Comments on: Phew http://homecookedtheory.com/archives/2009/02/09/phew-2/ Tue, 22 May 2012 08:38:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: ben http://homecookedtheory.com/archives/2009/02/09/phew-2/comment-page-1/#comment-89036 ben Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:39:31 +0000 http://homecookedtheory.com/?p=815#comment-89036 Hmmm, participatory media. Remember my harsh words about "participation" last year? In which I agreed with Morley and declared that I was "against" it? I'm rethinking this somewhat. My usual schtick was to note that the word "participate" never has a literal object, thus acting as a cover for the shadowy arms of naturalised social corporatism, and a dutiful relationship with the state. I'm now interested in what happens if we move the focus away from citizen-actors and towards more abstract flows, while keeping the terminology. "Participation" then turns into something more interesting and ambivalent, something more discursive. Rather than servicing a crypto-authoritarian, biopolitical demand for "social fitness", "participation" then becomes something a bit more hackable, subject to discursive tweaks -- a different kind of agency. Sorry, thinking aloud. Hmmm, participatory media. Remember my harsh words about “participation” last year? In which I agreed with Morley and declared that I was “against” it? I’m rethinking this somewhat. My usual schtick was to note that the word “participate” never has a literal object, thus acting as a cover for the shadowy arms of naturalised social corporatism, and a dutiful relationship with the state. I’m now interested in what happens if we move the focus away from citizen-actors and towards more abstract flows, while keeping the terminology. “Participation” then turns into something more interesting and ambivalent, something more discursive. Rather than servicing a crypto-authoritarian, biopolitical demand for “social fitness”, “participation” then becomes something a bit more hackable, subject to discursive tweaks — a different kind of agency.

Sorry, thinking aloud.

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