Talk:The Californian Ideology

Notability

Examples of people using the phrase "Californian ideology" without referring directly to the article that coined the phrase:

• "The alignment with the Californian Ideology and its ideologems like hippie-lifestyle and free market-liberalism is to be observed throughout the whole issue, but the point is, that Wired-UK cannot become a simple imitation of its US counterpart, it has to be distinctive even to raw Californian Ideology which is - for the UK market - simply indigestible without some English rearticulations." [1]
• "The European avant-garde - and its imitators - could never openly support the free market fundamentalism of the Californian ideology. Yet, as TJs cut 'n' mix, the distinctions between right and left libertarianism are blurring. On the one hand, the Californian ideologues claim that a heroic minority of cyber-entrepreneurs is emerging from the fierce competition of the electronic marketplace. On the other hand, the Deleuzoguattarians believe that this new elite consists of cool TJs and hip artists who release subversive 'assemblages of enunciation' into the Net." [2]
• "Such - utopian thinking finds its origin in what is called Californian Ideology, steeped in the optimism of dot-com-era Silicon Valley, in California, USA. Even though such optimist movements date back to the 1960s under the term of New Left (Worldwide), its major impact has only begun with the advent and rise of the Internet. The Californian Ideology has generated an integration of market economy and communitarism in response to the economic liberalism of the American New Right. By means of the Internet, the technological determinism that is inherent to this movement has progressed enormously. Since the early 1990s a new virtual class has appeared on the scene, attempting to reshape the world with a combination of digital individualism and virtual-community building." [3]

The original article has been cited in various peer-reviewed journals (for example, [4] and [5]), and was described as "much-discussed" in this 1997 piece from Salon.com. Jd4v15 (talk) 23:35, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Photo

The photo is great. The yellow background has retro overtones to the early 1970s aesthetic (which itself was born in the late 1950s and became popular in the 1960s) but if you look deeper, you can see that this specific textured pattern (sponge pattern?) was quite popular in the mid-1990s, when they just started looking back to the 1970s for inspiration. Viriditas (talk) 23:07, 11 November 2013 (UTC)

Neoliberalism

How is the "Californian Ideology" neoliberalism if there is no central planning? Central planning is part of neoliberalism according to neoliberalism article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gasull2 (talk • contribs) 14:44, 20 November 2014‎ (UTC)

Thanks for your comments. Unfortunately, I had to revert your recent edit which removed the term "neoliberalism" from the article. We edit and create articles from reliable sources, not our own opinions or reading of other Wikipedia articles. It sounds to me like you are reading things a bit too literally and failing to comprehend how we use the term, particularly in the article you cite which says "The meaning of neoliberalism has changed over time and come to mean different things to different groups. As a result, it is very hard to define". Nevertheless, there are hundreds of reliable sources about Silicon Valley and neoliberalism. You may want to start there. Ironically, the definition of neoliberalism in this context, probably refers to the exact opposite of what you are saying, in this case, hyper, unfettered capitalism. Viriditas (talk) 23:50, 20 November 2014 (UTC)

Neoliberalism is an ambgiuous term and, more importantly, it doesn't even appear in the article that this Wikipedia entry is about. An encyclopedia should explain things in a non confusing way. Economic liberalism is a better term and it does appear in the article.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Gasull2 (talk • contribs) 03:56, 21 November 2014‎ UTC

I disagree. Neoliberalism, in this context, refers to "the resurgence of ideas associated with economic liberalism beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, whose advocates support extensive economic liberalization, free trade, and reductions in government spending in order to enhance the role of the private sector in the economy." I will of course attempt to tighten up the sourcing and make this clear with the secondary sources. The resurgence of these ideas in the context of the information revolution is exactly what the essay is criticizing, not economic liberalism. The term "neoliberalism" was used appropriately. Franco Beradi and others explain exactly why the term is precisely used. Viriditas (talk) 06:28, 21 November 2014 (UTC)

Gasul, now that I have a bit of free time, I decided to look into your claim a bit more. It's most certainly wrong. As it turns out, the original essay discusses the problem, and the description is sourced to the author himself. Furthermore, a more recent book by the author describes it in the same terms. It's not ambiguous in the context of the original essay, the follow-up book by the author, and in the secondary sources. I'm going to restore the original wording because it is absolutely correct. Viriditas (talk) 10:20, 21 November 2014 (UTC)

Neoliberalism

• Barbrook spends the majority of Chapter 15 ("Those Who Condemn The Future Are Condemned To Repeat It") of his book Imaginary Futures (2007) explaining how neoliberalism fits into this. There are literally 10-15 pages just on the topic of neoliberalism and the Californian Ideology.
• Thomas Streeter of the University of Vermont explores Barbrooks criticism of neoliberalism in his supporting essay "'That deep romantic chasm': Libertarianism, neoliberalism, and the computer culture" (1999)
• “Back in 1995, when we were writing 'The Californian Ideology', Andy Cameron and I had taken delight in pointing out that the dotcom boosters of Wired magazine were championing the early-1980s neo-liberal model of the Net." (Imaginary Futures, 2007)
• "In the mid-1990s, Wired set out to appropriate this New Left utopia for the neo-liberal cause: the ‘Californian ideology’". (Imaginary Futures, 2007)
• "Written in 1995 with Andy Cameron, this article was a pioneering critique of dotcom neo-liberalism." (Barbrook, 2007)
• "Wired uses 'The New Economy' as a synonym for its neo-liberal fantasies about the Net. See Kevin Kelly, "New Rules for the New Economy [...] For a critique of the neo-liberal politics of Wired, see Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron, "The Californian Ideology." (Barbrook, 1998)