Technology & ClassWeek 5-6

ARIN2600 Technocultures

Session 1, 2009Chris Chesher

This week’s readings• Florida, Richard (2003) The rise of the creative class:

and how it's transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life. North Melbourne: Pluto Press, 67–82.

• Wark, McKenzie (2004) ‘Class’ and ‘Hacking’ in A hacker manifesto, Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, Pars 24-47 and 71–88ARIN3000

• Kroker, Arthur; and (2001) ‘The theory of the virtual class’ in Trend, David (2001) Reading digital culture, Malden, Mass. and Oxford: Blackwell. pp 144–153.

Bejewelled mobile phoneGoldvish diamond-encrusted

mobile phonehttp://blogs.modernjeweler.com/blog/2007/03/

Class

• structured differences between groups of people

• relationships betw. economic structures, cultural differences & collective identities

• power differentials:

• power: the chance of a man or of a number of men to realize their own will in a communal action even against the resistance of other who are participation in the action (Weber)

the Corporation

‘Externalities’

http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/image/marx.gif

Marxist class

• Bourgeoisie

• owners of capital, exploiters of labour power (industrial, merchant, finance & landed)

• produced surplus value

• History: capitalists displaced feudal landlords

• Proletariat

• exploited; antagonistic relationship

• Others: lumpenproletariat, petit bourgeoisie, landlords

http://hangingodes.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/weber.jpg

Weberian class

• Class: economic base for communal action

• market situation• property/lack of property; creditor/debtor

• Status groups

• social estimation of honour • (style of life; rituals; ethnicity)

• Parties:

• oriented towards acquisition of power

• rational action

The American Ruling ClassDirected by John Kirby

Written by Lewis Lapham

Class & Technology

• Technology as the means of production

• Alienation (factory system; Fordism; Taylorism)

• Technology & class interests

• social shaping (design reflects & reinforces class interests)

• Base and superstructure:

• Technology as ideology

• Distinction (Bourdieu): class and taste

Class & Technology

• Inequality

• unequal access to technology

• Consumption

• system of objects (Baudrillard)

• mobile privatisation (Williams)

• technology as ideology / spectacle

• Shoshana Zuboff

• production & work: ‘informating’

The ‘Digital Divide’

• Unequal access

• Internet use in Australia• 2002 52% under $40k; 89% over $80k

• 2006-7 <40k 50%; over $80k 83-93% have internet access at home

• ABS Household Use of Information Technology, Australia, 2001-02 and 2006-7 (8146.0)

• Literacy / competency

• Cultural capital

• Community informatics

8146.0 - Household Use of Information Technology, Australia,

2007-08 (Dec 2008)

Class & social networks

• MySpace v Facebook — danah boyd

• These teens are very aware of MySpace and they often have a negative opinion about it. They see it as gaudy, immature, and "so middle school." They prefer the "clean" look of Facebook, noting that it is more mature and that MySpace is "so lame." What hegemonic teens call gaudy can also be labeled as "glitzy" or "bling" or "fly" (or what my generation would call "phat") by subaltern teens.

ICTs & class

• Link betw. Cultural capital, habitus and cultural form — North et al

• ‘Social background is part of what helps form young people’s habitus and this, in turn, affects their approach, and interest in, ICT at home and in school.’ (909)

• North, Sue, Ilana Snyder and Scott Bulfin. 2008. "DIGITAL TASTES: Social class and young people's technology use." Information, Communication & Society 11(7):895 - 911.

Free software movement

• Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for software users :

• *The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).

• * The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

• * The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).

• * The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

ClassesIdentify examples & discuss these categorisations

Florida Wark Kroker & Weinstein

Super-creative classCreative classWorking classService classAgriculture

Pastoralist classCapitalist classVectoralist class

FarmersWorking classHacker class

Virtual class

VisionariesVIsionless capitalists

TechiesTechnointelligentsia

Hypertexted body

Next week

• Technology and space

• Saco: critical survey of intersections of information technology and space — a heterotopia

• Hrachovec: detailed reading of ‘telepresence’ and its tendency to break down assumptions about space, time, communication

Essays

• Exercise in writing essay questions

• based on a contemporary theme or case study

• draw on concepts & debates from the course readings

• any ideas? Discuss them in the tutorial.