000			02994nam a2200433Ii 4500
001			9781787691971
003			UtOrBLW
005			20210303084919.0
006			m o d
007			cr un|||||||||
008			180917s2018 enk ob 001 0 eng d
020			_a9781787691971 (e-book)
040			_aUtOrBLW _beng _erda _cUtOrBLW
050		4	_aHM851 _b.S69 2018
072		7	_aGTC _2bicssc
072		7	_aCOM060000 _2bisacsh
080			_a316.4
082	0	4	_a303.4833 _223
100	1		_aSmyrnaios, Nikos, _eauthor.
245	1	0	_aInternet oligopoly : _bthe corporate takeover of our world / _cNikos Smyrnaios (Université de Toulouse, France).
264		1	_bEmerald Publishing Limited,
300			_a1 online resource (xv, 174 pages) ; _ccm.
490	1		_aDigital activism and society
500			_aIncludes index.
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references.
520			_aOver the last decade, the digital technologies in everyday life have multiplied. Our lives have been gradually taken over by digital devices, networks, and services. Although useful, they have also become invasive additions to our personal, professional and public lives. This process has occurred in a globalized and deregulated economy and a few US-based start-ups transformed into an oligopoly of multinationals that today govern the informational infrastructure of our societies. This book offers an analytical framework of the contemporary internet studied through the lens of history and political economy. Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft are examined as emblematic products of a new capitalist order that is resolutely opposed to the original project of the internet. The author retraces the process of commodification that resulted in financial rationales taking over from collective and individual emancipation and uncovers how this internet oligopoly uses its exorbitant market power to eliminate competition; take advantage of global financialization to exploit human labour on a global scale and to avoid taxation; and how it implements strategies to control our communication methods for accessing information and content online, thus increasingly controlling the digital public sphere. The book reveals how the reshaping of society via private company business models impact on the place of work in future societies, social and economic inequalities, and, ultimately, democracy.
588	0		_aPrint version record
650		0	_aInformation society.
650		0	_aDigital electronics _xSocial aspects.
650		0	_aTechnological innovations _xSocial aspects.
650		7	_aComputers, Internet _xGeneral. _2bisacsh
650		7	_aCommunication studies. _2bicssc
776			_z9781787692008
830		0	_aDigital activism and society.
856	4	0	_uhttps://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/doi/10.1108/9781787691971
999			_c30046 _d30046