Networking the Working Classes: Transforming Digital Capitalism in China and Beyond?
Jack Qiu, School of Journalism and Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Global capitalism has entered a digital era. This transformation is powered by the rise of network labor – IT manufacture workers, employees working on software, content, and services – especially in newly industrialized countries like China, creating new working classes as a result. What if these new working classes are networked, not only technologically but also socially, beyond the logic of transnational capital? Will it lead to more power consolidation within the Chinese party-state, or sow new seeds for global democracy from the Far East?
From a long-term perspective on class politics and the transformation of new media industries, Jack Qiu's talk will focus on recent development since the 2008 global financial crisis.
Thursday 15 March 2012
5.30-7 pm, Goldsmiths Richard Hoggart Building (main building) Small Hall/Cinema
New Seminar Series: Democracy From Below
Friday 14 October 2011
Narrative, performativity and revolution in Egypt
Professor Jeffrey Alexander, Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University
Professor Farhad Khosrokhavar, École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
Chaired by Professor Kate Nash, Sociology, Goldsmiths. Contact: k.nash@gold.ac.uk
4-6pm, Goldsmiths Richard Hoggart Building (main building) Small Hall/Cinema
Thursday 9 February 2012
Democracy and social movements
Professor Donatella Della Porta, European University Institute, Florence, with Professor Natalie Fenton, Media and Communications, Goldsmiths, and Professor Kate Nash, Sociology, Goldsmiths
Chaired by Professor Nick Couldry, Media and Communications, Goldsmiths. Contact: n.couldry@gold.ac.uk
5-7pm, Goldsmiths New Academic Building (NAB) LG02
Thursday 8 March 2012
Citizenship after Orientalism
Professor Engin Isin, Open University, with Professor Sanjay Seth, Politics, Goldsmiths, and Dr Ipek Demir, Sociology, University of Leicester
Chaired by Professor Kate Nash, Sociology, Goldsmiths. Contact: k.nash@gold.ac.uk
5-7pm, Goldsmiths New Academic Building (NAB) LG02
Mapping Digital Media
Des Freedman and Justin Schlosberg publish report with the Open Society Foundation.
With access to broadband and the internet steadily rising towards saturation levels the UK will complete the transition to digital broadcasting in 2012. While this transition will be completed under budget and without major setbacks, Des Freedman and Justin Schlosberg point out in their report ‘Mapping Digital Media’ that it is by no means clear that citizens and society at large will benefit from the digital transition.
The spread of the internet and digital media tends to undermine the media structures that have served the UK well for the past half century. Not only the newspapers are in a crisis with quality newspapers experiencing a 25 percent decline in circulation between 2005 and 2010. But also the BBC, according to the authors, ‘has found itself increasingly caught in a vice’ as it aims to achieve sufficient audience while it simultaneously has to provide the merit goods.
Due to the scale of the crisis, Freedman and Schlosberg recommend a full-scale media commission into the state of the news media, and new forms of support for public service in the media. As it appears unlikely that the market will address these severe issues, the authors suggest that it is the government who needs to ensure that the public interest is not eclipsed as the media ecology of a digital Britain beds down.
Read the full report here: http://www.mediapolicy.org/mapping-digital-media-UK