media and new capitalism in the digital age:(4)

What is the sociopolitical meaning of the spirit of networks? A New Trade-off Between Alienation and Exploitation (217-219) (T)he spirit of networks has been constructed as a response to the humanist critique of Fordist society. It transcends the technological, institutional, and social pitfalls that prevailed during Fordism-- which were subject to the humanist critique-- and therefore makes a watershed in the shift from Fordism to post-Fordism. The critique of Fordism, to which the spirit of networks responds, therefore, targets precisely the oppressive nature of the administrated state and the bureaucratic corporation, the loss of personal authenticity, and the deerotization of the productive process, that is, the harmful ramifications of Fordism in terms of alienation. Network technology, the lean and flexible corporation, and flexible modes of employment and production are all conceived in the discourse on network technology during post-Fordism as technologies that respond to concerns put forth by the humanist critique, such as the need for individual empowerment, authenticity, and creativity, that is, those geared onward mitigating alienation. The Spirit of Network and the Legitimation of Capitalism p222 The Spirit of Networks and the Decomposition of the Fordist Class Compact 221-222 In the Fordist condition, the state enjoys political legitimation and exercises technical and technological administration of the economy. In that framework, technological legitimation is mediated b the state. In the post-Fordist constellation,the state loses its political legitimation for the administration of the economy, and instead technological legitimation is not mediated through concrete(and democratic) social institutions but through the internal operation of network technology, as encapsulated in the spirit of networks. In sum, with post-Fordism capitalist legitimation becomes more depoliticized and more instrumentalized; it becomes-- quite literally -- a technological legitimation rather than a form of political legitimation through technology. Techno-political Cultures: the closure of the political p223-224 David Harvey 2005 A brief history of neoliberalism (t)he demands of personal freedom --- the core of the humanist critique-- is in conflict with the demands for equality and solidarit--- the core of the social critique. In the same vein, we can say that the response to the humanist critique, which dominates the spirit of networks, comes at the expense of responding to the social critique. the spirit of networks resolves the social and political concerns that underlie Fordist society technologically.