Overview

This book explores the new terrain of network capitalism through the transformations of the discourse on technology. Rather than viewing such discourse as either a true or false reflection of reality, Fisher evaluates the ideological role that technology discourse plays in the legitimation of a new form of capitalism. Based on an extensive empirical analysis, the book argues that contemporary technology discourse at one and the same time promises more personal empowerment through network technology and legitimates a more privatized, flexible, and precarious economic constellations. Such discourse signals a new tradeoff in the political culture of capitalism, from a legitimation discourse which emphasizes the capacity of technology and technique to bring about social emancipation (through equality, stability, and security) to a legitimation discourse which focuses on the capacity of technology to bring about individual emancipation (through individual empowerment, authenticity, creativity, and cooperation). Contrary to the prevailing assumption that sees network technology as liberating from the rigidity and pitfalls of a stifling, Fordist capitalism, the book offers a theoretical framework which sees contemporary technology discourse as an ideology that legitimates the economic, social, and political arrangements of the new capitalism.

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9781137310811

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Reviews

Fisher's brilliant book provides cogent reasons why we should be skeptical about laptop capitalism and its fluidity and instantaneity of communication. As we surf, text, and post, we are actually becoming more enmeshed in the cyber-networks of command and control that, now as before, bear down heavily. Fisher helps us understand the age of digitality as, above all, capitalist. - Ben Agger, Professor of Sociology and Humanities, University of Texas at Arlington This carefully researched and skillfully written guide to the networked world doesn't just demolish the dreamy visions of Utopia 2.0. It provides precisely the comprehensive analysis we need to understand their power and persistence. - Vincent Mosco, Canada Research Chair in Communication and Society, Queen's University, Canada This is an audacious systematic ideology-critique of digital capitalism. By meticulously exposing the underlying assumptions and consequences of the digital technology discourse, the book evinces how a seemingly neutral network that creates 'friction free capitalism' germinates a neo-capitalist 'iron cage.' The book reconnects the semiotic and material societal levels. It should be placed on your shelf with Castells' book on informational capitalism, with Dyer-Witheford's on cyber-Marxism or with Mosco's on the digital sublime. - Uri Ram, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben Gurion University, Israel From the reviews: 'Fisher writes well, and there is evidence here of ability of the highest level. The work is closely argued and persuasive, replete with recondite sources. Moreover, it ranges across an astonishing diversity of materials, adept at reviewing studies of labour process transformation as well as cyberfeminist faith in the liberating potential of technology. Above all, perhaps, Fisher reinstates the importance of ideology critique ... essential reading'.Frank Webster, City University London, UK, Mass Communication and Society'... Fisher's book ... [is an] excellent

HONORABLE MENTION - 2011 ASSOCIATION FOR INTERNET RESEARCH BOOK AWARD Fisher's brilliant book provides cogent reasons why we should be skeptical about laptop capitalism and its fluidity and instantaneity of communication. As we surf, text, and post, we are actually becoming more enmeshed in the cyber-networks of command and control that, now as before, bear down heavily. Fisher helps us understand the age of digitality as, above all, capitalist. - Ben Agger, Professor of Sociology and Humanities, University of Texas at Arlington This carefully researched and skillfully written guide to the networked world doesn't just demolish the dreamy visions of Utopia 2.0. It provides precisely the comprehensive analysis we need to understand their power and persistence. - Vincent Mosco, Canada Research Chair in Communication and Society, Queen's University, Canada This is an audacious systematic ideology-critique of digital capitalism. By meticulously exposing the underlying assumptions and consequences of the digital technology discourse, the book evinces how a seemingly neutral network that creates 'friction free capitalism' germinates a neo-capitalist 'iron cage.' The book reconnects the semiotic and material societal levels. It should be placed on your shelf with Castells' book on informational capitalism, with Dyer-Witheford's on cyber-Marxism or with Mosco's on the digital sublime. - Uri Ram, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben Gurion University, Israel From the reviews: Fisher writes well, and there is evidence here of ability of the highest level. The work is closely argued and persuasive, replete with recondite sources. Moreover, it ranges across an astonishing diversity of materials, adept at reviewing studies of labour process transformation as well as cyberfeminist faith in the liberating potential of technology. Above all, perhaps, Fisher reinstates the importance of ideology critique ... essential reading. - Frank Webster, City University London, UK, Mass Communication and Society ... Fisher's book ... [is an] excellent example that show[s] the rise of Critical Internet Studies. - Christian Fuchs, Uppsala University, Sweden, Triple-C An important reminder that the relationship of information science to the economy, society, and politics is not an extramural and peripheral issue for information science, but constitutive of the discipline itself. And his book is well worth reading. - David Bade, University of Chicago, Journal of Documentation Given that Fisher is dealing with a topic that touches on a range of social domains, this book will be of interest to a wide assortment of scholarly concerned about changes in the world of technology, work, and capital accumulation. Even political economists, who often shy away from discourse analysis, will learn much about the wider social forces that buttress changes to informational capitalism. - Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews ... ambitious book ... Fisher offers a critical reading to uncover a largely ignored aspect of the discourse ... Fisher's book is a highly informative, theoretically sound, and politically relevant addition to the literature on communication, technology, and political economy. - Randall Livingstone, University of Oregon, Media, Culture, and Society

Author Information

Eran Fisher is an Assistant Professor at the Open University of Israel. He is also the co-editor (with Tova Benski) of Internet and Emotions (2013).

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