JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH
Economist who adapts postmodern
principles to Economics. His work has influenced the writings of
postmodernists such as Baudrillard.
a)
Galbraith puts forth the idea of a dichotomy between individuals who
conform to an accepted sequence (you are an autonomous person who
consumes what you want) and a revised sequence (you are manipulated by
manufacturers and marketing people).
b.) "Needs are the fruit of
production." Producers design and build a product first, then think up
a reason for consumers to need it. Therefore it's not technology that
drives "development." Instead, it's a form of symptomatic
technology.
c.) Galbraith still believes that some needs are
genuine; but Baudrillard goes further: "The systems of needs is the
product of the system of production." In other words, needs are
separate from production but are part of the same process.
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WILLIAM
GIBSON
Canadian author of the
seminal cyberpunk novel Neuromancer, which introduced
the term "cyberspace"
into the culture and predicted many of the physical, cultural, and
social shifts associated with the Internet.
In Gibson's novel cyberspace was a "consensual
hallucination," a "physically inhabitable, electronically
generated alternate reality. It was inhabited by refigured human
'persons' separated from their physical bodies which were parked in
'normal' space" (Allucquere Rosanne Stone, 1995, p. 34). In Gibson's
cyberspace, different rules apply from normal life. Stone refers to
the way in which the term and concept he coined set the tone for the
vastly expanded discussion of cyberspace that followed the publication
of his book in 1984. Thus: "Cyberspace is not just simulations, or
military experimentation, or computer-supported work, but a space of
pure communication, the free market of exotic exchange" (p. 34). Thus,
when the protagonist Case "jacks in" to cyberspace, his "self" is
entering entirely new territory, a new "space". To readers, the
question remains, however: how are we to make sense of this new space.
Gibson is regarded by many as a visionary in terms of predicting
the social and cultural roles we can expect to play in the
cyberspace-dominated realm of the future. This is where his work has
contributed to discussion of cyber-communities, cyborgs,
multiple personalities, and so on. He has influenced the work of
Stone, Turkle,
and others. He has gone on to write a series of novels in the
Neuromancer vein, and allowed his concept of cyberspace to evolve.
(More to come).
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![]() USEFUL
EXTERNAL
LINKS
|
| None
Entered Yet: Refer to |
| Kiss's "Beyond"
section |
| for
external links |
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~
ANTONIO GRAMSCI
Gramsci elaborated Marx's
base-superstructure theory (economic base provided for cultural
superstructure) with his theory of hegemony,
i.e., that in modern society the subjugated classes willingly accept
their expolitation by their rulers in society.
An Italian political activist and theorist who wrote much of his
most influential work while incarcerated in a fascist prison, Gramsci
has left an enduring legacy. His notion of hegemony is quite similar
to Althusser's
participatory model, where even the oppressed classes happily accede
to their oppression. However, Althusser differs insofar as he thinks
social change is rendered unlikely. Gramsci's theory, on the other
hand, allows a much greater role for resistance to
dominating influences from within the hegemonized groups, and
recognizes the opportunity for social change within a capitalist
system. (Fiske, 176-178).
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CT. Author Index
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