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
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Technology
Products
Leading industries
Labour market
Nature of work
• Post Industrial
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Technology
Products
Leading industries
Labour market
Nature of work
‘Old’ Manufacturing in the Auto Sector
‘New’ Manufacturing in the Auto Sector
Fordism
• Late 19th century to
mid-20th century
• Mass mechanized
production
• Standardized goods
• Highly segmented
process of production
(assembly line)
Post Fordism
• 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
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Jobs available
Job security
Grade 12
Standard employment
Wages/salaries
Routine production services
In-person services
• Post Industrial
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Work available
Work security
Lifelong learning
Contract, consulting
Performance pay
Symbolic analytic services
The Network Society
Castells (1997)
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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)
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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)