Machine fetishism > information fetishism : how machine-dependent information devours libraries and the lithosphere
(2024) ABMM54 20241Division of ALM and Digital Cultures
- Abstract
- The industrial and information revolutions that took shape in the British and Anglo-American empires, respectively, and that are linked in time and space by a westward expansion of capital, have both been justified and referred to as unavoidable and inescapable processes. Thus, they have been understood more as revelations of nature and less as products of a particular and historical society. Karl Marx exemplified this problem with the concept of commodity fetishism, while others later would do the same with the concept of information fetishism. As critical concepts, they unveil the duplicitous and dual character of the commodity and what in this work is conceptualized as machine information or machine-dependent information. Due to the... (More)
- The industrial and information revolutions that took shape in the British and Anglo-American empires, respectively, and that are linked in time and space by a westward expansion of capital, have both been justified and referred to as unavoidable and inescapable processes. Thus, they have been understood more as revelations of nature and less as products of a particular and historical society. Karl Marx exemplified this problem with the concept of commodity fetishism, while others later would do the same with the concept of information fetishism. As critical concepts, they unveil the duplicitous and dual character of the commodity and what in this work is conceptualized as machine information or machine-dependent information. Due to the nature of machine-dependent information, the purpose of the present work is to suggest that commodity fetishism and what Alf Hornborg has called machine fetishism, respectively, relate to information fetishism as first-order and second-order fetishism. The hierarchical ordering of these concepts generates analytical distinctions regarding the social and ecological requirements and impacts that these political processes provoke. Methodologically, the concept of information fetishism is examined in a literature review, where its analytical spectrum is tentatively and provisionally discussed and thereafter advanced as a third-order fetishism within the analytical framework of machine fetishism together with associated heterodox theories of information. Two conclusions follow: (1) information fetishism cannot be correctly analyzed or substantially assessed without being understood as a subcategory of machine fetishism; (2) the mainstream perception of machine-dependent information as ontologically detached can imperil both the world and thus the future of libraries. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9154628
- author
- Lövgren, Mikael LU
- supervisor
-
- Olof Sundin LU
- organization
- alternative title
- Maskinfetischism > informationfetischism : hur maskinberoende information eroderar biblioteken och litosfären
- course
- ABMM54 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Machine fetishism, Information fetishism, Literature review, Immanent critique, Machine information, Machine-dependent information, Machine-independent information, Library and information science
- language
- English
- id
- 9154628
- date added to LUP
- 2024-06-18 14:52:54
- date last changed
- 2024-06-18 14:52:54
@misc{9154628,
abstract = {{The industrial and information revolutions that took shape in the British and Anglo-American empires, respectively, and that are linked in time and space by a westward expansion of capital, have both been justified and referred to as unavoidable and inescapable processes. Thus, they have been understood more as revelations of nature and less as products of a particular and historical society. Karl Marx exemplified this problem with the concept of commodity fetishism, while others later would do the same with the concept of information fetishism. As critical concepts, they unveil the duplicitous and dual character of the commodity and what in this work is conceptualized as machine information or machine-dependent information. Due to the nature of machine-dependent information, the purpose of the present work is to suggest that commodity fetishism and what Alf Hornborg has called machine fetishism, respectively, relate to information fetishism as first-order and second-order fetishism. The hierarchical ordering of these concepts generates analytical distinctions regarding the social and ecological requirements and impacts that these political processes provoke. Methodologically, the concept of information fetishism is examined in a literature review, where its analytical spectrum is tentatively and provisionally discussed and thereafter advanced as a third-order fetishism within the analytical framework of machine fetishism together with associated heterodox theories of information. Two conclusions follow: (1) information fetishism cannot be correctly analyzed or substantially assessed without being understood as a subcategory of machine fetishism; (2) the mainstream perception of machine-dependent information as ontologically detached can imperil both the world and thus the future of libraries.}},
author = {{Lövgren, Mikael}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Machine fetishism > information fetishism : how machine-dependent information devours libraries and the lithosphere}},
year = {{2024}},
}