Netocracy was a term invented by the editorial board of the American technology magazine ''Wired'' in the early 1990s. A

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of ''

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

'' and ''

aristocracy Aristocracy (; ) is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocracy (class), aristocrats. Across Europe, the aristocracy exercised immense Economy, economic, Politics, political, and soc ...

'', ''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 ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted wi ...

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 Syntheism, Syntheist religious movement ...

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 : 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 (born 1957) 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 Profess ...

'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 ...

. Bard and Söderqvist have also defined an

underclass The underclass is the segment of the population that occupies the lowest possible position in a social class, class hierarchy, below the core body of the working class. This group is usually considered cut off from the rest of the society. The g ...

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 In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or use 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 possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian or a . Marxist ph ...

, 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 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 In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of ''Internet'' and ''democracy'', not of ''Internet'' and ''aristocracy'': *"In Seattle, organized labor ran interference for the ragtag groups assembled behind it, marshaling several thousand union members who feared that free trade might send their jobs abroad. In Washington, labor focused on lobbying Congress over the China-trade issue, leaving the IMF and the World Bank to the ad hoc Netocracy." *"From his bungalow in Berkeley, he's spreading the word of grassroots netocracy to the Beltway. He formed an Internet political consulting firm with Jerome ..."

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 M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

; January 15, 2004

References

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

The consumtariat

Cyberdeutocracy

Other usages

See also

References

Further reading

External links