This document provides an overview of the readings and topics for Weeks 5-6 of an ARIN2600 Technocultures course on technology and class. It discusses various theories of class from Marx, Weber, and others. It also examines relationships between technology, inequality, and class interests, as well as the impact of technologies like social networks and how cultural capital relates to technology use. Examples of different class categories from various theorists are also presented for discussion. The next week's topics on technology and space are previewed.

1. Technology & Class
Week 5-6
ARIN2600 Technocultures
Session 1, 2009
Chris Chesher

2. This week’s readings
• Florida, Richard (2003) The rise of the creative class:
and how it's transforming work, leisure, community and
everyday life. North Melbourne: Pluto Press, 67–82.
• Wark, McKenzie (2004) ‘Class’ and ‘Hacking’ in A
hacker manifesto, Cambridge, MA : Harvard
University Press, Pars 24-47 and 71–88ARIN3000
• Kroker, Arthur; and (2001) ‘The theory of the
virtual class’ in Trend, David (2001) Reading digital
culture, Malden, Mass. and Oxford: Blackwell. pp
144–153.

3. Bejewelled
mobile phone
Goldvish diamond-encrusted
mobile phone
http://blogs.modernjeweler.com/blog/2007/03/

4. Class
• structured differences between groups of
people
• relationships betw. economic structures,
cultural differences & collective identities
• power differentials:
• power: the chance of a man or of a number of
men to realize their own will in a communal
action even against the resistance of other who
are participation in the action (Weber)

5. the
Corporation
‘Externalities’

6. http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/image/marx.gif

7. Marxist class
• Bourgeoisie
• owners of capital, exploiters of labour power
(industrial, merchant, finance & landed)
• produced surplus value
• History: capitalists displaced feudal landlords
• Proletariat
• exploited; antagonistic relationship
• Others: lumpenproletariat, petit
bourgeoisie, landlords

8. http://hangingodes.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/weber.jpg

9. Weberian class
• Class: economic base for communal action
• market situation
• property/lack of property; creditor/debtor
• Status groups
• social estimation of honour
• (style of life; rituals; ethnicity)
• Parties:
• oriented towards acquisition of power
• rational action

10. The American
Ruling Class
Directed by John Kirby
Written by Lewis Lapham

11. Class & Technology
• Technology as the means of production
• Alienation (factory system; Fordism; Taylorism)
• Technology & class interests
• social shaping (design reflects & reinforces class
interests)
• Base and superstructure:
• Technology as ideology
• Distinction (Bourdieu): class and taste

12. Class & Technology
• Inequality
• unequal access to technology
• Consumption
• system of objects (Baudrillard)
• mobile privatisation (Williams)
• technology as ideology / spectacle
• Shoshana Zuboff
• production & work: ‘informating’

13. The ‘Digital Divide’
• Unequal access
• Internet use in Australia
• 2002 52% under $40k; 89% over $80k
• 2006-7 <40k 50%; over $80k 83-93% have internet access at home
• ABS Household Use of Information Technology, Australia, 2001-02 and
2006-7 (8146.0)
• Literacy / competency
• Cultural capital
• Community informatics
8146.0 - Household Use of
Information Technology, Australia,
2007-08 (Dec 2008)

15. Class & social networks
• MySpace v Facebook — danah boyd
• These teens are very aware of MySpace and they
often have a negative opinion about it. They see
it as gaudy, immature, and quot;so middle school.quot;
They prefer the quot;cleanquot; look of Facebook, noting
that it is more mature and that MySpace is quot;so
lame.quot; What hegemonic teens call gaudy can also
be labeled as quot;glitzyquot; or quot;blingquot; or quot;flyquot; (or what
my generation would call quot;phatquot;) by subaltern
teens.

16. ICTs & class
• Link betw. Cultural capital, habitus and
cultural form — North et al
• ‘Social background is part of what helps form
young people’s habitus and this, in turn, affects
their approach, and interest in, ICT at home and
in school.’ (909)
• North, Sue, Ilana Snyder and Scott Bulfin. 2008. quot;DIGITAL TASTES: Social class and young people's
technology use.quot; Information, Communication & Society 11(7):895 - 911.

17. Free software
movement
• Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy,
distribute, study, change and improve the software. More
precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for software users :
• *The freedom to run the program, for any purpose
(freedom 0).
• * The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt
it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is
a precondition for this.
• * The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your
neighbor (freedom 2).
• * The freedom to improve the program, and release your
improvements to the public, so that the whole community
benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a
precondition for this.

18. Classes
Identify examples & discuss these categorisations
Kroker &
Florida Wark
Weinstein
Virtual class
Pastoralist class
Super-creative class Capitalist class
Visionaries
Creative class Vectoralist class
VIsionless capitalists
Working class
Techies
Service class Farmers
Technointelligentsia
Agriculture Working class
Hacker class
Hypertexted body

19. Next week
• Technology and space
• Saco: critical survey of intersections of
information technology and space — a
heterotopia
• Hrachovec: detailed reading of ‘telepresence’ and
its tendency to break down assumptions about
space, time, communication

20. Essays
• Exercise in writing essay questions
• based on a contemporary theme or case study
• draw on concepts & debates from the course
readings
• any ideas? Discuss them in the tutorial.