Big Tech Dynasties
Re-thinking the Power, Spectacle, and Downfall of Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon
Joanne E. Gray(Author)
Bloomsbury Academic (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 18. February 2027
Book
Hardback
192 pages
979-8-7651-3779-6 (ISBN)
Description
Blending personal narrative with critical analysis, Big Tech Dynasties reckons with the place of Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon in modern life. It argues that while each company may be a product of platform capitalism, each is also historically familiar; Big Tech is familiar because it is dynastic-and because it is dynastic, Big Tech is inherently undemocratic.
Drawing on political economy, law, media studies, and historical analysis, Big Tech Dynasties explains how, like the many of the dynasties of history, the Big Tech companies sustain their positions of dominance through three interlocking forces: economic management, mythology, and succession. Big Tech rules economically by governing global trade and communication networks and controlling the critical resources of our time-data, platforms, and cloud computing. It legitimates its authority through founder stories and an ideology of innovation that frames private power as moral and inevitable, and democratic constraint unwise and unnecessary. And it works to preserve its power across generations, leadership changes, and technological shifts.
Big Tech Dynasties considers how we arrived at this moment and the growing democratic threat Big Tech poses. It also explains how democracies are beginning-unevenly and imperfectly-to push back, drawing particular attention to Australia's emergence as an unlikely leader in democratic oversight of Big Tech. The book presents an agenda for more nations to reclaim democratic control in the digital era, starting, the book suggests, with everyone becoming a little more Australian about it.
Drawing on political economy, law, media studies, and historical analysis, Big Tech Dynasties explains how, like the many of the dynasties of history, the Big Tech companies sustain their positions of dominance through three interlocking forces: economic management, mythology, and succession. Big Tech rules economically by governing global trade and communication networks and controlling the critical resources of our time-data, platforms, and cloud computing. It legitimates its authority through founder stories and an ideology of innovation that frames private power as moral and inevitable, and democratic constraint unwise and unnecessary. And it works to preserve its power across generations, leadership changes, and technological shifts.
Big Tech Dynasties considers how we arrived at this moment and the growing democratic threat Big Tech poses. It also explains how democracies are beginning-unevenly and imperfectly-to push back, drawing particular attention to Australia's emergence as an unlikely leader in democratic oversight of Big Tech. The book presents an agenda for more nations to reclaim democratic control in the digital era, starting, the book suggests, with everyone becoming a little more Australian about it.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-7651-3779-6 (9798765137796)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Joanne E. Gray is a lecturer in Digital Cultures at the University of Sydney, Australia, Chief Investigator at the International Digital Policy Observatory, and an editor of the journal Policy & Internet. She is an interdisciplinary academic working at the intersection of political economy, law, and media and communications. Her monograph, Google Rules (2020), explains how a convergence of legal, political, and ideological conditions facilitated Google's essentially unfettered rise to power in the digital environment. She has also led studies investigating critical platform policy and governance issues on Facebook, YouTube and TikTok.
Content
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
I. NOTES FROM A BIG TECH COLONY
1. Quitting Big Tech-My Founder Story
II. MYTHOLOGY
2. Geniuses in Garages & Other Tech Fairytales
3. Worshipping at the Altar of Innovation
4. Our Lord & Saviour, Artificial Intelligence
5. Silicon Valley's Anti-Democratic Mythos
III. DOMINION
6. Conquering Space & Time-The Dynastic Nature of Big Tech Business
7. Beyond the Valley-Big Tech's Global South Adventures
8. The Geopolitics of Platforms & Infrastructures
9. So What? The Harms of Big Tech's 'Good' Governance
10. My Worst-Case Big Tech Scenario
IV. DOWNFALL
11. Bloat, Rot, Crack-Dynastic End Times
12. Off with Their Heads! (and Other Ideas)
13. Take Care, Techno-Nepo-Babies About
Endnotes
Index
Preface
Acknowledgements
I. NOTES FROM A BIG TECH COLONY
1. Quitting Big Tech-My Founder Story
II. MYTHOLOGY
2. Geniuses in Garages & Other Tech Fairytales
3. Worshipping at the Altar of Innovation
4. Our Lord & Saviour, Artificial Intelligence
5. Silicon Valley's Anti-Democratic Mythos
III. DOMINION
6. Conquering Space & Time-The Dynastic Nature of Big Tech Business
7. Beyond the Valley-Big Tech's Global South Adventures
8. The Geopolitics of Platforms & Infrastructures
9. So What? The Harms of Big Tech's 'Good' Governance
10. My Worst-Case Big Tech Scenario
IV. DOWNFALL
11. Bloat, Rot, Crack-Dynastic End Times
12. Off with Their Heads! (and Other Ideas)
13. Take Care, Techno-Nepo-Babies About
Endnotes
Index