Peer2Politics

As a firm believer in both the desirability of and possibility for radical social change, I am often confronted with heavy doses of scepticism and doubt on the part of those willing to discuss the matter with me. Questions like ‘So what’s the alternative?’ or comments such as ‘That sounds like a nice idea, but is it not utopian?’ abound. There are many avenues I could take to provide an answer. I could, for example, point out the fact that capitalism is still a system whose development into a dominant economic and social form would have bemused many in the midst of the feudal age. I could also emphasise the frequent waves of disenchantment expressed by individuals in capitalist societies through their recurrent protests, e.g. Alter-globalisation movement and Occupy Wall Street, and the anti-capitalist spirit many of them have embodied. Here, however, I wish to concentrate my attention on another set of tendencies, to be found in the ‘anti-capitalist potential of information technology’ (Wright 2010: 194).

As a firm believer in both the desirability of and possibility for radical social change, I am often confronted with heavy doses of scepticism and doubt on the part of those willing to discuss the matter with me. Questions like ‘So what’s the alternative?’ or comments such as ‘That sounds like a nice idea, but is it not utopian?’ abound. There are many avenues I could take to provide an answer. I could, for example, point out the fact that capitalism is still a system whose development into a dominant economic and social form would have bemused many in the midst of the feudal age. I could also emphasise the frequent waves of disenchantment expressed by individuals in capitalist societies through their recurrent protests, e.g. Alter-globalisation movement and Occupy Wall Street, and the anti-capitalist spirit many of them have embodied. Here, however, I wish to concentrate my attention on another set of tendencies, to be found in the ‘anti-capitalist potential of information technology’ (Wright 2010: 194).