Digital Capitalism

Methodological appendix: the information sector and the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities

Freeman (1998) uses input/output data from the UK National Office of Statistics that based on International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC) Revision 3 uses a highly aggregated distinction between 11 industries that does not allow focusing on the information sector in particular. The information industries are in these data supplied by the UK Office of National Statistics subsumed under the categories “real estate, renting, and business activities”, “transport, storage, and communication”, “manufacturing”, and “other community, social, and personal service activities”. So in ISIC Revision 3 the category “72 Computer and related activities” is part of K Real estate, renting, and business activities. “642 Telecommunications” is part of “64 Post and telecommunications” that is again part of “I Transport, storage, and communications” so that physical transport, communications, and postal services are merged together into a mobility sector that includes both physical and data transport. “22 Publishing, printing, and reproduction of recorded media” (221 Publishing, 222 Printing and service activities related to printing, 223 Reproduction of recorded media) is part of the manufacturing sector “D Manufacturing”. “743 Advertising” is a subcategory of “74 Other business activities” that belongs to “K Real estate, renting, and business activities”. Broadcasting and entertainment are merged as “92 Recreational, cultural, and sporting activities” (921 Motion picture, radio, television, and other entertainment activities, 922 News agency activities, 923 Library, archives, museums, and other cultural activities, 924 Sporting and other recreational activities) are part of “O Other community, social, and personal service activities”. Given that statistical data tend to be highly aggregated and that disaggregation down to more detailed statistical levels is rare, it is based on ISIC Revision 3 rather difficult to calculate data for the information industries.

The United Nations Statistics Division introduced the ISIC Revision 4 in August 2008.

The data that is available based on this classification is still limited in terms of countries and the available time period. At the time of analysis (January 2014), the UN’s Structural Analysis Database (STAN) Statistics Database provided data for 15 countries from 2000 until 2011 based on ISIC Revision 4, whereas for Revision 3 it held data for 35 countries from 1970 until 2009. Using the ISIC Revision 3 data clearly pose advantages in terms of the available countries and time period, but it is impossible to disentangle the information sector data from other data. So for example for many countries there is only data for “C90T93 Other community, social, and personal data”. The analysis of the information economy is interested in “C92 Recreational, cultural, and sporting activities” that is not available separately, but only aggregated together with “C90 Sewage and refuse disposal, sanitation, and similar activities”, “C91 Activities of membership organizations”, and “C93 Other service activities”. Similarly telecommunications is merged with postal services as “C64 Post and telecommunications”. If one is only interested in telecommunications, then no separate data are available.

ISIC Revision 4 poses advantages for the analysis of the information economy. Its limit is that thus far only data for a few countries are available, that economically powerful countries are missing (for example China, Japan, the UK, Brazil, Russia, India, Canada, Australia, Spain, Mexico, Indonesia, and Turkey), and that historical data have not been recoded. The advantage is however that the statistical aggregates are more userfriendly and ready to use for the analysis of the information economy. Another benefit is in this respect the introduction of a new sector “J Information and communication” that consists of the following statistical aggregates:

58 Publishing activities,

59 Motion picture, video and television programme production, sound recording and music publishing activities,

60 Programming and broadcasting activities,

61 Telecommunications,

62 Computer programming, consultancy and related activities,

63 Information service activities.

Chapter Twelve | The Information Economy

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References

In addition, I have selected the following example sectors that are important for the analysis of the information economy:

73 Advertising and market research (part of 73 Professional, scientific and technical activities):

731 Advertising,

732 Market research and public opinion polling;

R Arts, entertainment and recreation:

90 Creative, arts and entertainment activities,

91 Libraries, archives, museums and other cultural activities,

92 Gambling and betting activities,

93 Sports activities and amusement and recreation activities.

Advertising is a communication service. Market research and public opinion are data collection services. Therefore, arguably these two categories could be part of the information and communication sector.

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Themes

Part IV

Conclusion

Chapter Thirteen Conclusion

13.1 Digital Capitalism

13.2 Economic Aspects of Digital Capitalism

13.3 Political Aspects of Digital Capitalism

13.4 Ideological Aspects of Digital Capitalism

13.5 Alternatives to Digital Capitalism

This chapter draws conclusions from the twelve preceding chapters on a meta-level. This book has asked: what is digital capitalism? It has illuminated what it means to live in digital capitalism. It has presented analyses of economic, political, and ideological aspects of digital capitalist society. It has engaged with the thought of a variety of critical thinkers whose theories and approaches enable a critical understanding of digital capitalism, including Karl Marx, Theodor W. Adorno, Henri Lefebvre, Georg Lukács, Dallas Smythe, and Friedrich Engels.

