The Digital Tech Deal: a socialist framework for the twenty-first century

Race & Class ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 63-84
Author(s):  
Michael Kwet
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
First Century ◽  
Global Markets ◽  
Digital Capitalism ◽  
Privacy Laws ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Political Economic

The twenty-first century global economy is largely driven by Big Tech and, more broadly, digital capitalism. This is a global phenomenon, with US power at the centre preying on global markets through the process of digital colonialism. Mainstream antidotes to the ills of Big Tech and digital capitalism are US/Eurocentric and revolve around a collection of liberal and progressive capitalist reforms, including anti-trust, limited privacy laws, unionisation of Big Tech, algorithmic discrimination and content moderation – all of which are conceived within a capitalist framework which ignores or neglects digital colonialism and the twenty-first century ecological crisis, despite their analytical and moral centrality to contemporary political economy. This author argues that a combination of political, economic and social alternatives based on a Digital Tech Deal are needed to turn the tide against digital colonisation, entailing the socialisation of knowledge and infrastructure; passing socialist laws that support digital socialism; and new narratives about the tech ecosystem. These solutions are to be nested within an anti-colonial, eco-socialist framework that embraces degrowth to ensure environmental sustainability and socioeconomic justice.

The Twenty-First Century Agricultural Land Rush

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Thaler
Keyword(s):  
Global Economy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
First Century ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Land Grab ◽  
Investment Capital ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Political Economic

The 2007–2008 global food crisis has been followed by a rapid acceleration in large-scale agricultural land deals, which activists have labeled a “global land grab.” This chapter explores the origins of this twenty-first century agricultural land rush, its geography, and the responses it has engendered. The origins of the land rush are located in interlinked food, financial, and ecological crises that are indicative of fundamental shifts in the global political economy. In response to these crises, land grabbing represents an effort to reconstruct a stable political-economic order, both on the part of investment capital seeking to relaunch accumulation and on the part of political actors and companies seeking to secure stable supplies of food and energy. The geography of the land rush is analyzed through the interrelated variables of land availability, the structural position of a country in the global economy, and a country’s domestic institutional structure. Finally, the main theoretical positions in the debate over land deals are linked to distinct political responses. The real historical significance of the structural changes behind the agricultural land rush suggests that the implications of the land rush will be both durable and systemic.

Jazz Bubble

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale Chapman
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
First Century ◽  
Music Culture ◽  
Social Trends ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
A Site

Hailed by corporate, philanthropic, and governmental organizations as a metaphor for democratic interaction and business dynamics, contemporary jazz culture has a story to tell about the relationship between political economy and social practice in the era of neoliberal capitalism. The Jazz Bubble approaches the emergence of the neoclassical jazz aesthetic since the 1980s as a powerful, if unexpected, point of departure for a wide-ranging investigation of important social trends during this period. The emergence of financialization as a key dimension of the global economy shapes a variety of aspects of contemporary jazz culture, and jazz culture comments upon this dimension in turn. During the stateside return of Dexter Gordon in the mid-1970s, the cultural turmoil of the New York fiscal crisis served as a crucial backdrop to understanding the resonance of Gordon’s appearances in the city. The financial markets directly inform the structural upheaval that major label jazz subsidiaries must navigate in the music industry of the early twenty-first century, and they inform the disruptive impact of urban redevelopment in communities that have relied upon jazz as a site of economic vibrancy. In examining these issues, The Jazz Bubble seeks to intensify conversations surrounding music, culture, and political economy.

The Twenty-first Century

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Gillespie
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
First Century ◽  
Bad News ◽  
Good News ◽  
Species Loss ◽  
The Past ◽  
Scientific Terms ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Open Question ◽  
New Generation

The cumulative environmental challenge of sustainable development in the twenty-first century is larger than anything humanity has ever had to deal with in the past. The good news is that solid progress is being reached in the understanding of issues in scientific terms and understanding what needs to be done. The bad news is twofold. First, although many of the environmental problems of earlier centuries are now being confronted, a new generation of difficulties is eclipsing what were the older difficulties. Secondly, much of the progress is being achieved by the wealthier parts of the planet, rather than the developing world. From population growth to climate change to unprecedented habitat and species loss, whether environmental sustainability can be achieved in the twenty-first century is an open question.

