Abstract

REYGADAS, Luis. Gifts, False Gifts, Commons, and Exploitation in the Digital Networks. Diversity in Virtual Economy. Desacatos [online]. 2018, n.56, pp.70-89. ISSN 2448-5144.

This text seeks to understand the diversity of the production, circulation, exchange, and consumption of goods and services in digital formats. Collaborative economy or new forms of exploitation? Knowledge commons or expropriation of the general intellect? From an anthropological perspective, the paper explores the economic processes that are configured through the use of information and communications technologies (ICT). In order to approach the discernment of this heterogeneity, the paper distinguishes ten types of interactions in digital networks: gifts, creation of knowledge commons, contests for prestige, electronic commerce, false gifts, exploitation of cognitive work, rent-seeking practices, expropriation for sharing, expropriation for trading, and expropriation for stealing.

Keywords : digital networks; cognitive capitalism; collaborative economy; economic anthropology; commons.