Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Online Collaborative Consumption

      Often times I think on how technology creates a certain level of disconnect between people. We are the generation of digital technology, wirelessly shackled to our devices. Everyday you can observe people walking past each other, staring at a handheld screen with such intense focus that they fail to pay any attention to their human counterparts that pass by, who are also preoccupied with their own little screen. Tablets, smartphones, Kindles, ipods, laptops, etc. are all examples of what I normally associate with a human disconnect. People so wrapped up in what ever little world they are in, that they fail to acknowledge the physical bodies around them. We are reliant on our technology. While I normally say that with slight distain, Belk's article brought some things to my attention.
     It was nice to see people using the internet as a way to share with one another, especially with people who had seen some sort of hardship. However, Belk's big point was that this sort of behavior is transforming the present economy. People's values seem to be shifting toward a more thrifty direction. The example about car ownership values was particularly useful here. Why get strapped down with hefty car loans in order to own a car that I will only use a small percentage of the time? In the past car ownership seemed to be an instilled cultural value of the American, and now people are moving away from this thought process. Rather than buying things they don't need, people are sharing with one another for those rare occasion items (such as the electric drill that was mentioned).
     The question that is being raised is how will companies handle a market that isn't purchasing as many goods, because the market is sharing. I can't offer a real solution for the big companies that will be taking a monetary hit because of this behavior, but it is apparent that corporations who produce and sell long term items may need to start considering the consumers disinterest in long term due to the practical uses of these products.

Zack

you are what you can acess

People are always being quite with the stranger and enthusiasm with the people we are familiar with. We will invite the people we know well to our home rather than a person who you just meet twice before. We might share the source or stuff we have to our friends. But Internet increase the process of these, Internet facilitated sharing. We can download some music, movie, book, and source online, which are sharing by other people. We also can share the source that we have to help others. It makes our society become more integration and contemporaneity. And the article talking about collaborative consumption, for example the Zipcar. It is car sharing organization try to make people buy the card so that these people can drive the car without pay the oil, insurance stuff. There are more and more way to collaborate consumption. 

Monday, March 30, 2015

diverse economies


This article brought up some interesting point of diverse economy. I think my opinion might be different since I grown up in the communism society. In the article, it discussed about people were kind of lean toward to capitalism after the collapse of the Soviet Union and I noticed that people are still confused about how socialism works. From my point of view, I think that there is some benefit from socialism that capitalism should adopt. We are still not sure if the entire free market if good or not. People are scared of socialism because of the collapse of the Soviet Union but there are some people still suffering from the 2008 economic crisis. And also because we are under the globalization circumstance, not only people from America but also people from all over the world suffered from the economic crisis. It brought up my memory that some businessman committed suicide in Japan because of the economic crisis. But at that time, in China, people did not suffer as much as expected. I am not saying which system is better, but in socialism, what people call “the invisible hand” can take some action if the economy system is not balanced. People are still working on finding a good system.

Tales from Albarado

It is interesting the statement made the the schemes were made to mediate the "transition" from socialism to neoliberalism. The thing that could be seen though is that socialist entrepreneurship with politics of privatization of the state would not lead to a capitalist (free market) and thus damage a country that was self-sufficient because they were unable to promote greater goods with this socialist entrepreneurship method. But that's also why the Albanian infrastructure failed because the entrepreneurship method being used did not push for greater goods, but hit a quota.

