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Netocracy was a term invented by the editorial board of the American technology magazine ''Wired'' in the early 1990s. A
portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsInternet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...
'' and ''
aristocracy Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At the time of the word' ...
'', ''netocracy'' refers to a perceived global upper-class that bases its power on a technological advantage and networking skills, in comparison to what is portrayed as a
bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. Th ...
of a gradually diminishing importance. The concept was later picked up and redefined by
Alexander Bard Alexander Bengt Magnus Bard (born 17 March 1961) is a Swedish musician, author, lecturer, artist, songwriter, music producer, TV personality, religious and political activist, and one of the founders of the Syntheist religious movement alongside ...
and
Jan Söderqvist Jan Söderqvist (born 1961) is an author, lecturer, writer and consultant, and among other things also working as a literary and film critic for the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. Söderqvist has written three books on the Internet revolut ...
for their book ''Netocracy — The New Power Elite and Life After Capitalism'' (originally published in Swedish in 2000 as ''Nätokraterna –t boken om det elektroniska klassamhället'', published in English by Reuters/Pearsall UK in 2002). The netocracy concept has been compared with
Richard Florida Richard L. Florida is an American urban studies theorist focusing on social and economic theory. He is a professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and a Distinguished Fellow at NYU's School of Professional Studies. ...
's concept of the
creative class The creative class is the posit of American urban studies theorist Richard Florida for an ostensible socioeconomic class. Florida, a professor and head of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of To ...
. Bard and Söderqvist have also defined an underclass in opposition to the netocracy, which they refer to as the consumtariat.


The consumtariat

Alexander Bard describes a new underclass called the consumtariat, a
portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsconsumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...
and
proletariat The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose only possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian. Marxist philo ...
, whose main activity is consumption, regulated from above. It is kept occupied with private problems, its desires provoked with the use of advertisements and its active participation is limited to things like product choice, product customization, engaging with interactive products and life-style choice.


Cyberdeutocracy

Similar to netocracy, is the concept of
cyberdeutocracy Karl Wolfgang Deutsch (21 July 1912 – 1 November 1992) was a social and political scientist from Prague. He was a professor at MIT, Yale University and Harvard University, as well as Director of Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (International Insti ...
. Karl W. Deutsch in his book ''The Nerves of Government: Models of Political Communication and Control'' hypothesized about "information elites, controlling means of mass communication and, accordingly, power institutions, the functioning of which is based on the use of information in their activities." Thus Deutsch introduced the concept of deutocracy, combining the words 'Deutsch' and 'autocracy' to get the new term. Cyberdeutocracy combines 'deutocracy' with the prefix 'cyber-' and is defined as a political regime based on the control by the political and corporate elites of the information and communication infrastructure of the Internet space. As a tool of social control, Cyberdeutocracy allows elites to engage in the: * destruction and/or transformation of existing meanings, symbols, values, and ideas * generation of new meanings, symbols, values, and ideas * introduction of these transformed and new meanings, symbols, values, and ideas into the public consciousness to shape society's perception of political reality. The term was coined by Phillip Freiberg in his 2018 paper "What are CyberSimulacra and Cyberdeutocracy?"


Other usages

Netocracy can also refer to "Internet-enabled democracy" where issue-based politics will supersede party-based politics. In this sense, the word ''netocracy'' is also used as a
portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words
San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...
; January 15, 2004


See also


References


Further reading

*
Slavoj Zizek Slavoj may refer to: *Karel Slavoj Amerling (1807–1884), Czech teacher, writer, and philosopher *Slavoj Černý (born 1937), Czech former cyclist * Slavoj Žižek (born 1949), Slovenian philosopher See also *Záboj and Slavoj, outdoor sculpture ...
, ''Organs without Bodies'', * Gareth Morgan (1992), ''
Images of Organization Images of Organization is a bestseller book by Gareth Morgan, professor of organizational behavior and industrial relations at the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the ...
''; * '' A Hacker Manifesto'', {{ISBN, 978-0-674-01543-2


External links


The Netocracy and the Consumtariat. Speech by Alexander Bard
* Interview with the authors of Netocrac
Part 12
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jH0wc0WAFw
45
Internet culture Oligarchy Information society Information revolution Power (social and political) concepts Rule by a subset of population