How Silicon Valley Unleashed Techno-feudalism

Cédric Durand's book adds to the excitement. He treats Big Tech as monopoly capitalists whose digital platforms (e.g. Facebook, Amazon) function like utilities (e.g. electricity providers, water and sewage corpoations, railway networks or phone companies), except that Big Tech use the cloud to harvest our data so as to boost their monopoly power over us. -- Yanis Varoufakis The technofeudalist model involves establishing a monopoly position and using sophisticated data extraction to secure it... Durand invokes the world of Jean-Luc Godard's 1965 dystopian sci-fi film Alphaville, in which a dictatorial sentient computer rules society down to the most personal decisions. -- Malcolm Harris * New York Magazine * Durand has provided a very insightful view of finance-driven capitalism over the last three decades. Why was it able to prosper alongside sagging investment and plummeting productivity gains? The answer, argues Durand, lies in the tight connection between the shareholder value principle and the globalization of the real economy. -- Michel Aglietta A must-read on the ongoing debate on techno-feudalism. A great book! -- Thomas Piketty The publication of this book by the French economist Cédric Durand represents the most sustained attempt so far at a serious consideration of the economic logics involved. -- Evgeny Morozov * New Left Review * If you want to understand how platform capitalism is turning into a predatory form of techno-feudalism and how the digital economy is radically transforming politics, society, and our everyday lives, read this book. An essential and fascinating analysis of the ideology and political economy of the digital age. -- Matthias Schmelzer, co-author of <i>The Future Is Degrowth</i>