{"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":69,"pdf_page":73,"physical_index":73,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"9ecc6a82276e6a0fb9f405a676ab3fac1bd8fed074aaa18369253e1c8c7eec6d"},"chapter":"Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age","content":"Hence, Hayek’s theory is a critique of the neoclassical equilibrium theory. Markets are “always in disequilibrium” (Ashford and Davies 1991, 170–73) and in “flux” (Sally 1998, 20), fostering “restless individuals” to engage in a perpetual “discovery procedure” (Ashford and Davies 1991, 170–73). Both the digital discourse and neoliberal theory expect spontaneous order to be in perpetual flux and both recommend the same recipes to cope with that: for the individual—adaptation through flexibility; for states—laissez faire policies and withdrawal from the market (and, by proxy, from society).\n\nThere is a straight line going from the digital discourse’s ideas about the chaos of markets and the connection between chaos and technological innovation and progress to the ideas of another prominent figure in the school of Austrian economics (11–14) and a contemporary of Hayek.<sup>6</sup> For Joseph Schumpeter, too, capitalism is inherently and benevolently marked by a state of disequilibrium. Schumpeter assigns a prime role in a capitalist market to technological innovations. These innovations bring about a state of “creative destruction”: they create new wants and products and, at the same time, render older wants, commodities, and jobs obsolete. Therefore, “creative destruction” is a prime motor of economic growth, but, at the same time, it makes capitalist markets unpredictable, combining “long-term growth with boom-and-bust cycles” (Fuller 1999). Periods of great economic turbulence are therefore seen as an indication that the market is in the midst of a (benevolent, positive, and progressive) process of creative destruction. The state is advised not to interfere in the market in such times and not to mitigate these great disruptions.\n\nThis last point by Schumpeter brings us to the final parallel between the digital discourse and neoliberal theory: a strong advocacy for the insulation of the market from the democratic political process. As we have seen above, in the digital discourse it is information networks that render the operation of markets more rational. More precisely, the rationality predicated on the spontaneous order that emerges from the decentralized coordination of disparate nodes materializes and reaches its full potential with the digitization of these procedures. The rationality of network markets is suggested to be, in the digital discourse, universal and apolitical.\n\nNetwork Market\n\n69","previous_page":68,"next_page":70}