Globalization and the Logics of Capitalism

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the development of crowdfunding platforms in subSaharan Africa and Latin America, considering this phenomenon from the point of view of a twofold hypothesis: that it participates in the extension towards the South of the market logics that have driven the emergence of digital intermediation platforms in the West, and that it may be an opportunity for hybridisation and fruitful social and cultural alternatives. Indeed, the fundamental question which initially guided our investigations was as follows, two-fold: To what extent is the emergence of crowdfunding in these countries characterized by the replication of the dominant logics which we have analysed in the previous three chapters, and which are characterized as we have seen, on the one hand, by the remanence (and in many respects) an intensification of the capitalist logics at play in the field of communication and culture industries, and on the other hand, by the development of an ideology of collaboration and participation that appears to be particularly effective with regard to relations of production and labour conditions? Or, can we observe specific trends and phenomena pertaining specifically to the local/regional or endogenous economic, social and cultural configurations, which might in turn support the emergence and development of hitherto unseen tools for social development