Conclusion: Between Cooperation and Competition
The chapter has proceeded in two parallel, but also intersecting, lines of analysis. On the one hand, I have presented the central narratives of the digital discourse concerning network production, and have shown the emergence of a new spirit of networks, with its emphasis on the compatibility of the emancipatory potentials of network production with its increased rationality. On the other hand, I have pursued a more critical analysis that highlights the latent assumptions and conditions of possibility for such assertions. Let me briefly summarize the central narratives of the digital discourse regarding network production and discuss the ideological and sociological significance of the emergence of this new discourse.
According to the digital discourse, the revolutionary nature of the integration of production into network technology is anchored in the creation of more complex and seamless interactions between components of production that had hitherto been separated and dispersed. It is therefore best understood in terms of the eradication of the distinctions between these components: between companies and the network, producers and consumers, producers and users, labor and fun, forces of production and the production process, and so forth. These established industrial demarcations (and more specifically, part and parcel of the Fordist phase of capitalism) are now overturned with the emergence of network production.
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Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age