25 research outputs found
E-readers and the death of the book: or, new media and the myth of the disappearing medium
The recent emergence of e-readers and e-books has b
rought the death of the book to the centre of
current debates on new media. In this article, we a
nalyse alternative narratives that surround the
possibility of the disappearance of print books, do
minated by fetishism, fears about the end of
humanism, and ideas of techno-fundamentalist progre
ss. We argue that, in order to comprehend
such narratives, we need to inscribe them in the br
oader history of media. The emergence of new
media, in fact, has often been accompanied by narra
tives about the possible disappearance of
older media: the introduction of television, for in
stance, inspired claims about the forthcoming
death of film and radio. As a recurrent narrative s
haping the reception of media innovation, the
myth of the disappearing medium helps us to make se
nse of the transformations that media
change provokes in our everyday life
Schumpeter: Theorist of the Avant-Garde
This paper argues that Schumpeter’s 1911 edition of ‘Theory of Economic
Development’ can be fruitfully read as a theory of the avant-garde, in line with such
theories developed by artistic avant-garde around the same time, in particular by the
Italian Futurists. In particular it will show that both Schumpeter and other avant-garde
theorists sought to break with past (1), identify an avant-garde who could force that
break (2), find new ways to represent the dynamic world (3), embrace the new and
dynamic (4) and promote a perpetual dynamic process, instead of a specific end-state or
utopia (5). This new reading helps us to understand the cultural meaning of this seminal
text in economics. Secondly it greatly facilitates our understanding of the differences
with the later interwar German edition and English edition, which were more cautious
in their embrace of the new, less focused on the individual qualities of the entrepreneur
and placed more emphasis on historical continuity. Thirdly this reading suggests a
different reason for the bifurcation between Schumpeter and the rest of the Austrian
school of economics. Traditionally this split is explained by Schumpeter’s affinities
with the Lausanne School, this paper instead suggests that the crucial break between
Schumpeter on the one hand and Böhm-Bawerk, Wieser and later members of the
Austrian School on the other hand is their theory of and attitude toward social change