MECM90041 · Political Economy of Digital LifeMECM90041 · 数字生活的政治经济学
A graduate Media & Communications subject reading digital life through a Marxist political-economy lens — twelve weeks across three phases (political economy, the rise of computing, phenomenology of mediation), assessed by a book-review essay plan + two essays, no exam.一门研究生媒体与传播课程，用马克思主义政治经济学视角解读数字生活；十二周分三个阶段（政治经济学 → 计算的兴起 → 中介的现象学），考核为一份书评提纲 + 两篇 essay，没有期末考试。MECM90041 (12.5 points, Semester 1, Parkville) asks why the ICT revolution happened when it did and why it took its particular shape — building a political-economy toolkit (Marx, Smith, Schumpeter, Keynes, Varoufakis) and then turning it on the lived experience of digital life: acceleration, attention, distraction and alienation. This page lays out the real three-phase syllabus, the exact assessment shape, the key thinkers and a signature worked example, then hands you to Sia for questions on your specific book-review and essay.
MECM90041（12.5 学分，第一学期，Parkville 校区）追问：信息与传播技术（ICT）革命为什么发生在那个时间点、又为何走上现在这条路径——先搭起一套政治经济学工具箱（Marx、Smith、Schumpeter、Keynes、Varoufakis），再把它对准数字生活的真实体验：加速、注意力、分心与异化。本页给出真实的三阶段大纲、考核结构、核心思想家与一道标志性例题，余下针对你具体的书评与 essay 交给 Sia。
This page is grounded in the real MECM90041 (2026 Semester 1) Canvas subject — its three-phase lecture program, weekly readings, assessment templates and key thinkers — alongside the University of Melbourne handbook entry. Course materials for MECM90041 are in the AskSia Library.
本页基于真实的 MECM90041（2026 年第一学期）Canvas 课程搭建——三阶段讲座结构、每周阅读、考核模板与核心思想家，并对照墨尔本大学 handbook 官方条目。MECM90041 的课程材料已收录于 AskSia Library。
What MECM90041 is aboutMECM90041 讲什么
MECM90041 Political Economy of Digital Life is a 12.5-point graduate subject in Media and Communications at the University of Melbourne, offered in Semester 1 at Parkville (one weekly lecture plus a tutorial). Over twelve weeks it builds a set of theoretical and conceptual tools to critically understand digital life through a Marxist political-economy framework, working through three phases. Phase I treats political economy as a way into mediated experience: technology as an economic technique for producing value, technological development as a response to the crises of capitalism (Smith, Marx, Schumpeter, Keynes), and Varoufakis's claim that digital monopolies are producing a new "technofeudalism". Phase II reconstructs the rise and role of computing — from Babbage and the Jacquard loom through Shannon's information theory and Wiener's cybernetics, the Cold War origins of ARPANET, and the standardisation, commercialisation and globalisation of the internet, set against neoliberal globalisation and competing political ideologies. Phase III turns the toolkit on lived experience: the public sphere (Habermas), Baudrillard's hyperreality and simulacra, Hassan's analogue/digital alienation, the acceleration of social time (Wajcman's time-pressure paradox, Harvey's time-space compression, Castells's timeless time, Virilio's dromology), and the political economy of attention and distraction (Celis Bueno, Debord's Spectacle 2.0).
