The Dialectic of Digital Culture

Reviews / Votes

With a nod to Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno's classic work of critical cultural studies, Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944), in the title, this volume similarly seeks to challenge Enlightenment assumptions, namely that the embrace of science and technology results in human freedom, democratization, and social progress. Applying the critique and methodology of Horkheimer and Adorno's work on Enlightenment thinkers to postmodern ramifications of digital culture in the 21st century, editors Arditi and Miller (both, Univ. of Texas, Arlington) ably set the stage for 12 provocative essays in their introduction by outlining a dialectic approach to digital technology. An even balance is achieved through four sections organized by theme: power, politics, culture, and humanity; each section has three essays. The authors tackle the promise of technology to promote social justice and the contradictions or paradoxes that arise in practice, often outside the awareness of users. They also address thorny digital-era concepts such as net neutrality, streaming, and privacy with analytical insight and often a dose of editorializing that is critical of government and corporate interests in and control of technology.



Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * Choice Reviews * Arditi and Miller wrap some excellent essays with an introduction and conclusion centering on Frankfurt School dialectical theory and the emergence of the digital disaster. The core of the book deals with the idea of a digital dialectic and its analysis in chapters on power, politics, culture, and being human. The editors have lined up a stellar group of essays that profoundly engage our digital world and the edges between questions of music, economy, ecology, memes, and related topics. The dialectical nature of the analyses provides both an entryway and unity to the essays. The book makes numerous substantive contributions to several fields and is worth a read for its scholarship and for those building a knowledge base about our contemporary digital world. -- Jeremy Hunsinger, Wilfrid Laurier University In The Dialectic of Digital Culture, Arditi and Miller have assembled a fascinating collection of essays exploring the promise and peril of contemporary digital culture. Insisting that we think about digital media dialectically-as both empowerment and capture-the authors collectively inspire readers to pierce through facile narratives of progress and to think more critically about their relationship to digital technologies. Readers will also find the rich diversity of technologies, platforms, practices, and case studies covered in this book to be engaging and enlightening. This is required reading for students and scholars of digital culture. -- Timothy A. Gibson, George Mason University