Community as commodity

Kreps, DGP; Pearson, E

Abstract

Despite utopian claims that the internet generally and Social Networking Sites (SNS) (including multi-user virtual environments, or MUVE) in particular herald a challenge to the dominance of capitalist ideologies in technological societies, there is growing evidence that SNS and MUVE are actually part of a hegemonic transnational agenda of conservative venture capital which reinforces hierarchies of consumption. By appropriating these various virtual social networks (either as part of the development of the infrastructure or ‘after the fact’), these SNS in fact demonstrate the continued and thriving hegemony of capitalism in the wired world. Using the works of Gramsci
and Gill to provide a critical grounding, this paper will examine some of the flagship SNS of Web 2.0 particularly Facebook and explore how, rather than challenging existing top-down hierarchies and structures, these social networks have in fact been appropriated by them.

Citation

Kreps, D., & Pearson, E. (2008, July). Community as commodity. Presented at IFIP WG 9.5 International Working Conference on Virtuality and Society: Massive Virtual Communities, Leuphana University, Luneburg, Germany

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: IFIP WG 9.5 International Working Conference on Virtuality and Society: Massive Virtual Communities
• Conference Location: Leuphana University, Luneburg, Germany
• Start Date: Jul 1, 2008
• End Date: Jul 2, 2008
• Publication Date: Jul 1, 2008
• Deposit Date: Jan 16, 2009
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 16, 2009
• Publisher URL: http://www.kreps.org/papers/communityascommodity_ifip95final.pdf
• Related Public URLs: http://www.ifip95wg.org
• Additional Information: Additional Information : IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing); Event Type : Conference