MECM90041《数字生活的政治经济学》是墨尔本大学媒体与传播方向的一门 12.5 学分研究生课程，第一学期在 Parkville 校区开设（每周一次讲座加一次 tutorial）。十二周内，它用马克思主义政治经济学框架搭建一套理论与概念工具，批判性地理解数字生活，分三个阶段推进。第一阶段把政治经济学当作进入「被中介的经验」的入口：技术作为生产价值的经济手段，技术发展作为资本主义危机的回应（Smith、Marx、Schumpeter、Keynes），以及 Varoufakis 关于数字垄断正在催生新「技术封建主义」（technofeudalism）的论断。第二阶段重建计算的兴起与角色——从 Babbage、Jacquard 提花机，到 Shannon 的信息论与 Wiener 的控制论，再到冷战背景下 ARPANET 的起源，以及互联网的标准化、商业化与全球化，置于新自由主义全球化与相互竞争的政治意识形态之中。第三阶段把这套工具对准生活经验：公共领域（Habermas）、Baudrillard 的超真实与拟像、Hassan 的模拟/数字异化、社会时间的加速（Wajcman 的时间压力悖论、Harvey 的时空压缩、Castells 的无时间之时间、Virilio 的速度学），以及注意力与分心的政治经济学（Celis Bueno、Debord 的「景观 2.0」）。
The MECM90041 syllabus, topic by topicMECM90041 大纲 · 逐个主题
Introduction: what is the political economy of digital life?导论：什么是数字生活的政治经济学
Framing the twelve-week project — building theoretical tools to read digital life critically rather than taking it as a neutral technological fact. The three-phase map: political economy, the rise of computing, and the phenomenology of mediation.
为整个十二周的学习定调——搭建理论工具批判性地解读数字生活，而不是把它当作中立的技术事实。给出三阶段地图：政治经济学 → 计算的兴起 → 中介的现象学。
Political economy & technofeudalism (Varoufakis, Harvey)政治经济学与技术封建主义（Varoufakis、Harvey）
Political economy as the study of capitalism and its conditions of operation. Varoufakis's argument that digital infrastructure controlled by monopolistic power is producing a 'technofeudalism', and Harvey on technological dynamism, value and the cyclical crises of capital.
政治经济学作为对资本主义及其运行条件的研究。Varoufakis 论被垄断权力掌控的数字基础设施正在催生「技术封建主义」，以及 Harvey 论技术活力、价值与资本的周期性危机。
Anthropology, technology and capitalism人类学、技术与资本主义
What is technology? Exteriorisation and the human as 'homo faber' (Leroi-Gourhan), from gesture and tool to writing systems and the alphabet. Technology as an economic technique to produce value; development driven by the crises of capitalism (Smith, Marx, Schumpeter, Keynes).
技术是什么？外化与「制造者的人」（homo faber，Leroi-Gourhan），从手势、工具到文字系统与字母表。技术作为生产价值的经济手段；其发展由资本主义危机所驱动（Smith、Marx、Schumpeter、Keynes）。
The rise and role of computing计算的兴起与角色
From Babbage's Difference/Analytical Engine and the Jacquard loom to Hollerith's tabulator; computers shifting from computing to communication technology. Shannon's 'fundamental problem of communication' (signal vs noise) and Wiener's cybernetics; Castells on the 1970s as the first information-technology revolution.
从 Babbage 的差分机/分析机与 Jacquard 提花机，到 Hollerith 的制表机；计算机从「计算技术」转向「通信技术」。Shannon 的「通信的根本问题」（信号 vs 噪声）与 Wiener 的控制论；Castells 论 1970 年代是第一次信息技术革命。
Globalisation and the computer revolution全球化与计算机革命
The Cold War context of ARPANET, the standardisation and then commercialisation of the internet, and the personal-computing era (Apple II, Macintosh, IBM PC, Windows). Neoliberal globalisation as the foundation on which the network society is built.
ARPANET 的冷战背景、互联网的标准化继而商业化，以及个人计算时代（Apple II、Macintosh、IBM PC、Windows）。新自由主义全球化作为网络社会得以建立的「地基」。
Ideology I: neoliberalism and the far right (guest: Hadjadji)意识形态（一）：新自由主义与极右（客座：Hadjadji）
Ideological readings of technological development. A guest lecture (Nastasia Hadjadji) on neoliberalism and fascism — how political ideology shapes, and is shaped by, the trajectory of digital technology.
对技术发展的意识形态解读。客座讲座（Nastasia Hadjadji）讨论新自由主义与法西斯主义——政治意识形态如何塑造数字技术的轨迹，又如何被其塑造。
Ideology II: anarchism and communism意识形态（二）：无政府主义与共产主义
Alternative ideological horizons for digital technology — anarchist and communist visions (Roberts) — set against the neoliberal default, closing Phase II on the politics of the computer revolution.
