1.1 About this Book
This book deals with the question: what is digital capitalism? It illuminates what it means to live in digital capitalism and presents analyses of a variety of aspects of digital capitalism and engages with the thought of a variety of critical thinkers whose theories and approaches enable a critical understanding of digital capitalism.
The book at hand is the third volume of a series of books titled “Media, Communication & Society”. The overall aim of Media, Communication & Society is to outline the foundations of a critical theory of communication and digital communication in society. It is a multi-volume book series situated on the intersection of communication theory, sociology, and philosophy. The overall questions that “Media, Communication & Society” deals with are: what is the role of communication in society? What is the role of communication in capitalism? What is the role of communication in digital capitalism?
Digital Capitalism presents and engages with the theoretical approaches of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Georg Lukács, Theodor W. Adorno, Henri Lefebvre, and Dallas Smythe as the foundation for the critical analysis of digital capitalism. The book analyses a variety of digital capitalism’s aspects, including digital positivism, administrative big data analytics, critical digital and social media research, what society we live in, everyday life in digital capitalism, the digital culture industry, the role of ideology in digital capitalism, reified consciousness on the Internet, the authoritarian personality on social media, the critical theory of digital labour and the international division of digital labour; the digital labour of Foxconn and Pegatron workers, software engineers at Google and online freelancers; the political economy of targeted-advertising–based Internet platforms such as Facebook, Google, YouTube, and Instagram; the role and relations of capitalism, patriarchy, slavery, and racism in the context of digital labour; digital alienation, the role of social media in the capitalist crisis, the relationship of imperialism and digital labour, Marx’s labour theory of value in the context of information industries, trade unions and class struggles in the digital age, platform co-operatives, digital commons, and public service Internet platforms. Digital Capitalism illuminates how a digital capitalist society’s economy, politics, and culture work and interact.
The book is organised in the form of 13 chapters, including an introduction and a conclusion. Each chapter focuses on a particular dimension of digital capitalism or a critical theorist whose work helps us to illuminate how digital capitalism works.
The chapters are organised in the form of four parts. Part 1 forms the introduction. Part 2 focuses on theorists and part 3 on themes. Part 4 is the book’s conclusion. In part 2, the discussed theorists are Friedrich Engels (chapter 2), Georg Lukács (chapter 3), Theodor W. Adorno (chapter 4), Henri Lefebvre (chapter 5), and Dallas Smythe (chapter 6). The sequence of the chapters in part 2 is organised by ascending birth dates of the discussed theorists. Karl Marx’s works are utilised throughout the book, which is why there is not a specific chapter dedicated to his works (for a discussion of Marx in the context of communicative and digital capitalism, see Fuchs 2020b, 2019, 2016b). Part 3 discusses a variety of themes and dimensions of digital capitalism, namely digital positivism (chapter 7), big data (chapter 8), social media in capitalist crises (chapter 9), the connection of capitalism, patriarchy and racism in the digital age (chapter 10), digital labour (chapters 10 and 11), and digital imperialism (chapter 11).
Here are the main questions that each chapter asks:
- Chapter 1: What is digital capitalism?
- Chapter 2: How relevant are Friedrich Engels’s works in the age of digital capitalism?
- Chapter 3: How can Georg Lukács’ book History and Class Consciousness inform the critical analysis of digital capitalism and of ideology in the digital age?
- Chapter 4: How can Theodor W. Adorno’s critical theory illuminate how digital capitalism works?
- Chapter 5: How can Henri Lefebvre’s three-volume book Critique of Everyday Life inform a critical theory of communication? How can it inform a critique of digital capitalism?
- Chapter 6: How can Dallas Smythe’s notions of the audience commodity and audience labour inform the analysis of the political economy of targeted-ad–based Internet platforms?
- Chapter 7: What are the features and problems of big data analytics? What are the features of critical digital and social media research?
- Chapter 8: How can we critically analyse and understand social media and big data’s political economy?
