| This dissertation offers an inquiry into the discourse on network technology in advanced capitalist societies, arguing that the shift from a Fordist to post-Fordist society---taking place in the last four decades---has entailed a shift in the legitimation discourse of technology. Whereas under the Fordist regime the 'discourse on technology' legitimated the interventionist welfare state, the central planning in businesses and the economy, the hierarchized corporation, and the tenured worker; in the current post-Fordist regime it turned into legitimating the withdrawal of the state from markets, the globalization of the economy, the dehierarchization and decentralization of businesses, and the flexibilization of production and the labor process.;This argument draws on Critical Theory's critique of technological reason, which carries a general argument regarding the depoliticizing effects of technologistic consciousness, and a historically-specific argument regarding the legitimation of capitalism under Fordism. This dissertation offers both a revival of the general argument and a revision of the historically-specific argument, now that capitalist societies have been rendered post-Fordist.;The dissertation shows how during Fordism, technology served to legitimate a regime of accumulation which favored a response to the social critique of capitalism, focused on the harmful consequences of capitalism to the social body, i.e., social exploitation and inequality, while downplaying and even relegating the humanist critique of capitalism, focused on the harmful consequences of capitalism to the person, i.e., personal alienation and inauthenticity. Industrial technology, the assembly line, the bureaucratic corporation, the statist regulation of the economy, and the welfare state were all conceived in the discourse on technology during Fordism as technologies that respond to concerns put forth by the social critique, such as social security, stability, and equality; i.e., geared towards mitigating exploitation.;With post-Fordism, technology has come to legitimate a new social regime which responds to the humanist critique, while downplaying the social critique. Network technology, the lean and flexible corporation, flexible modes of employment and production, and the neoliberal state are all conceived in the discourse on network technology during post-Fordism as technologies that respond to concerns put forth by the humanist critique, such as individual empowerment, authenticity, and creativity, i.e., geared towards mitigating alienation.;The dissertation utilizes Wired magazine as a case-study of the discourse on contemporary network technology, or the 'digital discourse', and offers a discourse analysis of its content. The dissertation is comprised of five core empirical chapters, which examine how key social transformations entailed in the rise of network capitalism are discussed in the technologically-centered discourse of Wired magazine. The dissertation not only registers the great transformations entailed by the rise of techno-capitalism, and how these are portrayed in contemporary discourse on technology, but also highlights the hegemonic and ideological dimension of such discourse. |
