Internet and Society - Social Theory in the Information Age

Preface ...................................................................................................................................4 1. Introduction........................................................................................................................5 2. Self-Organization and Cooperation...................................................................................13 2.1. Characteristics of Self-organizing Systems.................................................................13 2.2. Self-Organization and Dialectical Philosophy ............................................................18 2.3. Self-Organization as Ideology: Hayek’s Theory of Competition.................................22 2.4. An Alternative: Self-Organization in Society as Human Cooperation.........................28 2.5. Conclusion.................................................................................................................30 3. Society and Dynamic Social Theory .................................................................................31 3.1. Anti-Luhmann: Niklas Luhmann’s Revolution in Social Science?..............................31 3.2. Humans and Society ..................................................................................................35 3.3. The Self-Organization of Social Systems ...................................................................41 3.4. Dialectics and Evolution ............................................................................................48 3.5. Society as Dynamic System .......................................................................................51 3.6. Modern Society as Dynamic System ..........................................................................58 3.6.1. Capital Accumulation and Competition in the Modern Economic System ...........61 3.6.2. Capital Accumulation and Competition in the Modern Political System ..............63 3.6.3. Capital Accumulation and Competition in the Modern Cultural System ..............73 3.6.4. Implications of Competition and Accumulation for the Ecosphere and the Technosphere................................................................................................................75 3.7. Conclusion.................................................................................................................78 4. The Rise of Transnational Informational Capitalism .........................................................79 4.1. Conceptualizing Contemporary Society .....................................................................79 4.2. The Rise of Transnational Informational/Network Capitalism ....................................84 4.3. Conclusion: Cooperation and Competition in Transnational Network Capitalism.......94 5. Social Internet Dynamics..................................................................................................96 5.1. The Internet as a Dynamic Techno-Social System......................................................96 5.2. Web 1.0 as Dynamic Techno-Social System ..............................................................97 5.3. The Rise of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0: Communication and Cooperation Online .............99 5.4. Virtual Reality and Cyberspace................................................................................107 5.5. Conclusion...............................................................................................................109 6. Competition and Cooperation in the Informational Ecology............................................110 6.1. ICTs and Transport ..................................................................................................110 6.2. A Weightless Economy? ..........................................................................................111 6.3. Virtual Products as a Foundation of a Sustainable Society?......................................112 6.4. Conclusion...............................................................................................................114 7. Competition and Cooperation in the Internet Economy ...................................................116 7.1. The “Network Enterprise”: Cooperation as Ideology................................................116 7.1.1. Corporations and Team Work............................................................................116 7.1.2. Transnational Corporations: Cooperation for Competition and Profit ................120 7.2. Informational Capitalism: Commodity- or Gift-Economy?.......................................122 7.2.1. Cooperation in the Internet Economy: Open Source and the Informational Gift Economy ....................................................................................................................125 7.2.2. Competition in the Internet Economy: Informational Monopolies......................128 7.2.3. The Gift Commodity Internet Economy: Strategies of Accumulation in Informational Capitalism ............................................................................................133 7.3. Class Competition in Informational Capitalism ........................................................147 7.3.1. Knowledge Labor as Non-Class ........................................................................150 7.3.2. Knowledge Labor as Class ................................................................................153 7.4. Conclusion...............................................................................................................161 2