{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","title":"Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age The Spirit of Networks","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781349379743","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","id":"8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","uuid":"8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","title":"Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age The Spirit of Networks","normalized_title":"mediaandnewcapitalisminthedigitalagethespiritofnetworks","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781349379743","isbns":["9781349379743","9780230106062"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":258,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Media%20and%20New%20Capitalism%20in%20the%20Digital%20Age%20The%20Spirit%20of%20Networks","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a/search"},"page":{"printed_page":101,"pdf_page":104,"physical_index":104,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"6e3cdd94519cc379e483381b3062609395fa78dfbca35beb665f787c9becd513"},"chapter":"Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age","content":"In the last thirty years, however, corporations have gone through a dramatic transformation in their mode of operation, from a model of “vertical integration of departments within the same corporate structure” to one of “vertical disintegration of production along a network of firms” (Castells 1996, 158). Within the corporation, this has led to a paradigm shift from vertical bureaucracies to the horizontal corporation (Castells 1996, 164), which Castells terms the “network enterprise” (see Castells 1996, chap. 3) and which is characterized by decentralization of production processes and dehierarchization of management practices.\n\nHowever, as hierarchy went out the window, control was decentralized, and work processes flowed horizontally rather than vertically, the underlying rationale remained very much the same. According to critical perspectives on work and technology, network work was not simply an effect of network technology but entailed a violent practice of reengineering, “which was used to flatten organizational hierarchies, redefine required skills, and introduce new technology” (Greenbaum 1995, 92). Joan Greenbaum argues that the incentive for collapsing hierarchies in the workplace was to increase the flexibility of organizations. Measures, such as the elimination of titles, were meant to have “workers . . . assume more functions and be more ‘flexible’” (Greenbaum 1995, 100). Like Sennet (2000), Greenbaum, too, argues that this demand to shift between tasks and positions within organizations resulted in undermining workers’ ability to construct long-term, stable, and meaningful careers (Greenbaum 1995, 101).\n\nAnother measure in the construction of the new network workplace was the adoption of “the ‘entrepreneurial’ ideal—where workers would fend for themselves” (Greenbaum 1995, 92). According to Greenbaum, this meant that workers had to absorb the “anxieties” of a freer, more volatile market (Greenbaum 1995, 92). Even within the workplace, work was privatized so that workers and teams often compete among themselves in an “internal market” (Sennet 2006, 52). This new enterprise workplace (Greenbaum 1995), where workers were encouraged to think of themselves as entrepreneurs and act accordingly, also impacted the position of workers as a social class. Robert Reich, secretary of labor under President Clinton, coined the term “the anxious class” to account for the “millions of Americans who no longer count on having their jobs next year, or next month” (Uchitelle 1994, cited in Greenbaum 1995, 82). Simon Head adds that “the harsh and unstable work regime of the New Economy undermine[s] the security of employees and weaken[s] their bargaining power in the workplace” (Head 2003, xiii). A more decentralized and dehierarchized workplace, one that increases personal freedom and decreases alienation, is also a workplace that transfers risks from the company to individual and where working lives are more privatized and precarious.\n\nNetwork Work\n\n101","previous_page":100,"next_page":102}