The Alternative to Post-Hegemony : Reproduction and Austerity’s Social Factory

In the transitions to advanced liberal States and post-Fordist economic paradigms, it is argued that the distinction between work and sociality has become blurred. This marks the emergence of the “social factory” where sociality is industrialised and industrialisation has become increasingly centred on immaterial, social activity. It is further argued that this regime has generated a new articulation of socio-economic relations based on biopower and systems of control alongside the irruptive agency of multitude. Consequently, it is often suggested that the concept of hegemony can no longer adequately explain manifestations of power and resistance. The argument is that we live today in a state of post-hegemony. This paper challenges the theoretical and pragmatic underpinnings of this position at a number of levels, arguing that the lived politics associated with the imposition of Austerity economics across Europe, but particularly as manifest in Ireland, undermine the assertion that hegemony is no longer a relevant conceptualisation of power dynamics. In particular it uses feminist thinking to challenge the epochalisation inherent to arguments of post-hegemony, arguing instead for a return to engagement with the reproductive logic of hegemonic discipline

Ordering Disorder : ninemsn, Hypertext and Databases

Central within the discourses that have surrounded the commercial internet during its emergence has been an underlying promise of disorder. The claims for consumer empowerment with which e-commerce was promoted and discussed within industry and academic literature (Fiamberg; Gates; Horton; Levine et al. for instance), coupled with recurring claims that the emergence of e-commerce was as profound a shift as that occasioned by the Industrial Revolution (Dancer; Sullivan; Lynch for instance), established an underlying sense of chaotic upheaval - a clear and present danger to the established order

Private Talk in the Public Sphere: Podcasting as Broadcast Talk

With the rise of participatory media such as podcasting consumers are increasingly providers of media content. Consequently, the discourse of individual citizens, rather than only that of media professionals and elite gatekeepers, contributes to the contemporary mediated public sphere. It would seem likely that this discourse would offer social roles and speaking positions that privilege the quotidian and subsequently reconfigure public discourse. This paper uses insights from conversation analysis to study a small sample of podcasts aggregated at The Podcast Network. It focuses on the uses of institutional speech forms and expert speaking positions within three examples of pro-am media production. Rather than a direct inversion of elite discourse, these examples demonstrate a complex mixing of the mundane talk of the everyday and the abstract speech of the expert. This paper argues that the significance of participatory media is therefore not merely the empowerment of non-professional or subjugated discourse, but lies in a complication of the naturalised politics of the public sphere

The Alternative to Post-Hegemony : Reproduction and Austerity’s Social Factory

In the transitions to advanced liberal States and post-Fordist economic paradigms, it is argued that the distinction between work and sociality has become blurred. This marks the emergence of the “social factory” where sociality is industrialised and industrialisation has become increasingly centred on immaterial, social activity. It is further argued that this regime has generated a new articulation of socio-economic relations based on biopower and systems of control alongside the irruptive agency of multitude. Consequently, it is often suggested that the concept of hegemony can no longer adequately explain manifestations of power and resistance. The argument is that we live today in a state of post-hegemony. This paper challenges the theoretical and pragmatic underpinnings of this position at a number of levels, arguing that the lived politics associated with the imposition of Austerity economics across Europe, but particularly as manifest in Ireland, undermine the assertion that hegemony is no longer a relevant conceptualisation of power dynamics. In particular it uses feminist thinking to challenge the epochalisation inherent to arguments of post-hegemony, arguing instead for a return to engagement with the reproductive logic of hegemonic discipline

Ordering Disorder : ninemsn, Hypertext and Databases

Central within the discourses that have surrounded the commercial internet during its emergence has been an underlying promise of disorder. The claims for consumer empowerment with which e-commerce was promoted and discussed within industry and academic literature (Fiamberg; Gates; Horton; Levine et al. for instance), coupled with recurring claims that the emergence of e-commerce was as profound a shift as that occasioned by the Industrial Revolution (Dancer; Sullivan; Lynch for instance), established an underlying sense of chaotic upheaval - a clear and present danger to the established order

Battlecat Then, Battlecat Now: Temporal Shifts, Hyperlinking and Database Subjectivities

Abstract included in text

Beyond Broadcast Yourself ™: The Future of YouTube

Since its launch in early 2005, video sharing website YouTube has emerged as a culturally, politically and economically significant medium and as one of the inheritors of the social role played by broadcast television. However its continued growth and journey to profitability is not guaranteed. This paper queries the future of YouTube by exploring the tension inherent in the site’s 3 key characteristics embodied within its slogan Broadcast Yourself ™. The site is based within regimes of consumer production and identity practices, yet it is also located within a traditional fiscal economy as indicated by the trademark identifier. The contradictory pulls of these positions pose challenges for YouTube and its parent company Google. The difficulty of sustaining an emergent social economy alongside the requirements of advertising driven economics raises questions about the future of YouTube and indicates the complex terrain of what lies beyond broadcasting

Interactivity is Evil: a critical investigation of Web 2.0

Central to Web 2.0 is the requirement for interactive systems to enable the participation of users in production and social interaction. Consequently, in order to critically explore the Web 2.0 phenomenon it is important to explore the relationship of interactivity to social power. This study firstly characterises interactivity in these media using Barry’s (2001) framework differentiating interactivity from disciplining technologies as defined by Foucault. Contrary to Barry’s model though, the analysis goes on to explore how interactivity may indeed function as a disciplining technology within the framework of a neoliberal political economy

Beyond Broadcast Yourself ™: The Future of YouTube

Since its launch in early 2005, video sharing website YouTube has emerged as a culturally, politically and economically significant medium and as one of the inheritors of the social role played by broadcast television. However its continued growth and journey to profitability is not guaranteed. This paper queries the future of YouTube by exploring the tension inherent in the site’s 3 key characteristics embodied within its slogan Broadcast Yourself ™. The site is based within regimes of consumer production and identity practices, yet it is also located within a traditional fiscal economy as indicated by the trademark identifier. The contradictory pulls of these positions pose challenges for YouTube and its parent company Google. The difficulty of sustaining an emergent social economy alongside the requirements of advertising driven economics raises questions about the future of YouTube and indicates the complex terrain of what lies beyond broadcasting

FindIt@Flinders: user experiences of the Primo discovery search solution

In September 2011, Flinders University Library launched FindIt@Flinders, the Primo discovery layer search to provide simultaneous results from the Library’s collections and subscription databases. This research project was an exploratory case study, which aimed to show whether students are finding relevant information for their course learning and research. The Library staff ran student usability sessions and an online survey for this search interface. These two methods uncovered data on what elements participants are finding useful or not useful, and what problems they are encountering. The results of this study showed a variety of feedback, which was mainly positive. This feedback has informed how the Library can modify Primo for a better user experience and incorporate beneficial approaches to FindIt@Flinders into its student training plan