Cultural Crowdfunding Platform: Capitalism, Labour And Globalization

Description

This new book analyses the strategies, usages and wider implications of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding platforms in the culture and communication industries that are reshaping economic, organizational and social logics. Platforms are the object of considerable hype with a growing global presence. Relying on individual contributions coordinated by social media to finance cultural production (and carry out promotional tasks) is a significant shift, especially when supported by morphing public policies, supposedly enhancing cultural diversity and accessibility. The aim of this book is to propose a critical analysis of these phenomena by questioning what follows from decisions to outsource modes of creation and funding to consumers. Drawing on research carried out within the ‘Collab’ programme backed by the French National Research Agency, the book considers how platforms are used to organize cultural labour and/or to control usages, following a logic of suggestion rather than overt injunction. Four key areas are considered: the history of crowdfunding as a system; whose interests crowdfunding may serve; the implications for digital labour and lastly crowdfunding’s interface with globalization and contemporary capitalism. The book concludes with an assessment of claims that crowdfunding can democratize culture. Cover......Page 1 Series Page......Page 3 Copyright Page......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Participation in Words......Page 10 Toward Financial Participation: Cultural Crowdfunding......Page 11 A New Paradigm for Production and Cultural Value?......Page 13 Plan of the Book......Page 15 Research Contexts......Page 17 Notes......Page 106 References......Page 107 Chapter 2 Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding: The Origins of a New System?......Page 24 Crowdsourcing, Crowdfunding: One and the Same Thing?......Page 25 Crowdfunding: A Revolution?......Page 28 Crowdfunding: An Old Story Reinvented......Page 29 1. A History Legitimated by the Internet......Page 30 2. A History Legitimated by Pre-Digital Collaborative Cultural Financing and Production......Page 32 The Logic of Gift-Counter-gift in Question......Page 35 References and Reading......Page 39 Chapter 3 Far from an Alternative: Intermediation Apparatuses......Page 44 Defining the Alternative......Page 45 Apparatuses Adapted to Market Strategies......Page 48 2. Generalist Platforms......Page 49 3. Niche Platforms......Page 51 4 Local Platforms......Page 52 6 Integrated Platforms......Page 53 The ‘Ecosystem’ as a Stimulus for Extensive Partnerships......Page 54 Apparatuses for Political and Legislative Action......Page 56 Platforms as Technical Apparatuses......Page 57 Platforms for Artists and Creation?......Page 58 Conclusion......Page 82 Chapter 4 Participatory Cultural Platforms and Labour......Page 68 Towards Gamification, or Invisible Labour......Page 70 1. Inside Platforms......Page 72 2. Project Creators......Page 73 3. The ‘Community’......Page 75 Train, Educate, Agitate......Page 76 1. Promotional Discourses......Page 77 2. The Importance of Education......Page 79 Chapter 5 Globalization and the Logics of Capitalism......Page 88 Introductory Remarks......Page 89 The Different Categories of Players Present in the Regions......Page 91 1. Project Creators and Endogenous Cultural Workers......Page 94 2. Platform Managers and Other Endogenous Entrepreneurs......Page 96 3. Exogenous Players and International Organizations......Page 98 4. National Public Players......Page 100 ‘Pedagogical’ Guidance and Workforce Education......Page 102 Chapter 6 General Conclusion......Page 108 In the Service of Cultural Democratization?......Page 109 Criticism of These Innovations......Page 110 Living in Project Mode......Page 112 The Editor and Contributors......Page 116 Index......Page 118