Wikipedia, Work and Capitalism

This book relates Wikipedians’ conceptions of their activities in terms of play, game, work and labour, to their views on Wikipedia and capitalism. The author identifies and compares ideology formations with each other, and with contemporary Marxist theory, providing critical evaluation of the perceived economic relation between peer production and capitalism. The book covers a range of topics including encyclopaedias and the digital revolution; Marxist approaches to cognitive capitalism; and crowdsourcing. The book richly contributes to the emerging literature of critical internet studies, providing a unique intersection of three fields of knowledge: social effects of digital technology; ideologies and politics of cognitive capitalism’s social relations; and the culture of contemporary capitalism.

Wikipedia, Work and Capitalism will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including political economy, sociology and digital cultures, as wellas social activists, Wikipedians, and peer producers. 

• Marxism
• virtual work
• labour
• capitalism
• sociology
• internet

“A startling reminder of how capitalism today is part of even the most communally organized venture. Recommended reading!” (Jutta Haider, Lund University, Sweden)

“This book explores, within an innovative and lucid framework, and through meticulous observations, the ideological work underpinning the real cognitive work done by Wikipedians.” (Eran Fisher, The Open University of Israel)

• Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

  Arwid Lund

Arwid Lund is Lecturer at the Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences at Lund University, Sweden. He holds a research fellowship at Westminster Institute of Advanced Studies, UK and is author of three books in Swedish. 

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