Thanks Michael and Simon, What i find most fascinating and chilling about this stuff is how easy it is, by engaging with the mainstream culture around "networked learning" and "social networking", to internalise neoliberal values and propagate infrastructural developments that support the marketisation of every thing at every level; and endlessly recreate new domains in which inequalities are reproduced and amplified- whilst forgetting to pay attention to what other social or human relations and material realities are being simultaneously created.
I look forward to reading more on empyre about "alternative models to the marketisation and instrumentalisation of creativity and innovation". I think some of the most useful thinking I have encountered lately around these ideas have been through the network of people working at the Foundation for P2P alternatives http://p2pfoundation.net/ cheers Ruth On 26/06/11 11:33, Simon Biggs wrote: > All true - but there is another side to the story. The internet has > democratised access to the means of production and distribution of > knowledge. But at the same time corporate and government agents are working > to counter this, with proposals for the marketisation of knowledge. > Neo-liberal free-marketeers are hard at work ensuring that knowledge, in all > its aspects, will be subject the market forces and processes they espouse > and profit from. This is evidenced in the UK governments current proposal to > establish a commodity trading floor in the City of London for intellectual > property. The idea is that just as speculators trade oil or wheat they will > be able to trade the rights to what we know and understand, whether it is a > patent, publication, recording or artefact. This has profound implications > for those who work with knowledge - artists, authors, musicians, inventors, > researchers and others. > > In July there will be a discussion on this topic on empyre, considering > alternative models to the marketisation and instrumentalisation of > creativity and innovation. The intent is to articulate alternatives before > the corporate drum-beat leading to IP-marketisation gathers pace. Hopefully > those involved in related discussion on Netbehaviour and idc will join in > the debate. > > Best > > Simon > > > On 26/06/2011 01:13, "michael gurstein"<[email protected]> wrote: > >> Louder Voices and Learning Networks http://wp.me/pJQl5-76 >> >> Posted on June 25, 2011 by Michael Gurstein >> >> There is a stream of contemporary thought (with which I generally agree) >> which sees knowledge as being largely produced and disseminated by and >> through networks. That is, networks-social, technical, organizational-are >> seen as providing the basic framework within which knowledge activities >> increasingly are taking place and where knowledge workers increasingly are >> doing their work. >> >> This all seems really quite straightforward and even somehow commendable in >> that it suggests that knowledge is being disengaged from the older top-down >> authoritarian structures and institutions which so many have come to >> distrust or even despise. And of course, these networks are (or at least >> appear to be) immaterial and placeless-existing or taking their form and >> substance through invisible wires, the ether, software such as Facebook, or >> other seemingly virtual products, themselves the outcome of the digital age. >> >> An upcoming conference "Mobilityshifts" is as good as any as an example of >> this kind of thinking-asserting in a somewhat breathless way that "The >> future of learning will not be solely determined by digital culture but by >> the re-organization of power relationships and institutional protocols."... >> http://wp.me/pJQl5-76 >> >> _______________________________________________ >> NetBehaviour mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > > Simon Biggs > [email protected] > http://www.littlepig.org.uk/ > > [email protected] > http://www.elmcip.net/ > http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/ > > > > Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number > SC009201 > > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