数字技术的另类意识形态视野——无政府主义与共产主义构想（Roberts）——与新自由主义的「默认设置」相对照，为第二阶段「计算机革命的政治」收尾。
The way we live today: analogue beings in a digital world我们如今的生活方式：数字世界中的模拟存在
Phase III opens with phenomenology of mediation. Habermas's public sphere and its digital counterpart; Baudrillard on signs, code, simulation and simulacra (hyperreality); Hassan's analogue/digitality and the question of alienation.
第三阶段以「中介的现象学」开场。Habermas 的公共领域及其数字对应物；Baudrillard 论符号、编码、拟仿与拟像（超真实）；Hassan 的模拟/数字性与异化问题。
Speed, time and society: is accelerationism a myth?速度、时间与社会：加速主义是个神话吗？
The temporal strand: Wajcman's time-pressure paradox (technological, social-change and pace-of-life acceleration), Harvey's time-space compression and Marx's 'annihilation of space by time', Castells's timeless time and Virilio's dromology.
时间这条主线：Wajcman 的时间压力悖论（技术、社会变迁与生活节奏的加速）、Harvey 的时空压缩与 Marx 的「以时间消灭空间」、Castells 的「无时间之时间」与 Virilio 的速度学。
The age of distraction (or attention?)分心（还是注意力？）的时代
The political economy of attention: Celis Bueno's attention economy and cognitive capitalism, Debord's Spectacle 2.0 in digital capitalism, and digital technology as a mirror of Narcissus — algorithmic intervention, commodification and the Marxist base/superstructure model of everyday life.
注意力的政治经济学：Celis Bueno 的注意力经济与认知资本主义、Debord 在数字资本主义中的「景观 2.0」，以及数字技术作为「那喀索斯之镜」——算法介入、商品化，以及日常生活的马克思主义「经济基础/上层建筑」模型。
Synthesis: digital logic, platforms and their consequences综合：数字逻辑、平台及其后果
Drawing the three phases together to read the communicative forms of platforms (from Twitter to Wikipedia) as expressions of an underlying digital logic, and weighing their personal, social and political consequences.
把三个阶段串起来，将平台的传播形态（从 Twitter 到 Wikipedia）当作某种底层「数字逻辑」的表现来解读，并权衡其个人、社会与政治后果。
Book-review essay & final essay workshop书评 essay 与期末 essay 工作坊
Applying the subject's concepts to a chosen text: situating it in its field, reconstructing its central arguments, assessing its most valuable idea and critically appraising its limitations — the structure that scaffolds both the book-review essay (40%) and the final essay (50%).
把课程概念应用到一本选定文本上：将它放回所属领域、重建其核心论点、评估其最有价值的观点并批判性地审视其局限——这正是书评 essay（40%）与期末 essay（50%）共用的结构脚手架。
How MECM90041 is assessedMECM90041 怎么考核
Final exam: No期末考试：无| Component考核项 | Weight占比 | Note说明 |
|---|---|---|
| Book Review Essay Plan (500 words)书评 essay 提纲（500 字） | 10% | A structured plan — introduction, main body (the book's central arguments), analysis (its most valuable idea) and conclusion (its limitations). Preliminary; tutors do not give feedback on the plan itself.一份结构化提纲——导论、主体（书的核心论点）、分析（最有价值的观点）与结论（其局限）。属预备性质；导师不就提纲本身给反馈。 |
| Book Review Essay (2000 words)书评 essay（2000 字） | 40% | A full book review of a text relevant to the subject themes: situate it in its field, explain its central arguments (chapter by chapter), assess its most valuable idea with examples, and critically appraise its limitations. Due mid-semester.对一本切合课程主题的文本作完整书评：将它放回所属领域、（逐章）阐释其核心论点、用例子评估其最有价值的观点，并批判性地审视其局限。学期中提交。 |
| Essay (2500 words)论文 Essay（2500 字） | 50% | Submitted during the examination period — this is a take-home essay, not a sit-down written exam.在考试周期间提交——是 take-home essay，而非坐堂笔试。 |
| Hurdle: 80% attendance at tutorials/seminars/workshops通过门槛：研讨课/工作坊出勤率 ≥ 80% | Hurdle (N/A) | Minimum 80% attendance required; expectation to attend lectures where offered. Does not carry marks but must be met to pass.出勤率须达到 80%（有讲座时也应出席）。不计分，但不达标无法通过课程。 |
| Hurdle: all assessment submitted通过门槛：所有作业必须提交 | Hurdle (N/A) | All pieces must be submitted to pass. Late work without an approved extension is penalised 5% per day.所有作业都必须提交才能通过；无批准延期的迟交，每天扣 5%。 |
100% coursework — no exam. A 500-word book-review essay plan is worth 10%, a 2000-word book-review essay is worth 40%, and a 2500-word essay submitted during the examination period is worth 50% (a take-home essay, not a written exam), plus an 80% attendance hurdle and a submit-all hurdle.
