Description
Book SynopsisPositioning cultural democracy in a historical context and in a context of adjacent movements such as the creative commons, open source movement, and maker movement, this book goes back to first principles and asks what personhood means in the twenty-first century, what cultural democracy means, why we should want it, and how we can work towards it.
In this new book, the author provides a timely untangling of the various historical meanings of the term and explores the various ways in which it has been co-opted, suggesting that it has a strength that we should open up to examination with a view to reinvigorating it. Just as importantly, the book situates cultural democracy within the wider framework of progressive political and social movements, and of the impact of new digital information and communication technologies. To those unfamiliar with the term, it introduces cultural democracy through related concepts such as digital cultural politics, participatory democracy, and
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I: Autonomous Vehicles
1. The Mind and the Body
2. Problems with Selfhood
3. Dennett's Solution
4. Narratives and Consciousness
5. Darwin and Evolution
6. Genes and Memes
7. Late to the Party
Part II: Cultural Landscapes
8. The First Tools - Language and numbers
9. The Nature of Tools - Conviviality
10. Gamification - Shopping as Theatre
11. Selling Ourselves - Quantified Data
12. The Price of Fame - Film and Celebrity
13. Liking our Selves - Social Media
14. Buying the Culture - IP and Creativity
Part III: Making a Difference
15. Community, Citizenship, and Creativity
16. Codifying Culture
17. Cultural Democracy - A Definition
18. Cultural Democracy and Community
19. Cultural Democracy and Economics
20. Cultural Democracy and Politics
21. ALL Together Now
Acknowledgements
Continuing…
A Final Word about Language
