The Class of the New

by Richard Barbrook

Netizens, elancers, cognitarians, swarm-capitalists, hackers, produsumers, knowledge workers, pro-ams... these are just a few of the monikers that have been applied to the new social class emerging from the networked workplace. In this short book, Richard Barbrook presents a collection of quotations from authors who in different ways attempt to identify an innovative element within society - 'the class of the new'. Announcing a new economic and social paradigm, this class constitutes a 'social prophecy' of the shape of work to come. From Adam Smith's 'Philosophers' of the late 18th century, down to the 'Creative Class' celebrated by sociologist Richard Florida today, the class of the new represents the future of production within and beyond capitalism. An OpenMute production

Genres: Sociology

116 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 2006

About the author

Richard Barbrook is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Westminster.

Working with Andy Cameron, he wrote The Californian Ideology which was a pioneering critique of the neo-liberal politics of Wired magazine. His other important writings about the Net include The Hi-Tech Gift Economy, Cyber-communism, The Regulation of Liberty and The Class of the New.

In 2007, Richard moved to the Social Sciences School of the University of Westminster and published his study of the political and ideological role of the prophecies of artificial intelligence and the information society: Imaginary Futures.

(text + picture from wiki)

Reviews

[Johan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main part of this book is a collection of quotes that recounts the history of identifying new and upcoming structures of class. The list of names these groups have been called is pretty impressive and somewhat bewildering. Adding to the scent of confusion is the fact that Barbrook really doesn’t present any definitions of the classes in his foreword. So it’s a good idea to re-read his introduction after reading the quotes.

Barbrook uses the city of London as an example of a place where the city administration has gone to great lengths in supporting the so called creative class via the project Creative London. Under Labour party rule, the city has actively tried to remodel the city structure to fit in nicely with the habits of the creative class.

Barbrook centres around Robert Florida’s book about the creative class and criticises the way that theory assigns the notion of creativity to a specified class and ignores the participatory quality of contemporary culture. Barbrook points out that highly successful businesses like Flikr and MySpace are to a large degree are tools for self-publishing and social networking. My take on Barbrooks thesis about the Creative London project and the theories of the creative classes (or non-specifically the knowledge class as the harbingers of the future) is that he wants a more participatory and democratised view of creativity. Especially through the Internet, creativity is everywhere, not just in a designated class of creatives.

I found the book highly readable and interesting, the quotes acts as a kind spring board to further reading on the topic. It’s also nice that the book is licensed under Creative Commons.