Nicholas Srnicek

Cognitive Assemblages and the Production of Knowledge

This chapter aims to examine how assemblages can develop the concept of epistemic communities for a technological era. It begins by briefly outlining the two concepts, and then constructs the notion of a cognitive assemblage: those assemblages that have the function of producing some piece of knowledge. Particularly in politics, this is becoming an increasingly important factor for our perceptions of the global, with the spread of big data, computer modelling, and data analytics. The main section of the chapter demonstrates how epistemic communities fail to account for this material aspect of cognitive assemblages, and how cognitive assemblages can provide a lens for explaining and theorising these new actors. It concludes by briefly highlighting the political issues that emerge in this new world of cognitive assemblages.

The eyes of the state: how central banks think

In November 2015, after weeks of bitter political rhetoric and much discussion about the consequences of the proposed changes, the UK Tory government reversed their decision to eliminate tax credits for the poorest. While much was made of this reversal, particularly who deserved responsibility for the change, a more subtle politics was going on behind the scenes. The primary justification for the reversal, given by the Chancellor George Osborne, was that tax revenues in forthcoming years were now expected to be much higher than before. Yet, a deeper look into this justification revealed that 55% of those extra revenues (£29.1xa0billion out of £52.2xa0billion) came from “modelling changes”. Suddenly, the discursive sparring over tax revenues found its material embodiment in the computers of the Office for Budget Responsibility. Similarly, central bank policies have become essential to the global economy since the 2008 crisis, and their policies concerning interest rates and quantitative easing are the joint product of hybrid human–computer systems. Yet, while scholars have examined the influence of modelling technology on derivatives valuation models, the field of central bank macroeconomic modelling has been largely ignored. This paper will examine these government economic models, outlining a broad history of their changing political ramifications. What are these models? How can they change the possibilities of government action so much? In addition, what effect do they have on politicians? Do they function merely as post-hoc justification for policies, or do they give shape to the space of the politically possible? The aim of this project is to begin answering these questions and generate a framework for understanding how economic modelling is shaping and interacting with economic policy.

Imaginaires post-travail

La gauche devrait se mobiliser autour d’un consensus sur le post-travail. Cela lui permettrait de viser non seulement des gains appreciables –xa0tels que la reduction de la corvee et de la pauvretexa0– mais aussi la construction, chemin faisant, d’une puissance politique. Cela implique au moins trois revendicationsxa0: l’automation aussi complete que possible, une reduction du temps de travail sans reduction des salaires et l’instauration d’un revenu de base universel.

The Future isn't Working

Full employment is a tenet of classic social democracy – but what if that just isnt applicable anymore? Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams survey the state of the British labour market and ask how a modern Labour party might reframe the issue of work so that it is sustainable and sustaining in the face of technological change.