Utopia, Labor, and Informational Capitalism

2015 ◽  
pp. 49-68
Author(s):  
Marco Briziarelli
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
Economic Approach ◽  
Informational Capitalism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Liberal Ideology ◽  
Political Economic

Through the lens of a political economic approach, I consider the question whether or not social media can promote social change. I claim that whereas media have consistently channeled technological utopia/dystopia, thus be constantly linked to aspirations and fear of social change, the answer to that question does not depend on their specific nature but on historically specific social relations in which media operate. In the case here considered, it requires examining the social relations re-producing and produced by informational capitalism. More specifically, I examine how the productive relations that support user generated content practices of Facebook users affect social media in their capability to reproduce and transform existing social contexts. Drawing on Fuchs and Sevignani's (2013) distinction between “work” and “labor” I claim that social media reflect the ambivalent nature of current capitalist mode of production: a contest in which exploitative/emancipatory as well as reproductive/transformative aspects are articulated by liberal ideology.

Utopia, Labor, and Informational Capitalism

2019 ◽  
pp. 817-836
Author(s):  
Marco Briziarelli
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
Economic Approach ◽  
Informational Capitalism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Liberal Ideology ◽  
Political Economic

Through the lens of a political economic approach, I consider the question whether or not social media can promote social change. I claim that whereas media have consistently channeled technological utopia/dystopia, thus be constantly linked to aspirations and fear of social change, the answer to that question does not depend on their specific nature but on historically specific social relations in which media operate. In the case here considered, it requires examining the social relations re-producing and produced by informational capitalism. More specifically, I examine how the productive relations that support user generated content practices of Facebook users affect social media in their capability to reproduce and transform existing social contexts. Drawing on Fuchs and Sevignani's (2013) distinction between “work” and “labor” I claim that social media reflect the ambivalent nature of current capitalist mode of production: a contest in which exploitative/emancipatory as well as reproductive/transformative aspects are articulated by liberal ideology.

Mediating Social Media's Ambivalences in the Context of Informational Capitalism

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Marco Briziarelli ◽  
Eric Karikari
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
Capitalist Mode ◽  
Informational Capitalism ◽  
Liberal Ideology ◽  
Transformative Function ◽  
Political Economic

This essay explores the dialectics of media, by considering the socially reproductive and transformative function of social media from a political economic perspective. The authors claim that while media have consistently generated aspirations and fear of social change, their powerful capability of shaping societies depend on the historically specific social relations in which media operate. They engage such an argument by examining how the productive relations that support user generated content practices such as the ones of Facebook users affect social media in their capability to reproduce and transform existing social contexts. In the end, the authors maintain that the most prominent mediation of social media consists of the ambivalent nature of current capitalist mode of production: a contest in which exploitative/emancipatory as well as reproductive/transformative aspects are articulated by liberal ideology.

Mediating Social Media's Ambivalences in the Context of Informational Capitalism

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Briziarelli ◽  
Eric Karikari
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
Economic Perspective ◽  
Informational Capitalism ◽  
Liberal Ideology ◽  
Transformative Function ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Mode Of Production

This essay explores the dialectics of media, by considering the socially reproductive and transformative function of social media from a political economic perspective. The authors claim that while media have consistently generated aspirations and fear of social change, their powerful capability of shaping societies depend on the historically specific social relations in which media operate. They engage such an argument by examining how the productive relations that support user generated content practices such as the ones of Facebook users affect social media in their capability to reproduce and transform existing social contexts. In the end, the authors maintain that the most prominent mediation of social media consists of the ambivalent nature of current capitalist mode of production: a contest in which exploitative/emancipatory as well as reproductive/transformative aspects are articulated by liberal ideology.

The Politics of Social Media

2020 ◽  
pp. 22-54
Author(s):  
Joseph L. Flores
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Economic Practices ◽  
Liberal Ideology ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Fundamental Tension ◽  
Transformative Function ◽  
Media And Communication

This chapter explores a fundamental tension of social media by considering their socially reproductive and (potentially) transformative function. The claim is that while media and communication technologies have historically fueled both aspiration and fear of social change, their ability to shape societies are contingent on the specific social relations in which they operate. By investigating social media's economic practices, primarily platform capitalism, the reproductive relations that support user-generated content that influence platform's capabilities to reproduce and transform existing social contexts are examined. To illustrate this, political discourse via social media platforms have been used to argue that social media's current capitalist mode of production exemplifies an antagonism between exploitative/emancipatory tendencies and reproductive/transformative aspects, which are further articulated by a liberal ideology.

The political economy of external auditing in Malaysia 1957 - 1997

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azham Md. Ali
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social System ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Approach ◽  
Political Determinants ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Forces ◽  
Political Economic

This work investigates the role and contribution of external auditing as practiced in Malaysian society in the first 40 years since independence in 1957.It applies the political economic approach, which emphasises the social relations aspects of professional activity rather than economic forces alone.The political economic approach is applied by utilising an enlarged exogenous framework of processual change analysis.This particular interpretive framework views external auditing in Malaysia over the forty year period (1957-1997) as an open, dynamic social system comprising two pattern transformations.The study focuses specifically on the historical development of, and environment influences on the countrys audit practice and provides insights into the operational form of contemporary audit practice and the historical, social, economic and political determinants of that form.The writer extrapolates that in all probability, the future of auditing in Malaysia will continue to be constrained by unresolved problems; audit in Malaysia seems to be case of the triumph of hope over experience.