3D-printed Futures of Manufacturing, Social Change and Technological Innovation in China and Singapore: The Ghost of a Massless Future?

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Heemsbergen ◽  
Angela Daly ◽  
Jiajie Lu ◽  
Thomas Birtchnell
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
3D Printing ◽  
Technological Innovation ◽  
First Century ◽  
Global Knowledge ◽  
Law And Technology ◽  
3D Printed ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Political Economic

This article outlines preliminary findings from a futures forecasting exercise where participants in Shenzhen and Singapore considered the socio-technological construction of 3D printing in terms of work and social change. We offered participants ideal political-economic futures across local–global knowledge and capital–commons dimensions, and then had them backcast the contextual waypoints across markets, culture, policy, law and technology dimensions that help guide towards each future. Their discussion identified various contextually sensitive points, but also tended to dismiss the farthest reaches of each proposed ideal, often reverting to familiar contextual signifiers. Here, we offer discussion on how participants saw culture and industry shaping futures for pertinent political economic concerns in the twenty-first century.

scholarly journals Capitalism and democracy in the twenty-first century: does it still take two to tango?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Matteo Marenco
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
First Century ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Digital Capitalism ◽  
Global Power ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
Science Question ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This article reviews three books that offer thought-provoking insights on a central political science question, namely the relationship between capitalism and democracy in the twenty-first century. First, ‘Democracy and Prosperity’ by Iversen and Soskice posits a symbiotic relationship between capitalism and democracy. Advanced capital thrives on nationally rooted institutions, hence it needs democratic politics. A majority of voters ask for pro-advanced-capital reforms, hence democratic politics needs advanced capital. Second, ‘Capitalism, Alone’ by Milanovic depicts a troubled coexistence between capitalism and democracy. The former's tendency to concentrate economic and political power in the hands of the few is the main reason why democratic politics is under pressure. Third, ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’ by Zuboff suggests a negative relationship between digital capitalism and democracy. Surveillance capitalism increasingly acts as a control means of individuals' behaviour, which undermines democracy at its roots. The last section brings the three contributions together. It maintains that a mutually beneficial coexistence between capitalism and democracy currently faces both internal (from within) and external (from without) challenges. In line with Milanovic and Zuboff, it argues that the concentration of economic and political power in the hands of the few is the most apparent from-within challenge. Drawing on Milanovic, it contends that rise of China as a global power combining capitalism with non-democracy challenges the relationship between capitalism and democracy from without. Finally, it contends that the environmental question and the pandemic represent two windows of opportunity for democracy to recover lost ground and re-establish a more balanced relationship with capitalism.

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 273-278
Author(s):  
Cristina I. Tica
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
The World ◽  
Sociocultural Contexts ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Point Of Departure

Frontiers and borders are likely to remain significant on the world stage in the twenty-first century in political, economic, and sociocultural contexts. Frontiers are dynamic areas where identities are created, contested, maintained, negotiated, or manipulated. Different aspects of frontiers and borders are illustrated in this volume, and by taking the border and the frontier as a point of departure, this collection of studies seeks to shift the analytical focus from center to someplace else, from locus of power to places of contested power, and from places with presumed stability to places of presumed disorder, tension, and instability. There is much work in this area for bioarchaeologists, and with this volume we hope to concurrently open more venues to frontiers and borders studies and to raise many more questions.

Coda: theses on homelessness, public space, and urban resistance

2019 ◽  
pp. 134-138
Author(s):  
Sean Parson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Century ◽  
Twenty First Century

In the Coda, the lessons and theoretical positions of the entire document are condensed into four short theses, which can start a conversation around the role and politics of a radical homeless urban politics within the context of the twenty-first-century capitalist political economy and the rise of Trumpism in the United States.

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