The net and Multiple Realities

Introduction
Jodi Dean is a Professor of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Erasmus Professor of the Humanities in the Faculty of Philosophy at Erasmus University. She is the author or editor of nine books. The most recent is Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies: Communicative Politics and Left Politics. One of her most recent essays is “The Net and Multiple Realities” which deals with her understand of net and the way net is perceived in the society.
Content
Jodi Dean’s essay “The net and multiple realities” deals with her understanding of net in the modern world. According to her observation "the approach to net has taken two opposing lines based on the understanding of public sphere developed by German social theorist Habernas, who believes that open public discussion can further the enlightened, democratic ideal." There are those who claim that net creates too much public sphere in terms of our capacity to communicate with others. On the other hand, there are also others who claim that net destroys the public sphere because net consists of masses of solitary people independently staring at monitors. However, Jodi makes a contradictory critique of the net to argue that we should not think of net in terms of public sphere at all, instead she introduces net as a communicative capitalism. Here the net is not considered as a virtual space or of a place where multiple realities meet but rather as a democracy without a public which forms a massive site of conflict. "The net also stands for zero institution- which is not an institution but which nonetheless stands for a particular kind of social order, where voices are heard outside the knowledge channels of communication and reception and which is home to new neodemocratic politics of resistance caught in a globalized, networked, hyber-capitalism."
Reference
Jodi Dean “The Net and Multiple Realities”

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu