The transformations in the discourse on the network market, network work, and network production lead to and are dependent on a fundamental shift in the perception of the individual, that is, how humans are perceived and understood in the context of a technological revolution. The perception of humans is intimately linked with the dominant technology with which humans engage (either in production or communication) and is therefore historically contingent and changes concurrent with technological transformations. Chapter 6, therefore, examines the digital discourse at the intersection of network technology and the individual. In this discourse, humans are understood to share the same essence and characteristics of network technology: both are seen as technologies that store and process information, and both are deemed to be flexible and indeterminate. The commensurability of network technology and humans allows them to interact more tightly and even converge. The integration of humans into network technology results in a new conception of the individual as network and cyborg. The blurring of the boundaries between humans and network technology allows for a more meaningful, emancipatory, and natural interaction of humans with the technology and unleashes the emancipatory potential of humans: their intellectual, psychological, and communicative abilities. The network human is seen as an emancipated version of the previous industrial human: the network human is now able to engage with the technology and harness his mental skills for network production. This contrasts with the industrial human, who was dominated by technology and was able to harness merely her physical and manual skills for industrial production.
These narratives are weaving a spirit of networks for post-Fordist society. Humans are reconceptualized to fit within the new mode of production: contrary to the Fordist human characterized by spatial and temporal bodily presence and physicality, the post-Fordist human is characterized by virtuality and disembodiment. The post-Fordist human—her body, mind, and identity—are informational, hence flexible and multiple. Network technology is thus seen as a response to the humanist critique regarding authenticity; network technology complements the network human.
The Political Culture of Network Capitalism
Together, the narratives of the digital discourse explored in Part II of the book amount, I contend, to a new spirit of networks that legitimizes the new constellation of power that characterizes post-Fordist society: the withdrawal of the state from the planning, management, and regulation of the economy and from its welfare obligations; the move from a national, protective economy to a globalized, deregulated, and unitary market; the privatization of work; the eradication of work and the working class as viable social categories; the disembeddedness (a term coined by Karl Polanyi) of markets from society or, more specifically, the insulation of the economy from the democratic political process; new employment schemes that are more precarious and flexible; a new, decentralized, dehierarchized disciplinary regime of production; a shift to a placid and technocratic political discourse of a classless society, devoid of antagonism and contradictions; the increased flexibility of working life and of labor processes; and the depolitization of economic affairs as technical, technological, and instrumental.
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Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age