Theory

Internet and Ideology Part 3 – Society

03/11/2008 by simoncollister Leave a Comment

Following on the political and economic changes of modernity, the emergence of social mobility was also a new development based partly on individual’s new found power of self-determination.

Modernity represented:

“a move away from traditional society marked by an unchanging hierarchy … modernity involved a search for new identities to replace the traditional and religiously sanctioned ones of the previous epoch. Moreover it was made clear that these new identities were the creation of human action and agency, rather than god given and unalterable.”

What this means is: people living in the modern period became individuals for the first time. The ideology of modernity helped people define their own personality and shape their own lives through their actions.

However this social emancipation was still only available within the confines of the relatively structured society at the time. Likewise it was also limited by cultural norms and shared values.

There was a long way to go until people had real personal liberty but then the process of enlightenment was just that: a process. Things didn’t change overnight but from modernity onwards individuals shaped by own actions.

Contrast this with the Internet Age – a period of relatively early post-modernity. People have (mostly) had self-determination and the concept of being limited in terms of what we want to do – socially at least – is something alien to us – or at least a lot of us.

Looking forward and extending the idea of a post-modern ideology offering individuals something more than just the opportunity to shape their own lives, the internet offers us the possibility to not only define but invent, create, design, shape, live, change, co-create a range of identities and lives.

One rather basic example of this the ability of someone to take on an alter-ego in Second Life. But the same notion applies when we think about the different personalities we all probably have. My persona on ebay is probably different from this blog; likewise my blog is probably different from my Twitter profile which in turn is probably different from my Facebook profile.

This is Modernity’s idea of a self-determined individual exploded arcoss a range of platforms and positions not bounded by geography – or indeed physical space of any kind. David Weinberger has a great illustration of what this means practically and philosophically in Small Pieces Loosely Joined.

But bear in mind that this is just me with a predominantly Modern conept of myself as a single entity simply being expanded across the internet retrospectively.

Think of what this all means to the generation below me (and the rest) who have grown up in an internet age. The type of people who cannot remember a time BG – Before Google.

Technorati tags: ideology, post-modernism, modernity, John Schwarzmantel, society

Internet and Ideology Part 2 – Economy

03/10/2008 by simoncollister Leave a Comment

I’m posting some thoughts at the moment about the ideological shift in politics, economics and society that occurred during the transition to modernity 200 years ago and comparing them with changes occurring now as we entered a period of post-modernity.

I’ve covered off these ideas already in an introduction and I;ve added a post about the political changes taking place. This post will specifically take a look at the changes to economic ideologies in an internet society.

According to Schwarzmantel, another core feature of modernity “was the separation of two orders: state and economy”. For the first time making money was something that was no longer the sole domain of the state.
People were free to create wealth using their newly found individualism. Although these opportunities were limited due to traditional physical barriers: capital, land, education etc, Modernity paved the way for industrialisation, industrialists and mass market capitalism.

Contrast this with today’s post-modernity and while we still have largely a mass market capitalist society (and I’m talking primarily about Western history and economies here) I’d argue the internet is separating markets (ie. wealth creation) further from the ‘capitalist state’ – i.e. the large companies that relied on levering capital to make money.

More specifically, markets are being opened up to the individual in an even greater way. Look at tools like Paypal, designed to allow money transactions globally that by-pass state regulation and banks; look at virtual markets such as the metaverses of SL and WoW where money can be made through creating, buying and selling goods that only exist in a virtual capacity – but a capacity with a market value nonetheless.

Modernity separated the economy from the state, but wealth creation remained largely in the hands of industrialists and ‘big business’. It’s likely that in an age of post-modernity the internet will further emancipate the individual and open even greater opportunities for wealth creation outside of traditional mass markets and the mass market economic systems that have grown up over the past 200 years.

Technorati tags: ideology, post-modernism, modernity, John Schwarzmantel, economy

Internet and Ideology Part 1 – Politics

03/07/2008 by simoncollister 8 Comments

Yesterday I posted about the ideological shift in politics, economics and society that occurred during the transition to modernity 200 years ago and comparing them with changes occurring now as we entered a period of post-modernity.

This post will specifically take a look at the changes to political ideologies in our internet society and examining what we can learn. These are not fully formed ideas; consider these blog posts as a note pad where I attempt to work out some of my thoughts in public.

The “politics of modernity” according to John Schwarzmantel is marked by

“the malleability of human nature. In contrast to the religious argument of the time that individuals were irredeemably marked by original sin … [modernity] took a more optimistic view of human nature and suggested the possibility of cooperation.”

Furthermore:

“These more positive attributes of human nature could be fostered by political or social institutions designed to encourage the cooperative spirits of human nature.”

I would argue that this view has prevailed pretty much unchanged for the past 200 years – at least until the coming of the social web.

While civil society has played a key part in fostering human cooperation, society’s endeavours were always dependent on institutions providing support, funds, direction and often a voice to facilitate change. Admittedly there are exceptions throughout history, but as a rule I would agree with Schwarzmantel’s suggestion.

Compare that with civil society in an internet age. Institutions are being disintermediated; individuals are organising themselves, membership organisations (political parties, charities etc) are losing out as barriers to participation and scalability are removed.

People no longer need – nor want – a rigid, hierarchically structured institution, they want a ‘join in’ type of organisation operating as a flat network, not a ‘join us’ top-down one – as identified by David Wilcox. This is made possible and happening thanks to the internet and IMHO marks a key developmental stage of civil society in a post-modern world.

In short, when we entered modernity the political and social focus moved from a pre-determined world where lives were pre-determined according to religion and towards a world where individual rights came into existence: for the first time people’s lives could be self-determined.

However, that this vision of the modern civil society was dependent largely – if not entirely – on civil society institutions. In essence, people could recognise their individual liberty, but only through wider groups or institutions.

I would argue that it has taken until now and the rise of the social web for people truly to be able to shape civil society as individuals liberated from the traditional membership organisations the grew up 200 years ago.

Technorati tags: ideology, post-modernism, modernity, John Schwarzmantel, civil society, politics

The internet and ideology – introduction

03/05/2008 by simoncollister Leave a Comment

Apologies in advance to those who work with me for I am about to post briefly about post-modernism; more specifically I’m going to write a post about modernity and what comes afterwards.

A lot of people – IMHO – talk about the specific changes taking place in business or education or politics as a result of the internet and social web; they may even highlight specific changes that seem to be taking place in, for example, consumer behaviour. But what about the changes taking place at the level above – at the level of the cultural and social ideologies that shape our wider political, economic and public sphere?

I only ask because I’m reading John Schwarzmantel’s Age of Ideologies which argues that the ‘ideologies’ – political, social etc – that have largely shaped our business, poltics, social behaviour etc are a product of a very specific phase of history: modernity.

As we’re now in the age of post-modernity these ideologies (arising directly from the American/French revolutions) need re-shaping. Schwarzmantel also suggests the concept of ideology itself may need to be revised wholesale to accommodate the fragmented world of post-modernity.

So let’s hold it there. The reason I’m blogging this is because Schwarzmantel’s view of the rise of modernity struck some chords with what’s happening now as the internet impacts on politics, economics, society etc. So I thought I’d look at the origins of modernity as outlined by Schwarzmantel and see if his conclusions about the transition from the pre-modern into the modern 200 years ago can be applied to what’s happening in our internet-enabled world now and spot parallels or patterns.

Schwarzmantel discusses the effects of modernity on three areas: society, politics and economics. Over a series of forthcoming posts I’ll look at each of these areas in-depth.

More to follow….

Technorati tags: Age of Ideologies, Ideology, John Schwarzmantel, Internet, Theory