Has the digital economy definitively made the main tools of Marxist analysis obsolete? This is Mariano Zukerfeld’s argument, in a lively essay that suggests rethinking the critique of capitalism around the question of knowledge rather than labour. However, his demonstration lacks a convincing theory of value.
By building markets, distributing information, and developing adapted incentives, modern economic theory claims to lead us to the common good.
What is big data ? Who uses it and how ? Pierre-Michel Menger and Simon Paye analyse the economics of these new information flows, which are transforming both marketing and consumption practices, and probably social sciences as well.
The patient’s access to information is viewed today as a fundamental principle in the ethics of health care. However, this essay shows that in the case of presymptomatic diagnosis, exercising one’s right to know can in fact be working against the patient’s liberty.
The failure of the vaccination campaign against the H1N1 virus has sometimes been blamed on the ‘wild rumours’ circulating on the Internet. According to Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, this interpretation misses the point. He offers a stimulating historical parallel between the inoculation against smallpox in the 18th century and the H1N1 outbreak of 2009. His analysis highlights the limitations of risk as a method of persuasion and body management.
How can people and computers be connected so that—collectively—they act more intelligently than any individuals, groups, or computers? Gloria Origgi claims that Internet is a giant network of ranking and rating systems in which information is valued as long as it has been already filtered by other people. The Information Age is being replaced by a Reputation Age.
