Digital ghosts, global capitalism and social change

Bibliographic Data

ID2964072
AuthorsFreya Schiwy (University of California, Riverside, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume15
Issue3
Pages313-330
Publication date2009-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Identities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1350-4630 • E-ISSN: 1363-0296
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13504630902899051
OpenAlexW2057654825
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited24

This article traces the importance of colonial legacies for theorizing speculative capitalism by thinking from the use of digital media by indigenous social movements in the Andes. Indeed, rather than marginal to global capitalism, I maintain that indigenous peoples and media activists are at the forefront of experimenting with political and economic alternatives to capitalism. I argue that the racialized body remains tangible as digital media are read and used akin to older, analogue technology and its ‘writing of light.’ The desires for truth and corporeality in indigenous media point to the existence of borders from which alternatives to the current capitalist order are imagined and enacted. Similarly, in indigenous films speculative capitalism betrays its colonial constitution that ties it back to modern/colonial economic forms, rather than creating an entirely novel break with the past. In light of indigenous media digital images and the notion of immaterial labor are haunted by similar, colonial ghosts

Capitalism · Colonialism · Constitution · Indigenous · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social media · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub