I agree with both assessments of Brian and Paolo of https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/PostCapitalism;
for those interested, we have a manuscript available, co-written with Vasilis Kostakis, with what we believe is a coherent and multi-modal strategy for a transition towards post-capitalism. Let me know if you want access to this google doc draft, Michel On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 4:37 PM, Paolo Gerbaudo <[email protected]> wrote: > I agree with you Brian. I think Paul Mason's book is dangerously > techno-optimistic, in line with a long tradition of thinking that sees in > technology the conditions for human emancipation, overlooking the fact, > that necessary conditions may not be necessarily sufficient conditions, and > that there is no action without consciousness and organisation. I also > profoundly disagree with Mason's idea that digital technology is > intrinsically bound to de-centralise things. If anything digital technology > has been highly centralising. Just look at Facebook, Google, and all the > digital giants. De-centralisation in user experience has gone hand in hand > with functional integration in massive systems of data-gathering and > processing which can only be described as new economic and political > centres. > > Best, > > Paolo > > On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 5:54 AM, Brian Holmes < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> This succinct review gets at the whole question of "networked labor." As >> Hillary Wainwright notes, the precarious networked laborers will not gain >> political agency as a mere logical consequence of IT. Instead, agency has >> to be created as a social process. "For this political dimension we need >> a critical history of networked, movement ways of organising." That's the >> crucial understatement of the whole neolieral period. >> >> When such a history of how people actually struggle is placed into >> tension with well-argued normative concepts about why and for what we >> should struggle, then it becomes possible to build towards an overcoming of >> capitalism. >> >> Explanatory discourse is easy, especially in the retrospect that >> academics love. Normative statements - I mean, about what society *ought* >> to be, or what it ought to become - are risky yet necessary. Critical >> histories that engage with actual struggles while maintaining the inquiry >> into future possibilities are both potent and rare. My thanks to all who >> have worked on such things. >> >> best, Brian >> >> >> >> >> >> On Sun, Oct 23, 2016 at 4:25 AM, Orsan <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> >>> >>> http://www.redpepper.org.uk/postcapitalism-a-guide-to-our-fu >>> ture-by-paul-mason/ >>> Hilary Wainwright <http://www.redpepper.org.uk/by/hilary-wainwright> reviews >>> Paul Mason's latest book and questions how far information technology is >>> leading us towards a post-capitalist economy >>> October 2015 >>> >>> [image: post-capitalism-mason] >>> >>> This is an important book whose ambitious scope stimulates thoughts on >>> the big issues: through what means of adaption is capitalism surviving? >>> What are their limits? Are signs of these limits appearing? Paul Mason >>> connects his answers with proposals for new strategic thinking on the left. >>> He suggests tendencies that produce a dynamic beyond capitalism. He >>> attempts to sketch out how we might build on these tendencies to achieve an >>> alternative to capitalism. It is a captivating but not wholly convincing >>> read. >>> >>> Mason combines outrageously bold assertions with detailed empirical >>> analyses of actually existing capitalism that undermine his own broad-brush >>> assertions on how it could be. My central doubt concerns the agency or >>> causal power he ascribes to information technology (IT). In his >>> introductory chapter he asserts: ‘Information is different from every >>> previous technology. As I will show, its spontaneous tendency is to >>> dissolve markets, destroy ownership and break down the relationship between >>> work and wages.’ >>> >>> In his conclusion, he compares the impact of IT with that of >>> contraception. We are ‘witnessing a 40,000-year-old system of male power >>> begin to dissolve before our eyes as a result of change triggered by a >>> different kind of technology: the contraceptive pill’. Indeed, it is his >>> excited optimism about the trends associated with new IT towards sharing, >>> the creation of non-monetary value and new forms of production that drives >>> the book. His anticipation of his conclusion – ‘Information technology is >>> leading us towards a post-capitalist economy’ – sums it up. >>> >>> Mason is right to stress the insufficiently understood importance of >>> these developments, which he situates in a wider political economy. Yet >>> when he goes on to analyse the forces at work in the capitalist world as it >>> is, he describes forms of power that will not easily ‘dissolve’. He >>> outlines, for example, ‘the creation of monopolies