Goldsmiths

Hacking the Networked Society. Abstract: The dynamic between free-software and open-source is often misunderstood by social and political theorists. As a consequence it is also under-theorised within socio-political theory. In this paper, I show how philosophies of free/libre, open-source and commons regimes have engendered new forms of socio-political consumption and new political economies of meaning. My emphasis on the interplay between the local and the global/structure and agency, shows new ways of ‘thinking’ the cosmopolitan, sedimented in the interconnected networks of the technical age....

I’ve converted some of my recent papers into web pages for easy reading online. I hope that others find them of some use, if only for the bibliographies! Here is my New Radical Political Economy paper on social, peer-to-peer, participatory financial models. In the paper I contrast traditional banks and interest bearing capital transactions to these emergent models. Here is the web HTML version, and this is the PDF version for download....

I’ve just finished a paper on social, peer-to-peer, participatory financial models. In the paper I contrast traditional banks and interest bearing capital transactions to these emergent models. I’ve been looking at three different examples of these new business models, Zopa, Kiva and Open Capital, considering to what extent these organisations are challenging established practices. The full paper is available as a PDF. As soon as I’ve got my LaTeX/HTML conversion working I’ll post that too....

I’ve been investigating the feasibility of collecting and publishing final year dissertation projects in book form. I think that this will make a great reminder of our time of study, our political alliances and the friendships that have grown over the years at Goldsmiths. Also it’s such an indulgent, gratuitous act: So Fucking Goldsmiths. My plan is to gather together our dissertations and publish a book (ISBN record and everything) of our works to have it printed and ready for graduation in September....

I’ve been busy reviewing and replanning my dissertation project - only five weeks to go until hand-in! I’ve cut a lot out since my proposal last year, tightening my focus and shortening my reading lists. My four papers now look something like this… Who Governs in a Networked Society (final draft complete) - My first chapter is concerned with the depoliticisation of government and the politicisation of the social world in a global networked society....