100% 平时作业，无考试。500 字书评 essay 提纲占 10%，2000 字书评 essay 占 40%，2500 字论文（考试周提交的 take-home essay，而非笔试）占 50%；另加 80% 出勤门槛与「所有作业必须提交」门槛。
When each MECM90041 task is dueMECM90041 各项考核时间
Test yourself: MECM90041 practice questions自测一下：MECM90041 练习题
- Users function like 'digital serfs', generating value on platforms they do not own or control.
- Users have become joint owners of the platforms they use most.
- Platforms have abolished capitalism in favour of a gift economy.
- Digital monopolies have eliminated economic crises altogether.
- 用户如同「数字农奴」，在他们并不拥有、也无法掌控的平台上生产价值。
- 用户已成为他们最常用平台的共同所有者。
- 平台已废除资本主义、转向礼物经济。
- 数字垄断已彻底消灭了经济危机。
Show answer查看答案
- Time saved by technological acceleration is reabsorbed by social-change and pace-of-life acceleration; under capitalism saved time is reinvested ('time is money'), not freed.
- People simply choose to be busy; the paradox is purely a matter of personal willpower.
- Clocks have become less accurate, so time is mismeasured.
- Technology has actually slowed transport and communication down.
- 技术加速省下的时间被「社会变迁加速」与「生活节奏加速」重新吸收；在资本主义下省下的时间被再投入（「时间就是金钱」）而非空出。
- 人们只是选择让自己忙碌；这一悖论纯粹是个人意志力问题。
- 时钟变得不准了，所以时间被测错了。
- 技术其实让交通与通信变慢了。
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- A scarce commodity and a form of labour producing surplus value — extracted, commodified and subsumed under capital.
- A purely private mental state with no economic significance.
- An unlimited resource that platforms cannot capture.
- A neutral biological function unaffected by algorithms or markets.
- 一种稀缺商品、也是一种生产剩余价值的劳动——被提取、商品化并被纳入资本之下。
- 一种纯粹私人的心理状态，没有经济意义。
- 一种平台无法捕获的无限资源。
- 一种不受算法或市场影响的中性生理功能。
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Key assessment-style questions in MECM90041MECM90041 核心考核风格题
A worked MECM90041 problemMECM90041 例题
The time-pressure paradox: more speed, less time?时间压力悖论：速度更快，时间却更少？
Digital technologies are supposed to save time — instant messaging, on-demand transport, automated work. Yet people report feeling more time-poor than ever. Using the subject's political-economy toolkit, explain this 'time-pressure paradox': why does technological acceleration coincide with a felt scarcity of time, rather than an abundance of it?
