Technocapitalism: A Critical Perspective on Technological Innovation and Corporatism

A radical critique of a new phase of capitalism grounded in corporate power and its exploitation of technological creativity

A new version of capitalism, grounded in technology and science, is spawning new forms of corporate power and organization that will have major implications for the twenty-first century. Technological creativity is thereby turned into a commodity in new corporate regimes that are primarily oriented toward research and intellectual appropriation. This phenomenon is likely to have major social, economic and political consequences, as the new corporatism becomes ever more intrusive and rapacious through its control over technology and innovation. In his provocative book Technocapitalism, Luis Suarez-Villa addresses this phenomenon from the perspective of radical political economy and social criticism. Grounded in the premise that relations of power influence how human creativity and technology are exploited by the new corporatism, the author argues that new forms of democratic participation and resistance are needed, if the social pathologies created by this new version of capitalism are to be checked. Considering the new sectors affected by technocapitalism, such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, bioinformatics, and genomics, Suarez-Villa deciphers the common threads of power and organization that drive their corporatization. These new sectors, and the corporate apparatus set up to extract profit and power through them, are imposing standards, creating business models, molding social governance, and influencing social relations at all levels. The new reality they create is likely to affect most every aspect of human existence, including work, health, life, and nature itself.

"In an era when technology is routinely treated as magical and liberatory, Luis Suarez-Villa has written the long overdue and necessary antidote to such flabby analysis and ludicrous self-congratulation. Technocapitalism is an outstanding book that should be read by all students, scholars and citizens who need to understand technology in the real world of capitalism and corporate power rather than the fairy tale world of the upper-middle class individuals doing their own thing in the sacred free marketplace. Our species faces extraordinarily serious issues in the coming generation, and an honest assessment of the political and economic forces around us is the necessary place to begin." - Robert W. McChesney, Gutgsell Endowed Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Introduction		1	(7)
Experimentalism		8	(23)
Society as Laboratory		10	(7)
Accumulation and Power		17	(7)
Experimentalism as System		24	(5)
Conclusion		29	(2)
Creativity as a Commodity		31	(25)
Creativity versus Commodification		33	(6)
Utility and Value		39	(6)
Reproduction and Commodification		45	(4)
Commodification as Process		49	(5)
Conclusion		54	(2)
Networks as Mediators		56	(30)
Network Extent		57	(10)
Hierarchies and Control		67	(5)
Power and Inequity		72	(6)
Change over Change		78	(6)
Conclusion		84	(2)
Decomposing the Corporation		86	(37)
Networks versus the Corporation		87	(13)
Decomposition and Power		100	(8)
Pathology of Decomposition		108	(13)
Conclusion		121	(2)
Experimentalist Organizations		123	(29)
Systematized Research Regimes		124	(11)
Collaboration and Power		135	(5)
Pathological Pursuits		140	(10)
Conclusion		150	(2)
Challenges		152	(17)
Downfall of Public Democracy		153	(4)
Hegemony of Corporatism		157	(4)
Empowering Creativity		161	(3)
Rediscovering the Social		164	(5)
Notes		169	(42)
Index		211

A radical critique of a new phase of capitalism grounded in corporate power and its exploitation of technological creativity