This new legitimation discourse of technology marks a transformation in the “spirit of capitalism” from its industrial phase, in which the legitimation discourse emphasizes the capacity of capitalism to bring about social emancipation (by alleviating exploitation) to its postindustrial “spirit of networks” phase, in which the legitimation discourse focuses on capitalism’s capacity to enhance individual emancipation (by alleviating alienation and inauthenticity and allowing more creativity and personal expression). My distinction between these two types of emancipation— social emancipation, concerned with alleviating social exploitation, and individual emancipation, concerned with alleviating personal alienation—is based on a longstanding tradition in the social sciences. It was most recently evoked by Boltanski and Chiapello (2005), who distinguish between two threads of discontent with and critique of capitalism: a social critique, focused on the harmful consequences of capitalism to the social body, that is, exploitation and inequality; and an artistic critique (variably referred to in this book as a humanist critique), focused on the harmful consequences of capitalism to the person, that is, alienation and inauthenticity. Indeed, the notion of a dual critique of capitalism is deeply rooted in the history of social thought. Marx’s concept of exploitation (the extraction of surplus value) closely concurs with the artistic critique, while his notion of alienation (particularly that which emerges between workers and their labor process and between workers and their speciesbeing) falls under the rubric of the social critique. Marcuse’s notion of the deerotization of the work process and, more generally, the introduction of psychoanalysis into the analysis of modern society by the Frankfurt School informs much of the artistic critique. Weber’s lament of the disenchantment of the world brought about by the iron cage, or rational instrumental bureaucracy, echoes artistic themes. Finally, in response to postmodern concerns with identity, these two types of critiques have been rearticulated as demands for redistribution and recognition (Fraser and Honneth 2003). Table 1.1 summarizes the central distinctions between these two types of critiques.
Capitalism<sub>,</sub> Technology<sub>,</sub> and the Digital Discourse
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