数字技术本应替我们节省时间——即时通讯、随叫随到的出行、自动化的工作。然而人们却感到比以往任何时候都更「缺时间」。请用本课的政治经济学工具箱解释这一「时间压力悖论」：为什么技术加速反而伴随着一种「时间稀缺」的体感，而不是时间的充裕？
Separate the three accelerations Wajcman distinguishes — technological acceleration (faster transport, communication, production), the acceleration of social change (institutions like family and work becoming less stable), and the acceleration of the pace of life (compression of everyday actions). The paradox is that gains from the first do not free up time; they are absorbed by the second and third. Ground this in political economy: under capitalism, technology is oriented around time as a scarce resource — Marx's 'annihilation of space by time' and Harvey's time-space compression (sailing ships at ~10 mph to jets at 500-700 mph) describe capital constantly speeding up its own circulation. When 'time is money', any time saved is reinvested into more activity rather than rest, so faster always demands faster. Castells's 'timeless time' adds that in the network society the ordering of events by clock time breaks down, dissolving the boundaries that once contained work and leisure. Conclude that the felt scarcity is structural, not personal: acceleration is a property of capital's circulation, so the experience of 'never enough time' is the lived signature of the digital economy — exactly the kind of claim a book-review or final essay can defend or contest with examples.
先区分 Wajcman 划分的三种加速——技术加速（交通、通信、生产更快）、社会变迁的加速（家庭、工作等制度愈发不稳定）、生活节奏的加速（日常行动被压缩）。悖论在于：第一种加速带来的「省下的时间」并没有真正空出来，而是被第二、第三种加速吸收。再把它落到政治经济学上：在资本主义下，技术围绕「时间」这一稀缺资源而组织——Marx 的「以时间消灭空间」与 Harvey 的时空压缩（帆船约 10 mph 到喷气式飞机 500–700 mph）描述的正是资本不断加速自身的周转。当「时间就是金钱」，任何省下的时间都被再投入到更多活动而非休息，于是「更快」永远要求「更快」。Castells 的「无时间之时间」补充道：在网络社会，事件按钟表时间排序的逻辑瓦解，曾经把工作与闲暇分隔开的边界随之溶解。结论是：这种「时间不够用」的体感是结构性的、而非个人的——加速是资本周转的属性，所以「时间永远不够」正是数字经济的生活体征。这恰是一篇书评或期末 essay 可以用具体例子去论证或反驳的主张。
MECM90041 glossaryMECM90041 术语表
- Political economy政治经济学
- An approach that analyses media and technology in terms of the power, ownership, markets and economic structures that shape them — here, a description of capitalism and its conditions of operation.
- 一种从权力、所有权、市场与经济结构出发，分析媒体与技术如何被塑造的研究取向——在本课即对资本主义及其运行条件的描述。
- Technofeudalism技术封建主义
- Varoufakis's claim that an infrastructure of digital technologies controlled by monopolistic power is producing a new mode of capitalism resembling feudalism — users as 'digital serfs' on platforms they do not own.
- Varoufakis 的论断：被垄断权力掌控的数字技术基础设施正在催生一种酷似封建主义的新型资本主义——用户成为他们并不拥有的平台上的「数字农奴」。
- Exteriorisation (homo faber)外化（制造者的人）
- Leroi-Gourhan's idea that technology externalises human capacities — from gesture and the tool ('homo faber', the maker) to writing — making technics inseparable from what it means to be human.
- Leroi-Gourhan 的观点：技术把人的能力外化出去——从手势、工具（homo faber，制造者）到文字——使「技术」与「为人」密不可分。
- Information theory (Shannon)信息论（Shannon）
- Claude Shannon's framing of the 'fundamental problem of communication': how a receiver recovers the signal generated by a source from the noise carried through a channel.
- Claude Shannon 提出的「通信的根本问题」：接收者如何从信道携带的噪声中，还原出信源所产生的信号。
- Cybernetics控制论
- Norbert Wiener's study of teleological (goal-directed) systems and their automation — a conceptual root of computing as control and communication.
- Norbert Wiener 对「目的论」（有目标导向的）系统及其自动化的研究——计算作为「控制与通信」的概念源头之一。
- Neoliberal globalisation新自由主义全球化
- The market-driven, deregulatory political-economic order from the late 1970s on, used as the foundation for explaining why the ICT revolution happened when and how it did.
- 1970 年代末以来以市场驱动、放松管制为特征的政治经济秩序；本课用它来解释 ICT 革命为何在那个时间、以那种方式发生。
- Information-technology paradigm (Castells)信息技术范式（Castells）
- Castells's claim that new information technologies diffused widely only in the 1970s, converging into a new paradigm — the first of several information-technology revolutions.
- Castells 的论断：新信息技术直到 1970 年代才广泛扩散并汇聚成一个新范式——是若干次信息技术革命中的第一次。
- Time-space compression (Harvey)时空压缩（Harvey）
- David Harvey's idea that capitalism continually shrinks the world by speeding up transport and communication (sailing ships at ~10 mph to jets at 500-700 mph), compressing the experience of space and time.
- David Harvey 的观点：资本主义通过不断加快交通与通信（帆船约 10 mph 到喷气机 500–700 mph）持续「缩小」世界，压缩人对空间与时间的体验。
- Time-pressure paradox (Wajcman)时间压力悖论（Wajcman）
- Judy Wajcman's puzzle: if technology accelerates processes there should be more free time, yet time feels scarcer — distinguishing technological, social-change and pace-of-life acceleration.
- Judy Wajcman 的困惑：若技术加速了各种过程，理应有更多空闲，时间却显得更稀缺——她区分了技术加速、社会变迁加速与生活节奏加速。
- Timeless time (Castells)无时间之时间（Castells）
- In the information age, the clock-time ordering of events breaks down and virtuality becomes an essential dimension of reality, so networks matter more than place — Castells's 'timeless time'.
- 在信息时代，按钟表时间排序事件的逻辑瓦解，虚拟成为现实不可或缺的维度，于是「网络」比「地方」更重要——Castells 称之为「无时间之时间」。
- Hyperreality / simulacra (Baudrillard)超真实 / 拟像（Baudrillard）
- Baudrillard's account of signs, code, simulation and simulacra: signs detached from any real analogue form a self-referential system that encodes 'reality', producing a hyperreality.
- Baudrillard 关于符号、编码、拟仿与拟像的论述：与任何真实对应物脱钩的符号构成一个自我指涉的系统，编码出「现实」，从而产生超真实。
- Attention economy / cognitive capitalism注意力经济 / 认知资本主义
- Celis Bueno's framing of attention as labour, time and power under cognitive capitalism — the political economy in which human attention is captured and commodified.
- Celis Bueno 把注意力理解为认知资本主义下的劳动、时间与权力——一种捕获并商品化人类注意力的政治经济学。
- Spectacle 2.0景观 2.0
- Briziarelli & Armano's update of Debord's 'society of the spectacle' for digital capitalism — the dialectic of capitalist mediations carried by software platforms.
- Briziarelli 与 Armano 在数字资本主义语境下对 Debord「景观社会」的更新——由软件平台承载的资本主义中介之辩证法。
- Base and superstructure经济基础与上层建筑
- Marx's model used in the subject: the economic base (means and relations of production) shapes, and is maintained by, a superstructure of culture, ideology, law, media and politics — applied here to digital everyday life.
- 本课沿用的马克思模型：经济基础（生产资料与生产关系）塑造并被一个由文化、意识形态、法律、媒体与政治构成的上层建筑所维系——在此用于分析数字化的日常生活。
MECM90041 — common questionsMECM90041 常见问题
How is MECM90041 assessed?MECM90041 怎么考核？
Does MECM90041 have a final exam?MECM90041 有期末考试吗？
What are the prerequisites for MECM90041?MECM90041 有先修课要求吗？
What is MECM90041 actually about?MECM90041 到底学什么？
How many credit points is MECM90041 and when does it run?MECM90041 多少学分、什么时候开？
Other UniMelb course guides墨大 其他课程指南
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