Spirit of Digital Capitalism

Digital technologies are now central to the machinations of capitalism. How are they giving rise to new forms of capital accumulation and domination? And in what terms are these changes being promoted and justified by a new and incredibly powerful elite?

This book takes on such questions. Beyond demonstrating how digital technologies make new forms of capital accumulation possible, Huberman interrogates the ideological transformations that have accompanied the emergence of digital capitalism. She examines how business gurus, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists make claims about how digital technologies contribute to the common good, foster collaboration and connectivity, and render life more convenient, even if this convenience comes at the expense of values such as privacy and liberty. Ultimately, Huberman argues that the spirit of digital capitalism is Janus-faced and reveals deeper cultural contradictions at the heart of contemporary American society: promising, in the same moment, to liberate us and surveil us, enrich us, and yet render our lives more economically precarious.

Smart and thought-provoking, this book offers new perspectives that will speak to anyone interested in the contours of contemporary capitalism, particularly students and scholars of economic anthropology and sociology.

Reviews

“With energetic purpose and grounded arguments, Huberman lays out the ideological spirit animating digital capitalism. This book shows how the avatars of digital capitalism ‒ through the use (and abuse) of concepts like convenience ‒ seek to convince us to embrace this new regime.”
Jathan Sadowski, Monash University

“If there is one book you plan to read or assign this year to get a handle on why today’s digital world feels inescapable, it should be this. Huberman offers readers crisp, elegant prose dissecting contemporary cases of the material consequences that befall us all when a few elites are gripped by an ideology of digital progress. This is at once a synthetic treatise on why we are where we are and a roadmap for pushing against the soullessness of digital economies.”
Mary Gray, Microsoft Research and Harvard University