13.1 Digital Capitalism

Capitalism is not simply an economic system, but a social totality, societal formation, and type of society. The economy plays an important role in capitalist society but the latter cannot be reduced to it. Each social system has its own economy, which means that social production plays an important role. In capitalism, the logic of accumulation, alienation, alienated labour, and class relations play a role in all aspects of life and society. Marx was aware of the dialectic of economy and society in capitalism, which is why he referred to capitalism as economic mode of production and as capitalist society. Class, labour, and exploitation are not the determining aspects of capitalist society, but all aspects of capitalist society stand in a relation to and are shaped by, conditioned by, and intertwined with class, labour, and exploitation.

The capitalist economy is a class system, in which workers produce commodities with the help of means of production that are the private property of members of the capitalist class. These commodities are sold on commodity markets so that profit is achieved and capital can be accumulated. Class relations where capital exploits labour are a key feature of the capitalist economy. Workers are alienated from the conditions of production in class society because they do not own the means of production and the products of their labour.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003222149-13

The logic of accumulation is not limited to the realm of the economy but extends into the political and cultural realms. We can therefore speak of capitalist society. Capitalism is a type of society where the mass of humans is alienated from the conditions of economic, political, and cultural production, which means that they do not control the conditions that shape their lives, which enables privileged groups’ accumulation of capital in the economy, decision-power in politics, and reputation, attention, and respect in culture. Alienation in the economy means the dominant class exploitation of the working class’ labour. Alienation in non-economic systems means domination, that is, one group’s benefits at the expense of other groups via means of control such as state power, ideology, and violence. In capitalism, we find the accumulation of capital in the economy, the accumulation of decision-power and influence in politics, and the accumulation of reputation, attention, and respect in culture. The key aspect is not that there is growth, but that there is the attempt of the dominant class and dominant groups to accumulate power at the expense of others who as a consequence have disadvantages. Capitalist society is therefore based on an economic antagonism of exploitation between classes and social antagonisms of domination.

Digital capitalism is the dimension of capitalist society where processes of the accumulation of capital, decision-power, and reputation are mediated by and organised with the help of digital technologies and where economic, political, and cultural processes result in digital goods and digital structures. Digital labour, digital capital, the digital means of production, political online communication, digital aspects of protests and social struggles, ideology online, and influencer-dominated digital culture are some of the features of digital capitalism. In digital capitalism, the accumulation of capital and power is mediated by digital technologies. There are economic, political, and cultural-ideological dimensions of digital capitalism. Digital capitalism is an antagonistic dimension of society, a dimension that stands for how the economic class antagonism and the social relations of domination are shaped by and shape digitalisation. Digital capitalism’s antagonisms are the class antagonism between digital labour and digital capital, the political antagonism between digital dictators and digital citizens, and the cultural antagonism between digital ideologues and digital humans.

Big data analytics and computational social science have emerged as a new paradigm in research. This paradigm is a form of digital positivism (see chapter 7) that fetishizes quantification. It is a type of instrumental reason, what Georg Lukács characterises as reification (see chapter 5), and what Engels criticises as naïve materialism (see section 3.2 in chapter 3). The danger is that computer science colonises the social sciences and leaves no space and time for critical theory, social theory, and philosophy. The main danger of the computational social science is that it makes the social sciences uncritical and turns them into administrative sciences. Ethics, morals, critique, theory, emotions, affects, motivations, worldviews, interpretations, political assessments, power, social struggles, contradictions love, sadness, happiness, (dis)respect, (in)justice, solidarity, etc. cannot be properly understood by purely or predominantly quantitative methods.

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Conclusion

Critical digital and social media research is the alternative to digital positivism (see chapter 7). It combines critical digital theory, critical digital methods, and critical-realist social media research ethics. Critical theories of society play an important role as guiding approach of critical digital and social media research. The latter approach uses critical, creative, and experimental methods that combine aspects of quantitative data with a qualitative understanding of humans’ motivations, experiences, interpretations, norms, and values; and it interprets the world with the help of critical theories and philosophy.

We can learn from critical theory and from critical theorists such as Marx, Engels, Lefebvre, Lukács, and Adorno that we should think dialectically about digital technologies in society. Digitalisation advances new potentials for the creation of a good, democratic, socialist, humanist society but under class and dominative relations often has negative impacts on society. For example, Henri Lefebvre sees on the one hand the potentials of computing to deepen class contradictions and on the other hand its potential to make the end of toil possible (see chapter 5).

