{"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":48,"pdf_page":52,"physical_index":52,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"b104741728df9ae368584b0548da2245d536b5e13151d26bc10d65c3df18ad70"},"chapter":"Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age","content":"This chapter examines the digital discourse at the intersection of network technology and the market. It introduces key texts in Wired magazine that deal with contemporary economy and specifically with the transformations in the workings of the free market due to network technology. According to the digital discourse, as the market is integrated into network technology, it becomes more frictionless and more rational; it is rendered more self-regulating and hence demands almost no external political regulation; and it becomes more chaotic and unstable and, in turn, requires the nodes of the network—both individuals and companies—to be flexible and adaptive to an ever-changing environment. These narratives of a network market provide a cognitive map that explains the transformation from the embedded liberalism of the Fordist era to the neoliberalism of the post-Fordist era. By relying on a technologistic framework, the digital discourse on the network market legitimates the trend whereby markets are becoming more autonomous and disembedded from social regulation and are seen as ideal mechanisms for the administration of social reproduction. Through a close reading of the similarities between the digital discourse and neoliberal discourse, this chapter uncovers the degree to which the notion of network markets in the digital discourse is founded on the basic image of markets as portrayed by neoliberal theory. The notion of networks is rooted and constructed within the paradigm of markets—that is, as a template to understand not only markets but also society as markets. Set within the theoretical framework of this book, this chapter argues that the discourse on network markets legitimizes and depoliticizes the withdrawal of the Keynesian welfare state and the emergence of a new economic regime of neoliberalism. This chapter also points out the degree to which the network market is seen as a response to the humanist critique of capitalism and a transcendence of the limitations set forth by the embedded market of the Fordist era.\n\nThe chapter proceeds by analyzing two key dynamics that lie at the heart of the digital-discourse explanation of the revolutionary nature of the network economy: spontaneous order and chaos. According to the digital discourse, the new economic and market rationality of the network economy relies on spontaneous order, which in turn is premised on network technology. The contemporary realities of flux, instability, unpredictability, and chaos in the market are tied in the digital discourse to the market being more networked and its operation based on spontaneous order. The last part of the chapter adds another dimension to the analysis by discussing the theoretical underpinning of neoliberalism. Through a discussion on spontaneous order and chaos in neoliberal theory, this chapter shows the transposition of a theoretical model and a political project into a technologistic and seemingly apolitical discourse. The concluding discussion clarifies the theoretical significance of the affinity between neoliberalism as a market ideology and the discourse on network technology within Habermas’s framework of a technologistic political legitimation.\n\n48\n\nMedia and New Capitalism in the Digital Age","previous_page":47,"next_page":49}