Pros and Cons: Negotiating Value in Blog Culture

This article examines an unanticipated consequence of adopting flexible working practices - that of work intensification. Based on a study of professional workers and in line with other studies, we present evidence showing that flexible workers record higher levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment than their non-flexible counterparts. However, we also report evidence of work intensification being experienced by both those who work reduced hours and those who work remotely. We identify three means by which this intensification occurs - imposed intensification, enabled intensification and intensification as an act of reciprocation or exchange. We argue that the apparent paradox of high job satisfaction and organizational commitment, alongside work intensification can be explained by employees trading flexibility for effort. Using social exchange theory we propose that employees respond to the ability to work flexibly by exerting additional effort, in order to return benefit to their employer.

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Doing more with less? Flexible working practices and the intensification of work

Recent years have seen the emergence of a new genre of user-driven Websites engaged in a novel form of news reporting which has been described as open publishing or open news, in analogy to the open source movement. Utilising state-of-the-art content management systems, these sites combine news, rumours and background information as well as community discussion and commentary on their chosen topic, and frequently serve as a first point of entry for readers interested in learning more about the field. Examples for this genre include Slashdot (http://Slashdot.org/), Openflows News (http://www.openflows.org/), and the Indymedia network (http://www.indymedia.org/). 

This book documents an extensive study of open news and related sites around the world, including interviews with staff of key sites in order to analyse their inner workings. It investigates the feasibility and the limitations of user community self-policing methods, and the effectiveness of the gatewatching process. It connects this with more recent developments in related areas, such as Weblogs and the Wiki movement, and develops a taxonomy of collaborative online publishing models. Overall, then, it charts the current state of play in the area of online gatewatching, open news, and participatory journalism, and provides the tools to analyse and classify the various forms of online publishing in this field.

Gatewatching: Collaborative Online News Production

My title, ‘Cultural studies and its theoretical legacies’, suggests a look back
to the past, to consult and think about the Now and the Future of cultural
studies by way of a retrospective glance. It does seem necessary to do some
genealogical and archaeological work on the archive. Now the question of
the archives is extremely difficult for me because, where cultural studies is
concerned, I sometimes feel like a tableau vivant, a spirit of the past
resurrected, laying claim to the authority of an origin. After all, didn’t
cultural studies emerge somewhere at that moment when I first met
Raymond Williams, or in the glance I exchanged with Richard Hoggart? In
that moment, cultural studies was born; it emerged full grown from the
head! I do want to talk about the past, but definitely not in that way. I
don’t want to talk about British cultural studies (which is in any case a
pretty awkward signifier for me) in a patriarchal way, as the keeper of the
conscience of cultural studies, hoping to police you back into line with
what it really was if only you knew. That is to say, I want to absolve
myself of the many burdens of representation which people carry aroundI carry around at least three: I’m expected to speak for the entire black race
on all questions theoretical, critical, etc., and sometimes for British politics,
as well as for cultural studies. This is what is known as the black person’s
burden, and I would like to absolve myself of it at this moment.

Cultural studies and its theoretical legacies

For more than thirty years neoliberalism has declared that market functioning trumps all other social, political and economic values. In this book, Nick Couldry passionately argues for voice, the effective opportunity for people to speak and be heard on what affects their lives, as the only value that can truly challenge neoliberal politics. But having voice is not enough: we need to know our voice matters. Insisting that the answer goes much deeper than simply calling for 'more voices', whether on the streets or in the media, Couldry presents a dazzling range of analysis from the real world of Blair and Obama to the social theory of Judith Butler and Amartya Sen.

Why Voice Matters breaks open the contradictions in neoliberal thought and shows how the mainstream media not only fails to provide the means for people to give an account of themselves, but also reinforces neoliberal values. Moving beyond the despair common to much of today's analysis, Couldry shows us a vision of a democracy based on social cooperation and offers the resources we need to build a new post-neoliberal politics.

Why Voice Matters: Culture and Politics After Neoliberalism

1. Mass Culture and Popular Culture 2. The Frankfurt School and the Culture Industry 3. Structralism, Semiology and Popular Culture 4. Marxism, Political Economy and Ideology 5. Feminism and Popular Culture 6. Postmodernism and Popular Culture

Pros and Cons: Negotiating Value in Blog Culture

References

Doing more with less? Flexible working practices and the intensification of work

Gatewatching: Collaborative Online News Production

Cultural studies and its theoretical legacies

Why Voice Matters: Culture and Politics After Neoliberalism

An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture

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Handbook of Cultural Sociology

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