- Chapter 9: What have been the roles of social media in crises of capitalism?
- Chapter 10: How can understanding the relationship of exploitation and oppression inform the study of digital labour and digital capitalism?
- Chapter 11: What is the relationship of digital labour and imperialism?
- Chapter 12: How can Karl Marx’s labour theory of value inform the analysis of the information economy?
There is a number of key thinkers whom you encounter in this book. I want to introduce these thinkers briefly to the reader.
Karl Marx (1818–1883) was a philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. In 1999, he won a BBC online poll that determined the millennium’s “greatest thinker” (BBC 1999). His key works include Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, The Manifesto of the Communist Party (together with Friedrich Engels), Grundrisse, and the three volumes of Capital. Karl Marx plays a role throughout this book in all chapters. He is the most important thinker for a critical theory and critique of the political economy of communication (see Fuchs and Mosco 2012, Fuchs 2020a, 2020b, 2016b).
Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) was Marx’s closest comrade, collaborator, and friend. He co-authored The Manifesto of the Communist Party together with Marx, funded and supported Marx’s works, edited volumes two and three of Capital, and made original contributions to critical social theory with works such as The Condition of the Working Class in England and The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. Chapter 2 (“Friedrich Engels in the Age of Digital Capitalism”) is dedicated to the analysis of the relevance of Engels’s works and especially The Condition of the Working Class in England for the analysis of digital capitalism (see also the collected volume “Engels@200: Friedrich Engels in the Age of Digital Capitalism”, Fuchs 2021a).
Georg/György Lukács (1885–1971) was a philosopher who is often considered the most influential theorist of the 20th century. In his book History and Class Consciousness he coined based on Marx the notion of reified consciousness that influenced ideology critique and the development of the Frankfurt School’s notion of instrumental reason. Zur Ontologie des gesellschaftlichen Seins (The Ontology of Society’s Being) is Lukács’ second masterpiece (see Fuchs 2016a, chapter 2, and Fuchs 2018). Chapter 3 (“History and Class Consciousness 2.0: Georg Lukács in the Age of Digital Capitalism and Big Data”) is dedicated to the discussion of how History and Class Consciousness can inform the critical analysis of digital capitalism.
History and Class Consciousness has just like Karl Marx’s works influenced the development of Marxist humanism, an approach that has an emphasis on dialectical analysis alienation, practices, class struggles, and democratic socialism (see volumes 1 and 2 of my book series Media, Communication and Society, of which the volume at hand forms volume 3). In France, Henri Lefebvre has been the most important 20th-century Marxist theorist and Marxists humanist. There are many parallels between Lefebvre and Lukács. Lefebvre was the French Lukács. Henri Lefebvre (1901–1991) was a Marxist-humanist philosopher and sociologist. He can be considered as the most important and most influential French Marxist theorist. He published more than 60 books, including the three-volume The Critique of Everyday Life and The Production of Space (for an analysis of how The Production of Space matters for a critical theory of communication, see Fuchs 2019). Chapter 5 (“Communication in Everyday (Digital) Life. A Reading of Henri Lefebvre’s Critique of Everyday Life in the Age of Digital Capitalism”) analyses how Henri Lefebvre’s three-volume Critique of Everyday Life helps us to critically analyse the analysis of digital capitalism.
Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969) was a German philosopher and sociologist who together with Max Horkheimer shaped the approach of Frankfurt School critical theory. Among Adorno’s most well-known works are Dialectic of Enlightenment (written together with Horkheimer), The Authoritarian Personality, Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life, Introduction to the Sociology of Music, Hegel: Three Studies, The Jargon of Authenticity, Negative Dialectics, and Aesthetic Theory. Chapter 4 (Adorno and the Media in Digital Capitalism) analyses how Adorno’s works can inform the critical analysis of digital capitalism.
Dallas Smythe (1907–1992) was a Marxist political economist who played an important rol...
