https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=203.211.139.61&feedformat=atomP2P Foundation - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T11:09:54ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.40.1https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/index.php?title=Cognitive_Capitalism&diff=23450Cognitive Capitalism2008-08-24T02:11:52Z<p>203.211.139.61: /* Characteristics */</p>
<hr />
<div>=Discussion=<br />
<br />
<br />
==Enzo Rullani==<br />
<br />
Summarized by Matteo Pasquinelli, in: The [http://www.rekombinant.org/docs/Ideology-of-Free-Culture.pdf Ideology of Free Culture and the Grammar of Sabotage]:<br />
<br />
"The digital revolution made the reproduction of immaterial objects <br />
easier, faster, ubiquitous and almost free. But as the Italian <br />
economist Enzo Rullani points out, within cognitive capitalism, <br />
"proprietary logic does not disappear but has to subordinate itself <br />
to the law of diffusion." Intellectual property (and so [[Rent]]) is no <br />
longer based on space and objects but on time and speed. Apart from <br />
copyright there are many other modes to extract rent. In his book <br />
Economia della conoscenza Rullani writes that cognitive products <br />
easy to reproduce have to start a process of diffusion as soon as <br />
possible in order to maintain control over it. As an entropic <br />
tendency affects any cognitive product, it is not recommended to <br />
invest on a static proprietary rent. More specifically there is a <br />
rent produced on the multiplication of the uses and a rent produced <br />
on the monopoly of a secret. Two opposite strategies: the former is <br />
recommended for cultural products like music, the latter for patents. <br />
Rullani is inclined to suggest that free multiplication is a vital <br />
strategy within cognitive capitalism, as the value of knowledge is <br />
fragile and tends to decline. Immaterial commodities (that populate <br />
any spectacular, symbolic, affective, cognitive space) seem to suffer <br />
of a strong entropic decay of meaning. At the end of the curve of <br />
diffusion a banal destiny is waiting for any meme, especially in <br />
today's emotional market that constantly tries to sell unique and <br />
exclusive experiences.<br />
<br />
For Rullani the value of a knowledge (extensively of any <br />
cognitive product, artwork, brand, information) is given by the <br />
composition of three drivers: the value of its performance and <br />
application (v); the number of its multiplications and replica (n); <br />
the sharing rate of the value among the people involved in the <br />
process (p). Knowledge is successful when it becomes self-propulsive <br />
and pushes all the three drivers: 1) maximising the value, 2) <br />
multiplying effectively, 3) sharing the value that is produced. Of <br />
course in a dynamic scenario a compromise between the three forces is <br />
necessary, as they are alternative and competitive to each other. If <br />
one driver improves, the others get worse. Rullani's model is <br />
fascinating precisely because intellectual property has no central <br />
role in extracting surplus. In other words the rent is applied <br />
strategically and dynamically along the three drivers, along <br />
different regimes of intellectual property. Knowledge is therefore <br />
projected into a less fictional cyberspace, a sort of invisible <br />
landscape where cognitive competition should be described along new <br />
space-time coordinates. Rullani describe his model as 3D but <br />
actually it is 4-dimensional as it runs especially along time.<br />
<br />
The dynamic model provided by Rullani is more interesting than <br />
for instance Benkler's plain notion of "social production" but it is <br />
not yet employed by radical criticism and activism. What is clear and <br />
important in his perspective is also that the material can not be <br />
replaced by the immaterial despite the contemporary hypertrophy of <br />
signs and digital enthusiasm. There is a general misunderstanding <br />
about cognitive economy as an autonomous and virtuous space. On the <br />
contrary, Rullani points out that knowledge exists only through <br />
material vectors. The nodal point is the friction between the free <br />
reproducibility of knowledge and the non-reproducibility of the <br />
material. The immaterial generates value only if it grants meaning to <br />
a material process. A music CD for example has to be physically <br />
produced and physically consumed. We need our body and especially our <br />
time to produce and consume music. And when the CD vector is <br />
dematerialised thanks to the evolution of digital media into P2P <br />
networks, the body of the artist has to be engaged in a stronger <br />
competition. Have digital media galvanised more competition or more <br />
cooperation? An apt question for today's internet criticism."<br />
(http://www.rekombinant.org/docs/Ideology-of-Free-Culture.pdf)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
=More Information=<br />
<br />
Check of P2P Foundation blog [http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?cat=37 archive] for more articles on cognitive capitalism.<br />
<br />
'''Self-organisation and cooperation in cognitive capitalism''', special issue of '''Solaris''' magazine, at http://biblio-fr.info.unicaen.fr/bnum/jelec/Solaris/d05/5introduction.html , http://biblio-fr.info.unicaen.fr/bnum/jelec/Solaris/d05/5link-pezet.html <br />
<br />
<br />
=Key English-language Books to Read=<br />
<br />
'''The theory of cognitive capitalism has its roots in mostly French and Italian thinkers. Therefore, we are able to present a number of specific books in French, but English books on the subject are less precise in regard of this concept.'''<br />
<br />
<br />
Book in progress by Adam Arvidsson: The [[Ethical Economy Book Project]]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Jeremy Rifkin. [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2&tag=p2pfoundation-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&path=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2F1585420824%2Fqid%3D1144555641%2Fsr%3D2-1%2Fref%3Dpd_bbs_b_2_1%3Fs%3Dbooks%26v%3Dglance%26n%3D283155 The Age of Access: The New Culture of Hypercapitalism, Where all of Life is a Paid-For Experience]'''<br />
<br />
(what if the new capitalism produced a new kind of feudalism? Indeed, as products are increasingly replaced by immaterial experiences, and are licensed rather than sold, then this means that consumers will no longer ‘own’ anything, merely a right to use it, and that those without means will be excluded from access to these networks)<br />
<br />
'''Nick Dyer-Whitheford. [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2&tag=p2pfoundation-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&path=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2F0252024796%2Fqid%3D1144555965%2Fsr%3D1-1%2Fref%3Dsr_1_1%3Fs%3Dbooks%26v%3Dglance%26n%3D283155 [[Cyber-Marx]], cycles and circuits of struggle in High-Technology Capitalism]. Univ. of Illinois Pr., 1999.'''<br />
<br />
(“well-researched overview on contemporary Marxist responses to the information age" - Soderbergh copyleft essay)<br />
<br />
<br />
'''[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2&tag=p2pfoundation-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&path=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2F0312177585%2Fqid%3D1144556116%2Fsr%3D1-1%2Fref%3Dsr_1_1%3Fs%3Dbooks%26v%3Dglance%26n%3D283155 Class Warfare in the Information Age]. Michael Perelman. Palgrave.'''<br />
<br />
(“shows how class conflict remains a contemporary issue")<br />
<br />
<br />
'''[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2&tag=p2pfoundation-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&path=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2F0393319873%2Fqid%3D1144556327%2Fsr%3D2-1%2Fref%3Dpd_bbs_b_2_1%3Fs%3Dbooks%26v%3Dglance%26n%3D283155 The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism]. By Richard Sennett. Norton & Co, 1998.''' <br />
<br />
(vignettes which show the contradictions inherent in the postfordist model of capitalism, and the high personal price to be paid by its employees / French: “Le Travail sans Qualite", Albin Michel, 2000)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Encyclopedia]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Business]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:IP]]</div>203.211.139.61