scholarly journals Politics and Audit in Malaysia

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Azham Md. Ali
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Secondary Source ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Forces ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Source Materials ◽  
Study Format

This work investigates the role and contribution of external auditing as practised in Malaysian society during the forty year period from independence in 1957 to just before the onset of Asian Financial Crisis in 1997.  It applies the political economic theory introduced by Tinker (1980) and refined by Cooper & Sherer (1984), which emphasises the social relations aspects of professional activity rather than economic forces alone. In a case study format where qualitative data were gathered mainly from primary and secondary source materials, the study has found that the function of auditing in Malaysian society in most cases is devoid of any essence of mission; instead it is created, shaped and changed by the pressures which give rise to its development over time. The largely insignificant role that it serves is intertwined with the contexts in which it operates. 

scholarly journals KONVERSI KEAGAMAAN PASCA 1965, MENGURAI DAMPAK SOSIAL BUDAYA DAN HUBUNGAN ISLAM KRISTEN DI PEDESAAN JAWA

Harmoni ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-240
Author(s):  
M. Alie Humaedi
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Economic Resources ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Social ◽  
National Archives ◽  
Islam And Christianity ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Heating Up ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between Islam and Christianity in various regions is often confronted with situations caused by external factors. They no longer debate the theological aspect, but are based on the political economy and social culture aspects. In the Dieng village, the economic resources are mostly dominated by Christians as early Christianized product as the process of Kiai Sadrach's chronicle. Economic mastery was not originally as the main trigger of the conflict. However, as the political map post 1965, in which many Muslims affiliated to the Indonesian Communist Party convert to Christianity, the relationship between Islam and Christianity is heating up. The question of the dominance of political economic resources of Christians is questionable. This research to explore the socio cultural and religious impact of the conversion of PKI to Christian in rural Dieng and Slamet Pekalongan and Banjarnegara. This qualitative research data was extracted by in-depth interviews, observations and supported by data from Dutch archives, National Archives and Christian Synod of Salatiga. Research has found the conversion of the PKI to Christianity has sparked hostility and deepened the social relations of Muslims and Christians in Kasimpar, Petungkriono and Karangkobar. The culprit widened by involving the network of Wonopringgo Islamic Boarding. It is often seen that existing conflicts are no longer latent, but lead to a form of manifest conflict that decomposes in the practice of social life.

scholarly journals Engels’s Theory of Social Murder and the Spectacle of Fascism: A Critical Enquiry into Digital Labour and its Alienation

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-67
Author(s):  
Aishik Saha
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Digital Capitalism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Theory Of Value ◽  
Forms Of Violence ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Similar Development

In this paper, I shall attempt to respond to the charge that the digital labour theory, as developed by Christian Fuchs, doesn’t faithfully stick to the Marxist schema of the Labour Theory of Value by arguing that Marx’s critique of capitalism was based on the social and material cost of exploitation and the impact of capitalist exploitation of the working class. Engels’s analysis of The Condition of The Working Class in England links the various forms of violence faced by the working class to the bourgeois rule that props their exploitation. I shall argue, within the framework of Critical Social Media Studies, that the rapid advance of fascist and authoritarian regimes represents a similar development of violence and dispossession, with digital capitalism being a major factor catalysing the rifts within societies. It shall be further argued that much like the exploitative nature of labour degrades social linkages and creates conditions of that exaggerates social contradictions, the “labour” performed by social media users degenerates social relations and promotes a hyper-violent spectacle that aids and abets fascist and authoritarian regimes.

Using RSSI Simple Localization Method to Implement the Context-Aware and Social Recommendation System

2013 ◽  
Vol 479-480 ◽  
pp. 1213-1217
Author(s):  
Mu Yen Chen ◽  
Ming Ni Wu ◽  
Hsien En Lin
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Context Awareness ◽  
Recommendation System ◽  
Product Information ◽  
Indoor Localization ◽  
Context Aware ◽  
Social Recommendation ◽  
Localization Method ◽  
The Social

This study integrates the concept of context-awareness with association algorithms and social media to establish the Context-aware and Social Recommendation System (CASRS). The Simple RSSI Indoor Localization Module (SRILM) locates the user position; integrating SRILM with Apriori Recommendation Module (ARM) provides effective recommended product information. The Social Media Recommendation Module (SMRM) connects to users social relations, so that the effectiveness for users to gain product information is greatly enhanced. This study develops the system based on actual context.

Towards an Affirmative Feminist Boys Studies

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-92
Author(s):  
Timothy Laurie ◽  
Catherine Driscoll ◽  
Liam Grealy ◽  
Shawna Tang ◽  
Grace Sharkey
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Heuristic Model ◽  
Critical Commentary ◽  
Childhood And Youth ◽  
The Social ◽  
Girls Studies ◽  
Political Economic

This critical commentary considers the significance of Connell’s The Men and the Boys in the development of an affirmative feminist boys studies. In particular, the article asks: How can research on boys contribute to feminist research on childhood and youth, without either establishing a false equivalency with girls studies, or overstating the singularity of “the boy” across diverse cultural and historical contexts? Connell’s four-tiered account of social relations—political, economic, emotional, and symbolic—provides an important corrective to reductionist approaches to both feminism and boyhood, and this article draws on The Men and the Boys to think through contrasting sites of identity formation around boys: online cultures of “incels” (involuntary celibates); transmasculinities and the biological diversity of the category “man”; and the social power excercised within an elite Australian boys school. The article concludes by identifying contemporary challenges emerging from the heuristic model offered in The Men and the Boys.

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