The Sponsor System Resurgent

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Schiller
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Commodity Chain ◽  
Commodity Chains ◽  
Digital Services ◽  
Media Conglomerates ◽  
Commercial Relationships

This chapter discusses the modernization of the sponsor system. It first considers how advertising sustained and deepened its role as a primary source of finance for digital services, even as it continued its voracious and uneven globalization. It then examines how advertisers accelerated their drive to revamp communications commodity chains, along with issues that arose from Google's entanglement in a larger set of commercial relationships and its impact on the political economy of the commodity chain within which search is embedded. The chapter also looks at the politics of privacy, with particular emphasis on the case of Edward Snowden, the internet as an engine of surveillance, and the debate over personal information that pitted big advertisers, network operators, internet intermediaries, and media conglomerates against popular will.

The Political Economy of Digital Health

2019 ◽  
pp. 281-292
Author(s):  
Gina Neff
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Social Equity ◽  
Healthcare Systems ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Telecommunications Companies ◽  
Silver Bullet

The Internet and digital media are increasingly seen as having enormous potential for solving problems facing healthcare systems. This chapter traces emerging “digital health” uses and applications, focusing on the political economy of data. For many people, the ability to access their own data through social media and connect with people with similar conditions holds enormous potential to empower them and improve healthcare decisions. For researchers, digital health tools present new forms of always-on data that may lead to major discoveries. Technology and telecommunications companies hope their customers? data can answer key health questions or encourage healthier behavior. At the same time, Gina Neff argues that digital health raises policy and social equity concerns regarding sensitive personal data, and runs a risk of being seen as a sort of silver bullet instead of mere technological solutionism.

The Political Economy of the Internet

The Internet ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 117-143
Author(s):  
Daniel Miller ◽  
Don Slater
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Internet

5. Oil and Political Economy in the International Relations of the Middle East

2019 ◽  
pp. 107-131
Author(s):  
Giacomo Luciani
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Middle East ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Rentier States

This chapter looks at the role of oil in the political economy and the international relations of the Middle East. Oil is commonly considered a political commodity. Because of its pivotal importance as a primary source of energy, governments are concerned with its continued availability and seek to minimize import dependence. Historically, interest in oil — especially in the United Kingdom and the United States — strongly influenced attitudes towards the Middle East and the formation of the state system in the region, following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Oil also affects the power balance within the region. The polarization in the region between oil-rich and oil-poor states is thus an essential tool of analysis. The parallel distinction between rentier and non-rentier states helps to explain how oil affects the domestic political development of the oil-rich states and influences their regional relations.

Constellations of Power and Authority in the Political Economy of Illegal Timber Extraction in BTAD, Assam

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 146-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anwesha Dutta ◽  
Bert Suykens
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Field Research ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Commodity Chain ◽  
Wildlife Protection ◽  
Authority Structure ◽  
Timber Trade ◽  
Preferential Access ◽  
Power And Authority

This article seeks to comprehend the way the illegal timber economy in the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Council (BTAD) in Assam is integrated within a constellation of power and authority. Based on over ten months of ethnographic field research, our analysis shows that the timber trade is indeed characterized by what can be conceptualized as an excess of sovereignty. However, a burdened agency is still exercised by those in the timber trade. Moreover, the authority structure consisting of state, rebel and non-armed actors do not directly engage violently in the trade, but are more interested in taxation, governance, or indeed wildlife protection, showing the other side of this multiple authoruty structure. As the article shows, different ethnic groups, which are often thought to be diametrically opposed to each other, collaborate in the local timber commodity chain. However, these collaborations are characterized by highly unequal relations of exchange. As we argue, those that have preferential access to the authority structure can use this to dictate the terms of interaction. Finally, while the timber economy is usually characterized by the operation of the constellation of power and authority, there are interstitial moments where the (violent) interactions among the actors embeded in the structure weaken the direct territorial control by them. As a result, times of violence are often also those in which the trade can flourish.

The Political Economy of the Internet

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
César R. S. Bolaño ◽  
Eloy S. Vieira
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Internet

scholarly journals Organização em rede, capital e a regulação mercantil do elo social | Network organization, capital and the mercantile regulation of social ties

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
César Ricardo Siqueira Bolaño
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Social Ties ◽  
Network Society ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Social Mediation ◽  
Organization Capital ◽  
History Of

RESUMO Este texto faz parte de um projeto amplo de esclarecimento da problemática da mediação social, no sentido da crítica da epistemologia da comunicação, com base numa leitura sistemática da obra de Marx. No que segue, pretendo sugerir apenas, retomando alguns trechos esclarecedores dos Grundrisse, um caminho para a crítica da economia política da internet, que se desdobra, como ficará explicitado, na crítica da ideia de "sociedade em rede". No fundo, trata-se de problematizar as possibilidades de regulação da internet, tendo em vista o significado último do seu surgimento neste particular momento de desenvolvimento do capitalismo.Palavras-chave: Comunicação; Internet; Capitalismo; Epistemologia; Economia Política.ABSTRACT This paper is part of a far-reaching project that aims to clarify the issue of social mediation, from a critical perspective on the epistemology of communication, based on a systematic reading of Marx's work. Here I intend only to indicate a pathway to a critique of the political economy of the Internet, based on a few clarifying excerpts from the Grundrisse, which includes a critique on the idea of "network society". It is, essentially, a discussion on the issue of regulating the Internet, considering the significance of its emergence at this particular moment of the history of capitalism.Keywords: Communication; Internet; Capitalism; Epistemology; Political Economy.

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