Digital Modes of Exchange: Structural Relations of Commodity, Control, and Community

Abstract

In this article, I perceive digital space as a space structured by different and, at the same time, related modes of exchange. Drawing on Karatani Kōjin’s model of ‘exchange’, I scrutinize capitalist exchange in digital space, data-based control on platforms, and the conditions of community in a filtered digital reality. The analysis indicates a shift in the structure of exchange in digital space. In Karatani’s analysis, capital, nation, and state form a strong alliance that maintains the present status quo. Although this holds true for digital space, the emphasis is much more on corporate and thus capitalist actors, which, in some cases, replace the state and interfere with the emergence of imagined communities. By relating the various actors and dimensions, I provide a heuristic model for the structure of digital space.