scholarly journals Selling Elysium: the political economy of radical game distribution

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-31
Author(s):  
Alex Gekker ◽  
Daniel Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Current State ◽  
Political Stance ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
Tactical Games ◽  
Central Claim

Abstract This paper explores Disco Elysium’s first major expansion, “Working Class Update” as emblematic of the potential fracture between the game’s themes and its politics of production and distribution. Our central claim is that in this update, the studio has reacted to the audience’s appreciation for the game’s labor themes within broader dissatisfaction with the industry’s otherwise exploitative practices, yet was constrained by the contemporary dynamics of said industry. First, we examine Disco Elysium’s radical political orientation and the platformized political economy of digital game distribution through ZA/UM’s origins within the Estonia-specific ICT scene. Second, we describe the current state of videogames distribution, in critical dialog with Dyer-Witheford and De Peuter’s concept of a “game of multitude.” We show the limits and contradictions of Disco Elysium to enact radical political stance in a grow-ingly consolidated and platform-dependent video games market. Finally, through a qualitative empirical analysis of the community’s responses to the Worker’s Class Update on Reddit and Steam, we examine the game’s fit into the above-mentioned framework through key themes of dissonant development, tactical games and software commons.

From Globalisation to Revolution? The Porfirian Political Economy: An Essay on Issues and Interpretations

2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAOLO RIGUZZI
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Future Research Agenda ◽  
Current State ◽  
International Economic Relations ◽  
Economic Strategies ◽  
State Finance

AbstractThis essay evaluates the political economy of Mexico during the Porfirian period (1876–1911), with the aim of discussing advances in scholarship and presenting an outline of the elements for a future research agenda. To this end, the essay examines the current state of knowledge on four crucial aspects of the Mexican economy: growth and its dimensions; the state, finance and economic strategies; the construction and functioning of the internal market; and the international economic relations of Mexico during the first period of globalisation. In particular, it assesses the arguments that link features of Porfirian economic organisation with the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1910.

Endogenous Preferential Trade Agreements: An Empirical Analysis

2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher S Magee
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Bilateral Trade ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Preferential Trade Agreements ◽  
The Political ◽  
Preferential Trade ◽  
Trading Partners ◽  
Regional Agreements

Abstract This paper provides one of the first assessments of the hypothesis that two countries are more likely to form a preferential trade agreement (PTA) if they are already major trading partners. The paper also tests a number of predictions from the political economy literature about which countries are expected to form regional agreements. The results show that countries are more likely to be preferential trading partners if they have significant bilateral trade, are similar in size, and are both democracies. Finally, the paper measures the effect of preferential agreements on trade volumes while, unlike previous studies, treating PTA formation as endogenous.

scholarly journals Kulturindustri og sikkerhedsstat. To noter om kritikken af The Wire og en om ”Dread Pirate Roberts”

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (122) ◽  
pp. 243-262
Author(s):  
Erik Granly Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Communication Technologies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Cultural Industries ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Current State ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The Wire ◽  
Fredric Jameson ◽  
Central Claim

The central question in this article concerns the current state of critique at the threshold of the digital age of surveillance. How is it in other words possible to respond critically within this new paradigm of the security state, and where should we look to further develop such a possible critical approach? The HBO TV-series The Wire is at the center of this article, due to its focus on surveillance and communication technologies. The overall focus, however, is to follow the critical readings of the series by Slavoj Žižek and Fredric Jameson. Both Žižek and Jameson frame their analysis by insisting on the political implications of the cultural industries. Furthermore, it is a central claim in the present article that it is not possible any longer (maybe it never was possible) to distinguish the infrastructure of the cultural industries from the infrastructure of the security state. For this reason, the analysis is primarily concerned with the inseparability of the communication technologies, the cultural industries and the security state; and the thesis is that a contemporary critique needs to address this infrastructural problem in the midst of our mediated society.

scholarly journals The Political Economy of the U.S.-Mexico Free Trade Agreement: Analysis of the Congressional Fast Track Vote

1993 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred O. Boadu ◽  
Maria R. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Fast Track ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
The Political ◽  
Hispanic Origin ◽  
Explanatory Factors ◽  
The U.S

AbstractThis paper presents an empirical analysis of the strategic forces shaping U.S.-Mexico trade relationships and the possibilities of extending the trade agreement to the rest of the Americas. The paper concludes that constituency interests, party loyalty, the proportion of a state's population of Hispanic origin, and the influence of textile-related employment in the state were significant explanatory factors in the Congressional Fast Track vote that occurred in May of 1991.

Paying for Our Futures: The Political Economy of Pension Reform in the UK

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Pension System ◽  
Pension Reform ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Knowledge ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Uk ◽  
State Pension ◽  
The Cost

The development of pension provision in Britain since January 1909, when the first public old-age pension was paid, should be celebrated as one of the greatest achievements of collective action in the twentieth century. This chapter examines what has and has not changed in terms of demographic and economic knowledge of pension systems. It then considers the causes and consequences of this delusional consensus and offers some suggestions about how a more responsible set of political and popular attitudes to pensions might be created, beginning with a fundamental reform to the state pension system. The rationale advanced by the Pensions Commission for maintaining much of the complexity of the current state system is the cost and disruption that would be entailed by radical change. This chapter discusses the political economy of pension reform in Britain, focusing on the link between demography and pensions as well as between pensions and economics.

scholarly journals On the transactional ecosystems of digital media

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 393-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Manzerolle ◽  
Allison Wiseman
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Mobile Payment ◽  
The Political ◽  
Payment Systems ◽  
Industry Analysis ◽  
Mobile Platforms ◽  
Political Economy Of Media ◽  
Attention Economy ◽  
Production And Distribution

This article contributes a framework for understanding the convergence of two ‘transactional ecosystems’ or, put differently, the convergence of two types of currency: money and attention. The former is represented in the push to make commercial transactions ubiquitous and seamless (e.g. as in mobile payment systems), while the latter is represented by theories of the ‘attention economy’ and subsumed in the ‘attention and engagement’ metrics that currently shape the production and distribution of content on digital and mobile platforms. The means of communication and commerce, of payment and attention, are increasingly wedded together in the same device or platform implying that how we pay for things is bound up with ‘the things to which we attend’. Drawing on literature on the political economy of media, this article provides historical and theoretical contexts for this convergence, offers some paradigmatic examples alongside industry analysis and concludes by raising potential concerns emerging from its current trajectory.

scholarly journals Foundations of a Marxist Theory of the Political Economy of Information: Trade Secrets and Intellectual Property, and the Production of Relative Surplus Value and the Extraction of Rent-Tribute

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakob Rigi
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Symbolic Form ◽  
Surplus Value ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
Theory Of Value ◽  
Social Surplus ◽  
The One

The aim of this article is to sketch a preliminary outline of a Marxist theory of the political economy of information. It defines information as a symbolic form that can be digitally copied. This definition is purely formal and disregards epistemological, ideological, and functional aspects. The article argues that the value of information defined in this sense tends to zero and therefore the price of information is rent. However, information plays a central role in the production of relative surplus value on the one hand, and the distribution of the total social surplus value in forms of surplus profits and rents, on the other. Thus, the hegemony of information technologies in contemporary productive forces has not made Marx’s theory of value irrelevant. On the contrary, the political economy of information can only be understood in the light of this theory. The article demonstrates that the capitalist production and distribution of surplus value at the global level forms the foundation of the political economy of information.

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