Diverse Economies

This article discusses the emerging field of examining alternate or unique economies around the world, and reflecting on their advantages as compared to traditional capitalism. The article points out that during the 1980's (most likely around the collapse of the Soviet Union) the world began to lose faith in any other form of economic system other than capitalism. This criticism of other types of system can be seen in our own country, how if anyone mentions the word "socialism" people begin to panic. Since the power of the world is being monopolized by Capitalist nations, the desire pursue any other economic structure would be both would not be advantageous to the most powerful nations currently benefiting from the globalized capitalist market.
Though this article is looking at the subject in a new way, scholars have always been striving to find some other economic form to integrate into certain economies, especially in developing nations. Often these economies are structured to best fit the needs to of developing nation, to play off of their strengths and production, and to protect these vulnerable states from the Globalization. If you need an example of the damaging affects of globalization, reflect on the video about Jamaica we watched in class.This new focus on developing these economies is an exiting new prospect, and may finally be the answer to how all of these nations fit into on globalized economy, however, scholars must be aware that they may face resistance from those currently profiting from the way things are in the world.
For discussion: What could these unique economies look like? and how would they benefit their own country?
How might this emerging field be able to further step into prominence?

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Diverse Economies

The diverse economies article brought up a lot of good points regarding how we understand and think about economic practices. Sometimes it’s easy to only see things within our own context, particularly economic systems because they are such an integral part of our lives. We participate in them without giving them much thought, even though they are a defining characteristic of our place in society. It is easy to assume that they are something more than systems constructed by humans, that they possess some sort of greater authority or universality. Along with this comes the tendency to assign value to differing systems and in our culture it is easy to assign more value to our systems and less to other ones. This, however, is not optimum because it limits our potential to be exposed to and test new ideas. I think it is also important for us to realize (as discussed in the article) how much of our daily economic activity falls outside the realm of traditional market interactions. By realizing this it is easier to understand how differing economic systems work because it shows us that our economic activity is more complicated than we might have previously assumed.


Diverse economies: performative practices for ‘other worlds’

From the article, it mentioned the diverse economies framing groups into three columns- transaction, labor, and enterprise. The non-market sample is like gift giving, rather than sale the goods. The alternative paid which focus on work for the welfare, not the volunteer work. The capitalist is different from the feudal style. It’s remind me that in the past, people use barter system, there is no money, they just want to get what they want, but that is the original form of economic system exist. The labor are very cheap in China, it still for now.

For the new academic practices and performances, it said, the new academic subject might be on the horizon, I kind of couldn’t understand, why it differently related to the politics of other worlds. I think economic, politics, culture, are all connected, and related to each other.
This paper is using an academic way to  make other people to join the project and enter the  hybrid collectivities.

An interesting article.."It's Money That's Killing the Local Economy"

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-04-23/it-s-money-that-is-killing-the-local-economy

“You Are What You Share”

In the article we read for this week ­­­­You are what you can access: Sharing and Collaborative Consumption Online by Russell Belk, the author discusses the possibility that the old adage “you are what you own” is moving instead to “you are what you share”.  Belk argues, that due to the emersion on Web 2.0 (which is different from Web 1.0 in that in this newer ‘internet’ the relationship goes between the user and creator, and not just one way) and it’s ability to encourage and facilitate sharing, consumer focus is shifting away from ownership.  He gives several legal examples, including Wikipedia, Zipcar, Airbnb, and Napster, and several currently illegal examples, such as PirateBay or Napster before it was forced to change.  He argues that these different enterprises amount to a form of collaborative consumption, which is “Collaborative consumption is people coordinating the
acquisition and distribution of a resource for a fee or other compensation” BUT there has to be some sort of compensation to earn this definition.  Sites like couchsurfing.org are thus prohibited.

I really liked this article because it felt like something I could really relate to.  As a media major, consuming and creating media are always on the forefront of my mind.  I fall asleep watching TV, and I wake up watching it.  Half of the time it’s for pleasure, the other half of the time I’m hoping to study it.  It’s an expensive hobby if done through purely legal means all the time.  It’s a line myself and most other college students in the school walk all the time.  We want to go in the field, so we hope TV and movies can still stay popular and not succumb to the problems due to piracy.  At the same time—we’re constantly trying to get it through cheaper channels.  I like the way this article discusses the direction it seems like the internet is flowing some industries in.  Especially after hearing about student, medical, and mortgage debt, who knows if I’ll ever even want to buy my own car.  Hearing that entrepreneurs are moving in this direction is actually pretty comforting.