13.2 Economic Aspects of Digital Capitalism

Digital capitalism’s economy is the realm where digital commodities are produced and sold. Digital capital is produced and accumulated based on a variety of models that together form the digital culture industry (see chapter 4). These models are based on the commodity that is produced and sold. Digital commodities include digital content, software, digital finance, computing hardware, access to digital networks, targeted online ads, commodities sold in e-shops, services sold via online platforms, goods rented out via apps and online platforms, access to collections of digital resources such as entertainment, and the combination of various digital commodities.

Chapter Thirteen | Conclusion

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Economic Aspects of Digital Capitalism

Digital labour is organised as a class relation between digital workers and digital capitalism on a global scale, the international division of digital labour (see chapter 11). Capitalists aim to maximise their profits by minimising labour costs in the international division of labour.

Transnational digital corporations exploit a variety of digital labour that create different interacting digital goods and services. For example, Apple in its production of iPhones exploits mineral extractors in Africa, hardware assemblers at Foxconn and Pegatron in China, software and hardware engineers, and a variety of service workers (see chapter 11; section 2.3.3 in chapter 2). Other forms of digital labour we have encountered in this book are users’ unpaid digital labour of using targeted-advertising-based online platforms such as Facebook and Google (section 2.3.6 in chapter 2; chapter 6; chapter 8), play labour at Google (section 2.3.4 in chapter 2), precarious platform labour performed by freelancers via apps and Internet platforms such as Uber, DiDi, Deliveroo, Fiverr, Upwork, or Freelancer (section 2.3.5. in chapter 2). Such forms of labour interact in the international division of labour. For example, software engineers and digital freelancers use computers that are created by the labour of miners in Africa and Chinese hardware assemblers. Freelancers make use of software and platforms programmed by software engineers. The international division of digital labour encompasses the whole mode of digital production that contains a network of agricultural, industrial, and informational forms of work that enables the existence and usage of digital media. The international division of digital labour is a complex network that involves global interconnected processes of exploitation, such as the exploitation of Congolese slave-miners who extract minerals that are used as the physical foundation for information and communication technology (ICT) components that are manufactured by millions of highly exploited Fordist wage-workers in factories such as Foxconn, low-paid software engineers in India, highly paid and highly stressed software engineers at Google and other Western software and Internet corporations, or precarious freelancers in the world’s global cities who are using digital technologies to create and disseminate culture, poisoned eWaste workers who disassemble ICTs and thereby come in touch with toxic materials, etc.

Dallas Smythe’s concepts of the audience commodity and audience labour help explaining how value-generation works on ad-financed social media platforms (see chapter 6). The difference between the audience commodity in broadcasting and on social media is that in the online world we find user-generated content (prosumption, productive consumption), constant surveillance of the Internet users that allows targeting and personalising ads, and algorithmic auctions (see chapter 6).

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Conclusion

Unwaged labour plays an important role in digital capitalism. Kylie Jarrett argues that Facebook users are digital workers who are unwaged just like houseworkers (see chapter 10). Jack Qiu shows that slavery is not a past form of exploitation, but continues to exist in digital capitalism. For example, slavery can be found in African mines where slaves at gunpoint extract minerals that form the physical foundation of the hardware of computing and communication equipment (see chapter 10).

13.3 Political Aspects of Digital Capitalism

Social struggles in capitalism are organised around antagonisms between digital commodities and the digital commons in the economy, digital authoritarianism and digital democracy in politics, and digital hatred/division/ideology and digital friendship in culture (see table 1.4 in chapter 1 and section 5.4.2 in chapter 5 on Henri Lefebvre).

Digital socialism begins and develops through class struggles of digital workers. If the labour movement and trade unions do not succeed in engaging and organising on issues such as digital labour, domestic labour, unpaid labour, freelance labour, crowdsourcing, platform labour, consumer labour, the labour of Internet users, privacy, digital surveillance, consumer protection, slave labour, etc., and if they do not see these issues as key to labour struggles, these movements commit suicide. In digital capitalism, strikes need to add new digital dimensions of struggles in order to be effective. Unions and labour movements should be present on social media and should mobilise and organise via social media and communicate their goals using hashtags, video platforms, social networking sites, messenger apps, blogs, memes, digital images, digital animations, etc. Digital corporations such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon accumulate capital online, which is why digital strikes against such companies should make use of user-boycotts.

13.4 Ideological Aspects of Digital Capitalism

Theodor W. Adorno’s F-scale and concept of authoritarianism help us to understand and analyse digital authoritarianism, the communication of authoritarianism on the Internet (see chapter 4). An example is the way of how Donald Trump used the social media platforms Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram (see chapter 4 on the use of Adorno use for analysing Trump and ideology online; section 3.2 in chapter 3 on Lukács) until his accounts were banned in January 2021 after his followers had stormed the US

Chapter Thirteen | Conclusion

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Ideological Aspects of Digital Capitalism