Integrated commodities in the digital economy

Abstract

At the heart of the digital economy is the willful imposition of a powerful combination of hardware and software, time and data, surveillance, prediction and behavourial control. This article argues that a central ambition of digital society has been the pursuit of an integrated commodity form. The novelty of this integrated commodity stems not only from the convergence of production and consumption but also from the subsumption of sociability itself. As a consequence, we are required to consider all social actions within digital society as being transactions enshrined within an economy of integrated markets. Our acceptance of these new commodity relations is paving the way for a ‘great integration’ of simultaneous transactions across different social domains. Borrowing from Karl Polanyi’s account of an earlier transformation, this article will propose that the prerequisites of digital society and the integrated commodity form have been established through the constitution of a series of ‘fictitious commodities’.

O sistema tecnológico digital

“…O processo de comoditização é "marcado por tomar as coisas que vivem fora da esfera do mercado e declarar sua nova vida como ativos de mercado" (ZUBOFF, 2019). Esta percepção pode estar relacionada ao renascimento polanyiano (POLANYI, 1944) de interpretação histórica: a visão de que uma nova commodity fictícia está em processo de formação tem levado diversos analistas a tecer comparações entre o momento atual e as revoluções industriais passadas, quando terra, capital e trabalho passaram por processos semelhantes (ATHIQUE, 2019;CHEN et al, 2020;GRABHER;KÖNIG, 2020).…”

Digital Emporiums: Platform Capitalism in India

“…There is a much higher order of integration in play across these layers, where each platform integrates multiple products in simultaneous transaction. 35 While platform logics should by no means be seen as an "outcome" of the so-called "Web 2.0" era, it is at the present technical level that the mass individuation and interoperability of digital systems have allowed platforms to realize opportunities for synchronizing large sets of marketplaces in real time.…”

Market matters: interdependencies in the Indian media economy

“…On the supply side, broadcasters deploy time, their most potent intangible asset, to raise revenues with advertisers. For online platforms in a resolutely ‘free content’ sector, it is the aggregated of attention via click trails that commodifies and enumerates the capacity of the medium as a commercial operation (Athique, 2017). In both formats, most of India’s media outlets are dependent on a small number of persistent advertisers for a large proportion of their revenues.…”