The Social Production of Hybrid Space De Sociale Productie van Hybride Ruimte Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam op gezag van de rector magnificus Prof.dr. R.C.M.E. Engels en volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties. De openbare verdediging zal plaatsvinden op Donderdag 28 juni 2018 om 13.30 uur door Robin van den Akker geboren te ‘s Gravenhage 2 Doctoral Committee: Supervisors: Prof. Dr. V.A.J. Frissen Prof. Dr. J. de Mul Other Members: Prof. Dr. S. Lammes Prof. Dr. W. Schinkel Dr. G.H. van Oenen This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Rob and Aartje. Thanks for getting me ready for adulthood (and all of its many ploys, plots, and protagonists). 3 4 Doctoral Committee: Supervisors: Prof. Dr. V.A.J. Frissen Prof. Dr. J. de Mul Other Members: Prof. Dr. S. Lammes Prof. Dr. W. Schinkel Dr. G.H. van Oenen This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Rob and Aartje. Thanks for getting me ready for adulthood (and all of its many ploys, plots, and protagonists). 3 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I need to thank a couple of people and institutions that have made my life so much easier and so much more interesting than I could have ever imagined. Family first. I am grateful to my parents, Rob and Aartje, for stimulating my curiosity throughout childhood and providing me with so many opportunities while coming of age. This dissertation is dedicated to them. I am also grateful to my brother Tom and sister Fleur for all of the warmth, joy and fun that come with being siblings. I owe so much to so many great teachers at Erasmus University Rotterdam and the University of Birmingham for guiding me through my formative academic years, especially Technology reveals the active relation of man to nature, the direct process of the production Antoon van den Braembussche, Bernadette Kester, Henk Oosterling, and Ross Abbinnet. I of his life, and thereby it also lays bare the process of the production of social relations of his also owe Niels and Leonard and Kieran and Alison for that fiery intellectual friendship that life, and the mental conceptions that flow from these relations. marks any transition from student to scholar. – K. Marx, Capital, 1976 [1867], p. 493n My friends and colleagues at Erasmus University College, where I had the privilege to work since its very start five years ago, have made my working life an absolute delight – and I am very thankful for this. So many thanks to the ‘originals’ Ginie Servant, Marisela Martinez Man must be everyday, or he will not be at all. Claros, and Thomas Hulst as well as Tamara de Groot, Marie van der Gaag, Christian van der – H. Lefebvre, Critique of Everyday Life, 2002 [1947], p. 127 Veeke, Julien Kloeg, Catherine Somze, Wander van Baalen, Çağlar Köseoğlu, Friso van Houdt, Charlotte Dwyer, Maryse Kruithof, Boo van der Vlist, and Amarantha Groen, my colleagues at the Humanities Department (in order of appearance). And a special thanks to Liesbeth Noordegraaf-Eelens: The past few years have been, well, quite a ride but I would not have wanted to miss it. I have met many great scholars on many interesting conferences. I am particularly thankful to Adriana de Souza e Silva and Mimi Sheller for organising the conference Local and Mobile: Linking Mobilities, Mobile Communication and Locative Media (Raleigh, 2012) and for editing Mobility and Locative Media: Mobile Communication in Hybrid Spaces (2015), a collection based on the many interesting papers presented at the conference. My argument on chance orchestration (section 4.2 of this dissertation) has been presented at the conference and has been published as part of my contribution to the collection (Van den Akker, 2015). It has therefore greatly benefitted from discussions with conference participants and comments by anonymous peer reviewers. I will be forever indebted to my supervisors Valerie Frissen en Jos de Mul for giving me the chance to pursue an academic career by taking me on as a doctoral researcher (while saving me from employment at a factory for so-called ‘milk robots’), for having given me 5 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I need to thank a couple of people and institutions that have made my life so much easier and so much more interesting than I could have ever imagined. Family first. I am grateful to my parents, Rob and Aartje, for stimulating my curiosity throughout childhood and providing me with so many opportunities while coming of age. This dissertation is dedicated to them. I am also grateful to my brother Tom and sister Fleur for all of the warmth, joy and fun that come with being siblings. I owe so much to so many great teachers at Erasmus University Rotterdam and the University of