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A Post-Modern Marxism for the Practice of Digital Life THE CONDITION OF DIGITALITY CONDITION THE THE CONDITION OF DIGITALITY CDSMS avid Harvey’s The Condition of Postmodernity rationalised capitalism’s transformation during an extraordinary year: 1989. It gave theoretical Dexpression to a material and cultural reality that was just then getting properly started – globalisation and postmodernity – whilst highlighting the geo-spatial limits to accumulation imposed by our planet. ROBERT HASSAN However this landmark publication, author Robert Hassan argues, did not address the arrival of digital technology, the quantum leap represented by the move from an analogue world to a digital economy and the rapid creation of a global networked society. Considering first the contexts of 1989 THE CONDITION and Harvey’s work, then the idea of humans as analogue beings he argues this arising new human condition of digitality leads to alienation not only from technology but also the environment. This condition he suggests, is not OF DIGITALITY an ideology of time and space but a reality stressing that Harvey’s time-space compression takes on new features including those of ‘outward’ and ‘inward’ A Post-Modern Marxism for the globalisation and the commodification of all spheres of existence. Lastly the author considers culture’s role drawing on Rahel Jaeggi’s Practice of Digital Life theories to make the case for a post-modern Marxism attuned to the most significant issue of our age. Stimulating and theoretically wide-ranging The Condition of Digitality recognises post-modernity’s radical new form as a reality and the urgent need to assert more democratic control over digitality. ROBERT HASSAN ROBERT MEDIA THEORY | DIGITAL MEDIA | COMMUNICATION STUDIES CDSMS CRITICAL DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA STUDIES THE AUTHOR Robert Hassan researches and teaches at the University of Melbourne and is the author, co-author or editor of numerous monographs and books on topics such as time, new media theory, politics and the philosophy of media. His recent works include Uncontained: Digital Connection and the Experience of Time (2019) and The Information Society: Cyber Dreams and Digital Nightmares (2017). Since 2009 he has been Editor-in-Chief of the journal Time & Society. uwestminsterpress.co.uk The Condition of Digitality: A Post-Modern Marxism for the Practice of Digital Life Robert Hassan Critical, Digital and Social Media Studies Series Editor: Christian Fuchs The peer-reviewed book series edited by Christian Fuchs publishes books that criti- cally study the role of the internet and digital and social media in society. Titles ana- lyse how power structures, digital capitalism, ideology and social struggles shape and are shaped by digital and social media. They use and develop critical theory discussing the political relevance and implications of studied topics. The series is a theoretical forum for internet and social media research for books using methods and theories that challenge digital positivism; it also seeks to explore digital media ethics grounded in critical social theories and philosophy. Editorial Board Thomas Allmer, Mark Andrejevic, Miriyam Aouragh, Charles Brown, Eran Fisher, Peter Goodwin, Jonathan Hardy, Kylie Jarrett, Anastasia Kavada, Maria Michalis, Stefania Milan, Vincent Mosco, Jack Qiu, Jernej Amon Prodnik, Marisol Sandoval, Sebastian Sevignani, Pieter Verdegem Published Critical Theory of Communication: New Readings of Lukács, Adorno, Marcuse, Honneth and Habermas in the Age of the Internet Christian Fuchs https://doi.org/10.16997/book1 Knowledge in the Age of Digital Capitalism: An Introduction to Cognitive Materialism Mariano Zukerfeld https://doi.org/10.16997/book3 Politicizing Digital Space: Theory, the Internet, and Renewing Democracy Trevor Garrison Smith https://doi.org/10.16997/book5 Capital, State, Empire: The New American Way of Digital Warfare Scott Timcke https://doi.org/10.16997/book6 The Spectacle 2.0: Reading Debord in the Context of Digital Capitalism Edited by Marco Briziarelli and Emiliana Armano https://doi.org/10.16997/book11 The Big Data Agenda: Data Ethics and Critical Data Studies Annika Richterich https://doi.org/10.16997/book14 Social Capital Online: Alienation and Accumulation Kane X. Faucher https://doi.org/10.16997/book16 The Propaganda Model Today: Filtering Perception and Awareness Edited by Joan Pedro-Carañana, Daniel Broudy and Jeffery Klaehn https://doi.org/10.16997/book27 Critical Theory and Authoritarian Populism Edited by Jeremiah Morelock https://doi.org/10.16997/book30 Peer to Peer: The Commons Manifesto Michel Bauwens, Vasilis Kostakis, and Alex Pazaitis https://doi.org/10.16997/book33 Bubbles and Machines: Gender, Information and Financial Crises Micky Lee https://doi.org/10.16997/book34 Cultural Crowdfunding: Platform Capitalism, Labour and Globalization Edited by Vincent Rouzé https://doi.org/10.16997/book38 The Condition of Digitality: A Post-Modern Marxism for the Practice of Digital Life Robert Hassan University of Westminster Press www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk Published by University of Westminster Press 115 New Cavendish Street London W1W 6UW www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk Text © Robert Hassan 2020 First published 2020 Cover design: www.ketchup-productions.co.uk Series cover concept: Mina Bach (minabach.co.uk) Print and digital versions typeset by Siliconchips Services Ltd. ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-912656-67-7 ISBN (PDF): 978-1-912656-68-4 ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-912656-69-1 ISBN (Kindle): 978-1-912656-70-7 DOI: https://doi.org/10.16997/book44 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. This license allows for copying and distributing the work, provid ing author attribution is clearly stated, that you are not using the material for commercial purposes, and that modified versions are not distributed. The full text of this book has been peer-reviewed to ensure high academic standards. For full review policies, see: http://www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk/ site/publish. Competing interests: The authors have no competing interests to declare. Suggested citation: Hassan, R. 2020. The Condition of Digitality: A Post-Modern Marxism for the Practice of Digital Life. London: University of Westminster Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16997/book44 License: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 To read the free, open access version of this book online, visit https://doi.org/10.16997/ book44 or scan this QR code with your mobile device: Contents 1. Introduction: A World That Has Changed, But Has Not Changed 1 2. 1989: David Harvey’s Postmodernity: The Space Economy of Late Capitalism 13 3. From Analogue to Digital: Theorising the Transition 35 4. The Condition of Digitality: A New Perspective on Time and Space 73 5. The Economy of Digitality: Limitless Virtual Space and Network Time 97 6. The Culture of Digitality 129 7. Digital Alienation 159 Index 191 Acknowledgements My gratitude, first of all, goes to Christian Fuchs for encouraging me to con- tinue with the manuscript through its two or three iterations and which saw it transform quite considerably from the initial idea that I had pitched to him. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers who, mixing antagonism and sympa- thy between them, were actually helpful in improving the text. Special thanks to Andrew Lockett, whom I met in Melbourne over a beer to discuss the broad themes of a yet-to-be-written manuscript. His quiet encouragement and no- stress approach to deadlines nonetheless acted as a speed-up as actual dead- lines loomed. Family, as always, is central to my functioning in any realm, and so it was here. Without Kate, Theo and Camille I’d likely be tramping the streets, mutter- ing to myself and looking for a place to sleep. A Note on Nomenclature In the text I use both postmodernity (postmodernism) and post-modernity to signify two different meanings. Postmodernism used to convey an ideological frame as it has been used in many left and Marxist critical writings since at least the late-1970s. Post-modernity I see as a much stronger and more epochal signifier, indicating a phase in historical, economic and philosophical time that has moved definitively beyond modernity; a modernity which, following Jean- François Lyotard, was the imposed Enlightenment idea of a ‘unitary history and subject’.1 An idea and a time that has gone. For Josie Daw and Mark Hassan CHAPTER 1 Introduction: A World That Has Changed, But Has Not Changed A world that has changed, but has not changed.1 If the title of this book vaguely recalls another, then to save you guessing I’ll state at once that this is a book that is part homage and part critical re- consideration of David Harvey’s The Condition of Postmodernity: An Inquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change2, first published in 1989. The book was and still is important, for reasons I will come to. Mainly though, Postmodernity stands as an example of the value of Marxist criticism and analysis in what many within its various strands of thought still call late-modernity—but also as a reminder of the dangers of not upgrading, constantly, these frames of analysis, and adapting them to those new and important developments that can change the whole scene: such as the economic, cultural and ontological meanings and effects inherent in the processes of digital technology. My re- consideration of Harvey speaks to what is a lacuna in his work—the lack of a thoroughgoing analysis of digital technology in relation to that which it has so rapidly displaced: analogue technique and the human relationship with it, which together enabled, created and shaped capitalist modernity. Recall that the ‘information technology revolution’ as it was called, was fully underway as the eighties turned into the nineties.3 Moreover, this lack extends beyond Postmodernity and goes to the left more broadly, as we will see.
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