CCT 205

The Network Economy

Essence of Network Technology(D.Barney)

• Mastery of nature• Rational instrumentality: efficiency of

means over worthiness of ends• Standardization• Time - space compression (D. Harvey)• Deterritorialization• Interactivity and customization

Technology and Society

• Instrumentalism– Technologies are neutral tools– Outcomes depend on how technologies are used

• Substantivism– Technology embodies specific values & ways of being

in the world• Social constructivism

– Impact of technology determined by the social relations and local conditions that support the technology. Possibility of many different kinds of impacts depending on social interactions

ICTs & Social Transformation

• Popular view of technology as force for societal transformation (Toffler, 1980)

• Technological innovation seen as driver of transformation of core economic/social structures characteristic of capitalist societies for past 2 centuries

• Claim that ICTs are forging new modes of production and shifting economy from industrial to post-industrial model.

Old versus New Economy

• Industrial– Technology– Products– Leading industries– Labour market– Nature of work

• Post Industrial– Technology– Products– Leading industries– Labour market– Nature of work

‘Old’ Manufacturing in the Auto Sector

‘New’ Manufacturing in the Auto Sector

Fordism Post Fordism

• Late 19th century to mid-20th century

• Mass mechanized production

• Standardized goods• Highly segmented

process of production (assembly line)

• Economic restructuring in 1980s to increase flexibility

• Just in time deliveries of special or small batch orders

• Flattening of management hierarchy

Changing Technology /Changing Workplaces

• Industrial– Machines amplified/

replaced physical labour & increased material production power

– Mass production of goods & transportation of goods

– Factory is production centre– High mass consumption,

manufacturing, motorization

• Post Industrial– Computer/digital

technology amplifies mental labour

– Expansion of information , information networks & data banks

– Global work environments,flexible work arrangments,

– High mass knowledge creation

Taylorism and Scientific Management (Robins & Webster, 1999)

• Application of engineering principles to the industrial system of production

• Time and motion studies to ensure efficiency• Standardization• Factory work to be planned, coordinated, &

controlled under expert direction.– Information centralized/controlled in planning

departments = potential for surveillance + controlling production process

Changing Labour Market

• Industrial– Jobs available– Job security– Grade 12– Standard employment– Wages/salaries– Routine production services– In-person services

• Post Industrial– Work available– Work security– Lifelong learning– Contract, consulting– Performance pay – Symbolic analytic services

The Network SocietyCastells (1997)

• An informational economy• Global economy• Network enterprise• Transformation of work: flexi-workers• Social polarization/social exclusion• Timeless time• Space of flows

The New Economy(Castells, 2001)

• Productivity is derived from the application of knowledge

• Networking: capacity to assemble information and distribute it in a flexible, adaptable way aided by IT

• Highly skilled, mobile labour key resource for any company– Generic versus self programmable labour

Innovation(Castells, 2001)

• Ability to create new products & processes• Culture of shared information • Organizational learning• Territorial concentrations of innovation and

production – Silicon Valley

De-massification

• Industrial economy = mass production, mass consumption economy

• Traditional mass manufacturing factories put out identical objects by the millions

• New economy=demassified production short runs; customized products

• Information & media services=segmented, individualized

The Dual Role of Digital Innovation

• Digital Innovation plays two important roles in the ‘New Economy’: 1) the labour-saving component of digital innovation refers to the possibility of substituting new digital/robotic technologies for workers; 2) the labour-creating component refers to the direct products and services that are involved in generating these new technologies.

The Labour-saving Role of Digital Innovation

• Companies are always trying to employ the most effective mix of labour and technology. In brief, when labour is expensive, it becomes more attractive to employ new technologies in order to substitute for the high-cost of workers (and when labour is cheap, it makes sense to produce goods in a labour-intensive way).

The Labour-creating Role of Digital Innovation

• While digital technology is being used to replace ‘old’/expensive manufacturing workers, the ‘New Economy’ is centered on knowledge-intensive, R&D services that are needed to design, produce and market these very same digital technologies.

Media Implications:Narrowcasting

• Niche-fixated, small-audience specialty channels• TiVo – digital recorders that search t.v. schedules &

save only programs suiting user’s taste• Music downloading & iPods with individual play

lists• Blogs & subscriptions to Web services aligned with

own beliefs & biases• Possible that TiVo data on what viewers watch can

be used by advertisers to hyper-target advertising to individuals

EGOCASTING?

• C. Rosen, The New Atlantis (2006):“The remote control shifted power to the individual, and the technologies that have embraced this principle in its wake—the Walkman, the Video Cassette Recorder, Digital Video Recorders such as TiVo, and portable music devices like the iPod—have created a world where the individual’s control over the content, style, and timing of what he consumes is nearly absolute… We have created and embraced technologies that enable us to make a fetish of our preferences.”C. Rosen, The New Atlantis (2006)