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Digital transformation and the renewal of social theory: Unpacking the new fraudulent myths and misplaced metaphors

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  • Ossewaarde, Marinus

Abstract

In this article, it is argued that social theory must be renewed to comprehend the new power constellations and new challenges to aesthetic and intellectual ways of life that are being shaped by digital transformation. However, while social theory has to renew its tools in order to grasp previously unknown realities, it also runs the risk of being assimilated into the very process that it seeks to understand, or to assimilate so much of the dominant belief system that it loses its critical and creative potential. The aim of this article is to propose a particular, renewed social theory that consists in a recasting some social theoretic insights to be able to preserve aesthetic and intellectual potentials of critique and negation. Through the lens of this renewed social theory, digital transformation is understood as a form of economic domination, which, as this article shows, is sustained by un-enlightenment, that is, by fraudulent myths and misplaced metaphors.

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  • Ossewaarde, Marinus, 2019. "Digital transformation and the renewal of social theory: Unpacking the new fraudulent myths and misplaced metaphors," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 24-30.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:146:y:2019:i:c:p:24-30
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2019.05.007
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Steffen Roth, 2017. "Marginal Economy: Growth Strategies for Post-Growth Societies," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 1033-1046, October.
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    4. Roth, Steffen & Clark, Carlton & Trofimov, Nikolay & Mkrtichyan, Artur & Heidingsfelder, Markus & Appignanesi, Laura & Pérez-Valls, Miguel & Berkel, Jan & Kaivo-oja, Jari, 2017. "Futures of a distributed memory. A global brain wave measurement (1800–2000)," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 307-323.
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    6. Wajcman, Judy, 2017. "Automation: is it really different this time?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 69811, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
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    Cited by:

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    6. da Fonseca, André Luís A. & Chimenti, Paula & Campos, Roberta D., 2023. "‘Take my advice’: Entrepreneurial consumers and the ecosystemic logics of digital platforms," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    7. Konoplev, D., 2021. "Digital poverty: How online economy captures property inequality," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 49(1), pages 138-164.
    8. Marinus Ossewaarde & Roshnee Ossewaarde-Lowtoo, 2020. "The EU’s Green Deal: A Third Alternative to Green Growth and Degrowth?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-15, November.
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