Serge Proulx

Paradoxical empowerment of produsers in the context of informational capitalism

This article develops a critical perspective on how online contribution practices participate in the creation of economic value under informational capitalism. It discusses the theoretical relevance of the concept of empowerment for exploring online contribution practices. We argue that produsage practices are paradoxical insofar as they can be simultaneously alienating and emancipatory. This theoretical lens allows us to take a fresh look at the collective intelligence of produsers and the role of communities in the collective production of content. We illustrate the fruitfulness of this conceptual approach with two case studies: Facebook and TelaBotanica, a platform for the collaborative production of scientific knowledge.

Trajectoires d'usages des technologies de communication : les formes d'appropriation d'une culture numérique comme enjeu d'une société du savoir

RésuméL’essor important des pratiques de communication médiatisée par les réseaux numriques s’accompagne de changements significatifs dans le paysage socioculturel dont on commence à peine à saisir toutes les conséquences. Des questions émergent, nombreuses: quelle est l’incidence de ces dispositifs sociotechniques sur nos pratiques de sociabilité et de solidarité, voire sur la nature même du lien social? Quels sont les enjeux économiques, politiques et éthiques liés à ces nouvelles pratiques d’échange, de coordination et de communication? On tente d’apporter des éléments de réponse à deux questions transversales se situant en amont de la saisie des trajectoires d’usages et qui concernent la question du déploiement à grande échelle des pratiques de communication médiatisée par les réseaux numériques. A) La participation active du plus grand nombre d’individus à une « société fondée sur les connaissances » nécessite-t-elle l’appropriation d’un noyau minimal de savoir-faire techniques associés à cette nouvelle culture dite numérique ? B) L’utilisation intensive des réseaux numériques de communication va-t-elle favoriser l’émergence d’une nouvelle forme de pensée fondée sur la coopération, l’échange et le don?AbstractWith the marked expansion in digital networks’ mediation of communicative practice has come significant change in the sociocultural landscape. We are only just beginning to grasp the consequences of these changes, and they raise a number of issues. Where do such sociotechnical apparatuses figure in the practices of sociability and solidarity, and indeed in the very nature of the social bond? What economic, political, and ethical challenges are linked to these new modes of exchange, coordination, and communication? Our response is structured through two cross-cutting questions, situated upstream from trajectories of network use. First, does the fact of large-scale participation in a « knowledge-based society » require appropriation of a core set of related technical knowledges? And, second, should we expect the emergence of a new form of thinking based on cooperation, exchange, and gift-giving, and associated with intensive use of digital communication networks?

The Dilemma of Social Demand Shaping Media Policy in New Civic Contexts

The new media environment is seamless, global and, apparently, boundless in possibilities. Popular misconceptions and dominant discourses about the end of regulation notwithstanding, however, activity within this environment is still based on rules and likely to remain so. The rules are changing, of course, but more significantly, the way the rules are made is changing. New global institutions like the WTO are the site of monumental battles between stakeholders. National governments are looking for new ways to continue tweaking the influence of the media on their territories. Corporate strategies are redefining the shape and substance of media institutions. Users, the networks they create and the choices they make constitute a perpetual wildcard that makes it impossible to predict how the media are likely to evolve. What does all this frenetic activity mean for media governance? By closely examining recent events and placing these in historical perspective, we can imagine a number of possible models. Unquestionably, a global framework for media policy is emerging. Its contours are not yet clear. But the stakes are so great that any social actor who ignores this framework does so at its peril. Corporate players have long recognized this unfolding process, and have organized themselves in various ways to influence media policy in their interests. The situation is far more complicated for actors associated with social movements, cultural communities and the ordinary exercise of citizenship. In order to try to think through this problem with respect to both academic understanding and support for an activist agenda, we began some time ago to develop the concept of ‘social demand’. We use the term to refer to the range of expectations with respect to media that exceed economic or market considerations – that is to say, expectations as they can be extrapolated from what people say about their media use, as well as the efforts of organized social and cultural groups to influence the direction of media policy. The theoretical and epistemological basis for this idea has been developed in two published papers, first in the International Journal of Cultural Policy (Raboy and Abramson, 1998) and then in Television and New Media (Raboy et al., 2001). Now, in this special theme issue of Gazette, we present some of the empirical findings of researchers associated with this project. GAZETTE: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR COMMUNICATION STUDIES

Can the use of digital media favour citizen involvement

We present here the results of recent studies on the emergence in Quebec of associations of a new kind, which we call technology activist groups. These groups consist of individuals who, on the basis of their own expertise in computer programming or in establishing specialist technological structures (WiFi hotspots), are developing social practices involving information technologies (ICTs). We try to give some elements of a response to some specific questions such as: What effects are these technology activists having on the dynamics of community activism in Quebec? In a broader context, at the level of political imagination in today’s societies, how far can these technical activist groups act politically to help redefine the project of the coming ‘information society’? And conversely, can the project of a ‘knowledge-sharing society’ — as formulated by the representatives of civil society organizations at the WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society) in Tunis — help to redefine the aims and actions of actors in community politics?

