Electronic Potlatch : A study concerning new technologies and primitive economic behaviors

• Economy - the very idea. In an age where the market economy seems to have achieved a total and omnipresent hegemony, there would seem to be little to discuss anymore. Going against this, the book argues for a sensitivity to other forms of economies,and the hybrids existing in our postindustrial society.Concentrating specifically on gift economies, and presenting a very vibrant and alive version of such an economy existing today, the book tries to widen the perspective of what economy is, and at the same time present a case for a 'new primitivism' in the study of such. Based on an ethnographic study of 'warez' and the community around these, the book analyzes competitive giving and what happens in networked economies where normal economic restrictions no longer apply. In this sense it is a study of economy in a general sense, although thoroughly studied in a very particular case.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Produktionsteknik, arbetsvetenskap och ergonomi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

general economy

gift economies

gifts

potlatch

warez

play

excess

software piracy

Industrial engineering and economy

Industriell teknik och ekonomi

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

dok (subject category)