on information and the >>> vigorous defence of intellectual property’. Drawing on his brilliant TV >>> coverage of Greece, he identifies the determination and power of political >>> elites to ensure that any transitional tendencies are definitively blocked. >>> The power of IT and the collaboration it facilitates has been necessary to >>> recent movements of rebellion but is not proving sufficient to bring down >>> authoritarian regimes and transform society. >>> >>> While Mason is unconvincing in demonstrating a transition to a >>> post-capitalist order, what does emerge from his book is that we are now on >>> a contested terrain over what the changes he describes are moving towards. >>> It is full of ambivalences and risks as well as opportunities for >>> transformative politics. It is a terrain of strategic struggle that the >>> left ignores at its peril and for which left organisations need to >>> radically change. >>> >>> On the one hand are the distributed, peer-to-peer forms of production >>> made possible by new information and communication technologies and >>> especially commons-based peer-to-peer production in which value is created >>> by ‘produsers’ in shared innovation commons. On the other hand, as we’ve >>> seen with Microsoft, Facebook and Google, is capital’s economic power and >>> will to monetise and appropriate the value created through this expanded >>> connectivity. >>> >>> The notion of a contested terrain raises the question of agency. Mason >>> addresses this, first negatively to insist that it is not the working class >>> as we have known it, and then sociologically – describing the lifestyles of >>> the young generation of precarious, highly connected, highly educated >>> graduates. But he does not discuss their sources of power and possible >>> strategies and organisational form in depth, beyond celebrating the idea of >>> the network. For this political dimension we need a critical history of >>> networked, movement ways of organising. >>> >>> Non-hierarchical, collaborative ways of organising pre-date information >>> technology, though their recent growth has undoubtedly been facilitated by >>> the newly available techno-political tools. In particular, the women’s >>> liberation movement and other rebellions of the 1960s and 70s placed much >>> emphasis on gathering and exchanging information and breaking open the >>> secrecy of the dominant order. Their political concern was to identify the >>> fundamental causes of why things were as the information revealed – and >>> then to change them. This involved the collaborative production and >>> dissemination of explanatory knowledge. >>> >>> The production of knowledge is a significant step beyond the exchange of >>> information and requires more complex forms of organistion – for sustained >>> debate, experiment, investigation and decision-making – than simply >>> connectivity. Mason’s omission of the historical dimension of today’s >>> networked culture leads him to confuse and conflate information with >>> knowledge, and to use the two concepts interchangably. This means that he >>> tends towards an almost technological conception of organisation. But once >>> the production of knowledge becomes an issue, explaining what the >>> information tells us and guiding our strategies for change, all kinds of >>> difficult issues arise of building political organisations adequate to the >>> kinds of power we face. These problems are not dissolved by IT any more >>> than is capitalism – or, for that matter, is male power dissolved by the >>> contraceptive pill. >>> >>> Paul Mason has certainly written a guide to our future but it is a guide >>> with which we will want to critically discuss at every turn – exactly the >>> preparation needed for the contested terrain in which we find ourselves. >>> >>> >>> >>> Sent from my iPad >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> NetworkedLabour mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://lists.contrast.org/mailman/listinfo/networkedlabour >>> >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> NetworkedLabour mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.contrast.org/mailman/listinfo/networkedlabour >> >> > > > -- > Paolo Gerbaudo > Lecturer in Digital Culture and Society, King's College London > my blog: tweetsandthestreets.org > twitter: @paologerbaudo > UK mobile: 00447432383579 > Egyptian mobile: 00201111052097 > > > _______________________________________________ > NetworkedLabour mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.contrast.org/mailman/listinfo/networkedlabour > > -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/
_______________________________________________ P2P Foundation - Mailing list Blog - http://www.blog.p2pfoundation.net Wiki - http://www.p2pfoundation.net Show some love and help us maintain and update our knowledge commons by making a donation. Thank you for your support. https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/donation https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation
