Leading to a more profound critique of the concept of value itself and linking to broader political stakes and theoretical questions, Devalue is relevant for scholars and students including Information and Communication Science, Media Studies, Internet Studies, Critical Theory, Political Economy of Communications, Sociology, Socioeconomics, Philosophy, Society and Technology studies, and Digital Humanities.
Abstract
Charting new territory for scholars in an understudied area, Devalue offers a socio-economic analysis of emerging Web3 actors who specialise in blockchain applications within the culture, media, and communication industries.
Based on rich research that includes comparative case studies focusing on organisations in North America and Europe using blockchain technology for the storage, production, and distribution of cultural contents and services, Jacob Matthews scrutinises whether blockchain-enabled platforms objectively reshape value production. Drawing together an analysis of two typically separated levels of political economy – the production of economic value and the production of ideology, the chapters critique the very concept of value, questioning if Web3 players, despite positioning themselves against the ‘civilisational reality’ of contemporary capitalism, merely reproduce conventional valorisation and reinforce the predominance of exchange abstraction.
Leading to a more profound critique of the concept of value itself and linking to broader political stakes and theoretical questions, Devalue is relevant for scholars and students including Information and Communication Science, Media Studies, Internet Studies, Critical Theory, Political Economy of Communications, Sociology, Socioeconomics, Philosophy, Society and Technology studies, and Digital Humanities.
This article examines cryptocurrency adoption in the Bicol Region of the Philippines through 14 months of multisited ethnography with the Bicol Blockchain Community (BBC) and three national government agencies. Against libertarian narratives framing blockchain as a tool of financial emancipation, the Bicol case reveals institutional absorption: the incorporation of a nominally anti-statist technology into existing hierarchies of governance, credentialing and capital accumulation. While agencies and community entrepreneurs forged mutually beneficial alliances, material and symbolic benefits accrued primarily to those with prior educational and economic advantages. Extending domestication theory and scholarship on techno-politics, the study develops institutional absorption as a concept for the cultural studies of technology: a culturally constituted process through which digital disruption is translated into legible, governable and hierarchical form. Rather than a universal account of the Global South, the concept offers a core analytical perspective for remittance-dependent, climate-vulnerable peripheral regions, with boundary conditions specified for comparative testing.
Jonalou S. Labor· International journal of cul...· 0 citations
This study analyzes the interrelationships between digital platforms, social media, and contemporary power relations. The main objective of the study is to explain how platform capitalism plays a role in economic power, ideological hegemony, and social consensus building from a neo-Gramscian perspective. The research is qualitative in nature and is based entirely on secondary sources, including books, journal articles, theoretical materials, and in-depth critical reviews of existing research. The study suggests that digital platforms have evolved into institutions that not only serve as communication tools but also as institutions that construct new types of power structures through their control over data, algorithms, and digital infrastructure. While algorithmic governance and data ownership reinforce digital hegemony, social media also provide opportunities for alternative voices, social movements, and counter-hegemony. In conclusion, a combined neo-Gramscian analysis of economic, political, and cultural dimensions is necessary to understand the power relations of the digital age.
Rudra Bahadur Pulami Magar· DAV Research Journal· 0 citations
This study examines the gig economy as a site of contested employment relations, interrogating how algorithmic governance reshapes the social contract between workers and platforms. Drawing on a scoping review of 145 studies, this paper develops a conceptual framework integrating precarious work theory, power dynamics, and employment relations constructs—including worker voice, collective agency, and dispute resolution—to analyse the structural conditions of platform-mediated labour in India. The analysis reveals that algorithmic management operates as a form of digital Taylorism, systematically eroding worker autonomy and bargaining power while reconfiguring the boundaries of the employment relationship. India’s gig workforce, projected to reach 23.5 million by 2029–30, represents a critical case where informality, rapid digitalisation, and weak institutional frameworks converge. The paper argues that addressing these conditions requires a ‘new social contract’ that reconceptualises obligations between platforms, workers, and the state, moving beyond descriptive cataloguing toward theoretically grounded employment relations analysis. Implications are drawn for voice mechanisms, collective bargaining models, and regulatory reform in the Indian context.
Sazzad Parwez· Discover Global Society· 0 citations
Globalization is widely regarded as a catalyst for development, trade, and international cooperation. This paper
argues that, despite these benefits, contemporary globalization frequently reproduces the economic, political, and cultural
power structures associated with neocolonialism. Using a qualitative desk-review methodology and drawing on
Dependency Theory and World-Systems Theory, the study examines evidence from Africa to assess whether globalization
functions as an 'unseen bond' (Isibopho Esingabonwa) that sustains external influence while limiting genuine autonomy.
The analysis finds that globalization offers opportunities for growth but that ownership, decision-making power, and value
creation remain disproportionately concentrated in the Global North. The paper concludes that Africa's long-term
development depends on reshaping the terms of global integration through stronger regional value chains, equitable
partnerships, and greater cultural and economic sovereignty.
Umwali Deborah· International Journal of Inn...· 0 citations
The authors examine the pivotal roles of individuals and collectives, alongside their embedded socio-economic and technical arrangements, to show the multifaceted dimensions of the rapid proliferation of platforms, burgeoning platform memberships, and the ensuing multidimensional social exchanges in India.
Jillet Sarah Sam, Shriram Venkatraman, Rajorshi Ray· 0 citations
Historians and political scientists typically examine Keynesianism as an economic doctrine suitable for industrialised nation-states. This Element studies intergovernmental organisations as central to the discussion and globalisation of Keynesian ideas. It provides a historical survey of how Keynes's work and the Keynesian macroeconomics it inspired impacted the League of Nations and the United Nations, from 1920 to 1980. League experts both critiqued and used Keynes's writings to legitimise their proposals for monetary and fiscal stabilisation. Later, United Nations economists turned to Keynesianism to conceptualise and operationalise their own work. Keynes was also a guiding reference for UN experts in imagining the multilateral regulation of monetary and trade relations. By uncovering the contrasting understandings of Keynesianism that cohabited within the capacious settings of international organisations, this Element tells the story of how thinkers from both the Global South and the Global North co-created today's instruments of macroeconomic governance. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.