Category: Posts
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What is “perverse attraction”?
“This article details how perversion can operate as a technique for establishing novel, voluntary infrastructures.” My latest, with Cassandra Dana, on “perverse attraction”: https://www.zygonjournal.org/article/id/11013/
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Rehearsals in conversation
Free lunch, live in Boulder! As part of my college’s event series, I’ll be in conversation with my colleague Bryan Semaan on April 15, exploring the practice of “Designing Against Digital Colonialism”—free and open to the public: https://calendar.colorado.edu/event/cmci-rehearsals-in-conversation-designing-against-digital-colonialism
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“Perverse attraction” and infrastructure
Out today! A long-coming research article with Cassandra Dana on sex and crypto-money. “Perverse attraction: Idolatry, pornography, and the making of infrastructure,” just out at Zygon https://www.zygonjournal.org/article/id/11013/
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Podcasting commoning
There is no democracy without a commons. This week I am grateful to be discussing #GovernableSpaces on the Frontiers of Commoning podcast with one of my heroes, David Bollier: https://www.bollier.org/blog/nathan-schneider-building-democratic-governance-internet David’s books are a phenomenal intro to the power and craft of commoning.
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Easter newsletters
While supervising today’s egg-mayhem, I was grateful to notice my recent work featured in two of my favorite tech newsletters. These are really helpful intros to #GovernableSpaces and the ideas therein. Read & subscribe! @WeAreNew_Public: https://newpublic.substack.com/p/the-internet-was-supposed-to-be-democratic @charleycjohnson: https://untangled.substack.com/p/make-the-internet-democratic-again
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Why do feudal patterns persist?
This passage in #GovernableSpaces was just highlighted to me—as was the fact that it should have included Nextdoor, perhaps the most feudal thing of all. Find it in chapter one: https://ntnsndr.in/govbook
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Citizenship as artisanship
I am allowing myself this post during spring break only because it is from the section on “Democratic Play” at the end of chapter 3 in #GovernableSpaces. Read the whole book free online: https://nathanschneider.info/govbook
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A clear desk
I like to keep a clear desk. In my office, for instance, I keep the desk where I meet with students empty, except for a few intentional symbolic objects on the side. The clear desk is also how I approach screens. Here’s how: https://nathanschneider.info/2024/03/clearing-my-desk-on-using-screens-intentionally/
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ISIS and “territorial feudalism”
With ISIS back in the (US) news, I have been thinking back to this passage in chapter two of Governable Spaces on ISIS as an apotheosis of “implicit feudalism,” a networked polity “with a clerical sysadmin.” Read the chapter: https://luminosoa.org/site/books/10.1525/luminos.181/read/?loc=009.xhtml
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Clearing my desk: On using screens intentionally
What follows are some notes about how I use screens, which I am bothering to write because I increasingly notice how my habits diverge from those of people around me. I have not bothered to validate the effectiveness of these practices in any statistical or otherwise scientific way. But people do frequently ask about my…