The Changing Stance of the Canadian Government in an Age of Globalization and Information

This article looks at policy options taken by the Canadian government in an age of globalization and information. A first part explores federal government initiatives pertaining to Canadas preparedness for the information society. A second part assesses some provincial government policy options, with a separate section paying special attention to the Quebec governments intentions, which include support for the production and online dissemination of content and services in the French language (undoubtedly to be understood as an element of the Quebec governments sovereigntist project).

Instant messaging requests in connected organizations: ‘Quick questions’ and the moral economy of contribution

In this article we study the work and communication practices of two highly connected organizations, the members of which have all access to instant messaging (IM) on a professional basis. We document the development of a communicational genre, that of ‘quick questions’, and analyze the sequence organization of such IM conversation threads. We show how ‘quick questions’ enable the collaborative accomplishment of complex, knowledge-intensive tasks by recruiting colleagues constituted as experts capable of quickly answering information requests related to ongoing tasks. ‘Quick questions’ articulate communicative practices, ‘strong’ distribution of tasks and ‘organizing’ in highly connected organizations. We argue that they enact a distinctive cognitive and moral economy based on minimal forms of interaction and exchanges (which we call ‘contributions’), constituting a more general phenomenon.

Paradoxical Empowerment: Immaterial Labor Translated in a Web of Affective Connections

This perspective explores the production of user-generated content by contrasting two analyses that are convergent in some respects, divergent in others. In our first line of analysis we use the work of Negri (1996) and Moulier-Boutang (2007) on “cognitive capitalism” to extend some elements explored by Fuchs (2010; 2012) and Arvidsson and Colleoni (2012) on labor and value. This approach foregrounds the adaptability of capitalism and suggests that workers are endowed with “an inventive subjective power” that simultaneously influences and reproduces the mode of production. Our second line of analysis explores the later work of André Gorz (1997; 2003), who invites us to imagine a society in which social relationships would no longer be determined by the laws of the market, a postmarket utopia. This approach points to the importance of collective organization and relational value production of user-generated content and suggests recentering the debate not around individuals and their labor, but on the web of affective connections between them.

« Tela Botanica » : une fertilisation croisée des amateurs et des experts

Nous chercherons ici a montrer comment le projet Tela Botanica permet a la fois une transformation et une actualisation du savoir botanique. Trois elements particuliers retiendront notre attention : la libre circulation et la mise a disposition des donnees les plus recentes du travail des botanistes ; l’articulation nouvelle entre le travail scientifique des amateurs et celui des professionnels ; la creation d’une forme organisationnelle hybride combinant des elements propres au milieu associatif et a l’entreprise privee. Nous utiliserons ces trois axes d’analyse tour a tour, en fournissant des exemples et des reflexions theoriques pour chacun.

Du laboratoire à la communauté : organiser l'espace pour innover

Les auteurs analysent les relations entre innovation organisationnelle et innovation technique. L’histoire recente des sciences et techniques a mis en evidence certaines situations de renforcement d’innovations techniques par une restructuration d’arrangements organisationnels. Ainsi, l’invention au xixe siecle, du laboratoire de recherche industrielle a constitue une configuration organisationnelle favorisant l’innovation en rassemblant dans un meme espace concepteurs, machinistes et dessinateurs dont la seule tâche est de produire des innovations. Par contraste, et en s’appuyant sur un travail ethnographique recent, les auteurs presentent ensuite la configuration organisationnelle proposee aujourd’hui par un collectif quebecois de militants du logiciel libre : la communaute innovante. Celle-ci s’appuie sur les competences individuelles de ses membres, mais aussi sur un acces public aux savoirs techniques, favorise par l’usage des reseaux. Trois dimensions cles caracterisent cette communaute. Les productions innovantes sont realisees dans un environnement libre (au sens du logiciel libre) ; elles adviennent dans un contexte situe ; elles ne sont reconnues comme « contributions » que dans la mesure ou elles font l’objet d’une negociation par les pairs.

La redéfinition du tiers secteur québécois à l'aune du militantisme technique : Paroles publiques: Communiquer dans la cité

Les mediations de la parole publique par les dispositifs numeriques questionnent le renouvellement possible des formes de deliberations collectives au sein des groupes associatifs. Nous examinerons comment, dans un contexte d’emergence de nouveaux collectifs technophiles orientes vers des pratiques d’usage et de politisation des technologies de communication, le mouvement « communautaire » quebecois redefinit son identite, ses aspirations et ses pratiques dans la sphere publique, au prix de vives tensions. Plusieurs elements semblent structurer les differences et controverses : l’enracinement local du mouvement communautaire, sa structure hierarchique, son mode de financement et les representations de la technique.