Adam Arvidsson, Elanor Colleoni: Value in Informational Capitalism and on the Internet. A Reply to Christian Fuchs (draft, 2011)

This article critically engages with recent applications of the Marxist ‘labor theory of value’ to online prosumer practices, and offers an alternative framework to theorize value creation in such practices. We argue that the labor theory of value is difficult to apply to online prosumer practices for two reasons. First because value creation in such practices is poorly related to time. Second because the realization of the value accumulated by social media companies generally occurs on financial markets, rather than in direct commodity exchange. In alternative we offer an understanding of value creation as based primarily on the capacity to initiate and sustain webs of affective relations, and value realization as linked to a reputation based financial economy. We argue that this model describes the process of value creation and appropriation in the context of online prosumer platforms better than an approach based on the marxian labor theory of value. We also suggest that our approach can be cast new light on value creation within informational capitalism in general.

Available at Social Science Research Network (SSRN)
Working Paper Series
February 2011

original paper by Christian Fuchs
response to Arvidsson&Colleoni’s paper (Poor Richard, P2P Foundation)

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Sherry Turkle: Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other (2011)

“Consider Facebook—it’s human contact, only easier to engage with and easier to avoid. Developing technology promises closeness. Sometimes it delivers, but much of our modern life leaves us less connected with people and more connected to simulations of them. In Alone Together, MIT technology and society professor Sherry Turkle explores the power of our new tools and toys to dramatically alter our social lives. It’s a nuanced exploration of what we are looking for—and sacrificing—in a world of electronic companions and social networking tools, and an argument that, despite the hand-waving of today’s self-described prophets of the future, it will be the next generation who will chart the path between isolation and connectivity.”

Publisher Basic Books, 2011
ISBN 0465010210, 9780465010219
384 pages

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Evgeny Morozov: The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom (2011)

The internet will set us free—or will it? In this spirited critique of “internet freedom,” blogger and commentator Evgeny Morozov shows how social media and web 2.0 do not always foster civic engagement and democratic reform. In fact, the net can make authoritarian governments even more powerful and repressive.

“The revolution will be Twittered!” declared journalist Andrew Sullivan after protests erupted in Iran in June 2009. Yet for all the talk about the democratizing power of the Internet, regimes in Iran and China are as stable and repressive as ever. In fact, authoritarian governments are effectively using the Internet to suppress free speech, hone their surveillance techniques, disseminate cutting-edge propaganda, and pacify their populations with digital entertainment. Could the recent Western obsession with promoting democracy by digital means backfire?

In this spirited book, journalist and social commentator Evgeny Morozov shows that by falling for the supposedly democratizing nature of the Internet, Western do-gooders may have missed how it also entrenches dictators, threatens dissidents, and makes it harder—not easier—to promote democracy. Buzzwords like “21st-century statecraft” sound good in PowerPoint presentations, but the reality is that “digital diplomacy” requires just as much oversight and consideration as any other kind of diplomacy.

Marshaling compelling evidence, Morozov shows why we must stop thinking of the Internet and social media as inherently liberating and why ambitious and seemingly noble initiatives like the promotion of “Internet freedom” might have disastrous implications for the future of democracy as a whole.

Publisher PublicAffairs, 2011
ISBN 1586488740, 9781586488741
432 pages

commentary (Cory Doctorow, The Guardian)

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