geführt hat, sowie in seiner Auseinandersetzung mit dem Marxismus. André Häger widmet sich in einzelnen Studien dem Leben und Werk von André Gorz und weist u.a. anhand von unveröffentlichten Briefen und Gesprächen nach: Die politischen Eingriffe des französischen Sozialphilosophen sind in einem viel weitgehenderen Maße von existenzialistischen Motiven getragen als bisher angenommen wurde.
This book explores the potential creation of a broader collaborative economy through commons-based peer production (P2P) and the emergent role of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The book seeks to critically engage in the political discussion of commons-based peer production, which can be classified into three basic arguments: the liberal, the reformist and the anti-capitalist. This book categorises the liberal argument as being in favour of the coexistence of the commons with the market and the state. Reformists, on the other hand, advocate for the gradual adjustment of the state and of capitalism to the commons, while anti-capitalists situate the commons against capitalis...
We are poised between an old world that no longer works and a new one struggling to be born. Surrounded by centralized hierarchies on the one hand and predatory markets on the other, people around the world are searching for alternatives. The Wealth of the Commons explains how millions of commoners have organized to defend their forests and fisheries, reinvent local food systems, organize productive online communities, reclaim public spaces, improve environmental stewardship and re-imagine the very meaning of "progress" and governance. In short, how they've built their commons. In 73 timely essays by a remarkable international roster of activists, academics and project leaders, this book chr...
Wikis provide a basis for many applications in the area of collaborative work and have become a serious alternative to expensive content management systems. In this book, the authors explore wiki philosophy and functions, and explain basic controls and components. The book includes a step-by-step guide to the installation and configuration of the wiki-clones MediaWiki, TWiki and Confluence, along with a realistic tutorial based on collaborative planning for a conference.
This volume provides new approaches to the concept of media logics – developed by Altheide and Snow – by drawing on theoretical and empirical perspectives from international scientists working in the field of communications, media, political science, and sociology. In an increasingly digitized and globalized world, powerful media structures and technologies influence our daily lives in many respects. It is not only mass media but ‘poly media channels’ that become more and more contextualized in everyday lives. Therefore, it is necessary to revisit the theory of media logics, which focuses on the strong intercorrelation of media technologies, media institutions and media power. Media Logic(s) Revisited attends to this by critically reflecting on the idea of media logic, a much needed input in light of current developments and strong cultural embedding of media in various social contexts.
How do artificial neural networks and other forms of artificial intelligence interfere with methods and practices in the sciences? Which interdisciplinary epistemological challenges arise when we think about the use of AI beyond its dependency on big data? Not only the natural sciences, but also the social sciences and the humanities seem to be increasingly affected by current approaches of subsymbolic AI, which master problems of quality (fuzziness, uncertainty) in a hitherto unknown way. But what are the conditions, implications, and effects of these (potential) epistemic transformations and how must research on AI be configured to address them adequately?
This book relates Wikipedians’ conceptions of their activities in terms of play, game, work and labour, to their views on Wikipedia and capitalism. The author identifies and compares ideology formations with each other, and with contemporary Marxist theory, providing critical evaluation of the perceived economic relation between peer production and capitalism. The book covers a range of topics including encyclopaedias and the digital revolution; Marxist approaches to cognitive capitalism; and crowdsourcing. The book richly contributes to the emerging literature of critical internet studies, providing a unique intersection of three fields of knowledge: social effects of digital technology; ideologies and politics of cognitive capitalism’s social relations; and the culture of contemporary capitalism. Wikipedia, Work and Capitalism will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including political economy, sociology and digital cultures, as well as social activists, Wikipedians, and peer producers.