The Californian Ideology

The term Californian Ideology designated critical belief in the emancipatory potential of the information society and the new technologies it arises prototypical California in the 1990s. It goes back to the two British social scientist Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron of the University of Westminster. In her essay, first published in 1995 The Californian Ideology, they describe how developed this " new faith " from the " fusion of cultural bohemia of San Francisco " with the "high -tech industries of Silicon Valley ".

Was the development of a part of the hippie movement of crucial importance. This thought - influenced, inter alia, by the theories of Marshall McLuhan - that " technological progress would make their liberal principles inevitably become a social fact." The evolving computer and telecommunications technology seemed to have an "electronic agora " arise on which each their opinions without fear of censorship could express. The new technologies would then the power of large corporations and governments broken and strengthen the personal freedom of individuals.

Barbrook and Cameron criticized the fact that the resulting high-tech elite was unable to take a clear political positions. They believed that the "electronic marketplace" "America could solve social and economic problems without sacrifices on their part ."