Birmingham for guiding me through my formative academic years, especially Technology reveals the active relation of man to nature, the direct process of the production Antoon van den Braembussche, Bernadette Kester, Henk Oosterling, and Ross Abbinnet. I of his life, and thereby it also lays bare the process of the production of social relations of his also owe Niels and Leonard and Kieran and Alison for that fiery intellectual friendship that life, and the mental conceptions that flow from these relations. marks any transition from student to scholar. – K. Marx, Capital, 1976 [1867], p. 493n My friends and colleagues at Erasmus University College, where I had the privilege to work since its very start five years ago, have made my working life an absolute delight – and I am very thankful for this. So many thanks to the ‘originals’ Ginie Servant, Marisela Martinez Man must be everyday, or he will not be at all. Claros, and Thomas Hulst as well as Tamara de Groot, Marie van der Gaag, Christian van der – H. Lefebvre, Critique of Everyday Life, 2002 [1947], p. 127 Veeke, Julien Kloeg, Catherine Somze, Wander van Baalen, Çağlar Köseoğlu, Friso van Houdt, Charlotte Dwyer, Maryse Kruithof, Boo van der Vlist, and Amarantha Groen, my colleagues at the Humanities Department (in order of appearance). And a special thanks to Liesbeth Noordegraaf-Eelens: The past few years have been, well, quite a ride but I would not have wanted to miss it. I have met many great scholars on many interesting conferences. I am particularly thankful to Adriana de Souza e Silva and Mimi Sheller for organising the conference Local and Mobile: Linking Mobilities, Mobile Communication and Locative Media (Raleigh, 2012) and for editing Mobility and Locative Media: Mobile Communication in Hybrid Spaces (2015), a collection based on the many interesting papers presented at the conference. My argument on chance orchestration (section 4.2 of this dissertation) has been presented at the conference and has been published as part of my contribution to the collection (Van den Akker, 2015). It has therefore greatly benefitted from discussions with conference participants and comments by anonymous peer reviewers. I will be forever indebted to my supervisors Valerie Frissen en Jos de Mul for giving me the chance to pursue an academic career by taking me on as a doctoral researcher (while saving me from employment at a factory for so-called ‘milk robots’), for having given me 5 6 absolute freedom when it came to my research projects (even though they have been at times TABLE OF CONTENTS totally unrelated to this dissertation’s topic), and for being highly critical, yet very constructive readers of my work (something that has been absolutely fundamental in Acknowledgements finalising this dissertation). This dissertation has been a long time in the making – but it would have been much longer without your guidance. So many, many, many thanks! Chapter 0. Introduction I would also like to thank the members of my promotion committee – Sybille Lammes, 0.1 The Smartphone as Tool, Apparatus, and Medium Willem Schinkel, Gijs van Oenen, Marli Huijer and Awee Prins – for having taken the time to 0.2 The Social Production of Social Space read and comment on my work. It is very much appreciated. Thank you. 0.2.1 Modes of Production: The Marxist and Neo-Marxist Tradition I am very grateful to the interviewees whom have been kind of enough to provide me 0.2.2 The Production of Space with their time, experiences and insights. The interviews have been transcribed and uploaded 0.3 Plan of the Present Work to the university’s SurfDrive location.1 The interviews have been anonymised to protect the 0.4 Methods identities of the respondents. Awee Prins has been my mentor ever since I first set foot in the Philosophy PART I. THE SOCIAL PRODUCTION OF HYBRID SPACE Department back in the (pre-facebook) days. I have become who I have become – in the Chapter 1. The Production of Hybrid Space: The Technological Revolution Revisited broadest possible sense - in no small part because of you. 1.0 Introduction Tim Vermeulen deserves a big hug, a slap on the back and a lame joke for being my 1.1 From Cyberspace to Hybrid Space: A Brief Technological History best friend and intellectual partner. Tim, we now have been sharing a mind (and some pints) 1.2 The Networked Mode of Production for over half of our lives and that has made things so much more fun and interesting. Thanks, 1.2.1 Bang, Boom, Burst: Technological Revolutions and Social Change 1.2.2 The Shared Logic of Web 2.0 buddy! 1.3 Networked Individualism This most definitely is the place to express my immense gratitude to, and deep love 1.3.1 A New Common Sense (1): The Networked Operating System for, ‘ma femme et camarade’ J.