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Book cover for Digital Feudalism, a book by David Arditi Book cover for Digital Feudalism, a book by David Arditi

Digital Feudalism

Creators, Credit, Consumption, and Capitalism
2023 ᛫


Digital Feudalism explores this new moment in capitalism, and how reliant global economies have become on these processes of consumption, work, and debt.

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Summary


Over the past two decades, corporations and venture capitalists have adjusted business models to change the digital world. As a result, the global economy has undergone a massive shift, changing the way we work, consume and pay for things. Under this new ‘digital feudalism’, we find precarious employment via digital platforms, we buy goods and services in perpetuity through subscriptions, and we pay for it all with debt.


Digital Feudalism explores this new moment in capitalism, and how reliant global economies have become on these processes of consumption, work, and debt.

Table of contents

  • Chapter 1. Introduction: A Squid Game Reality

  • Chapter 2. Buy More, Own Less: Subscriptions and Unending Consumption
  • Chapter 3. Working on your own: Precarious labor in the gig economy
  • Chapter 4. Debt Peonage and Primitive Accumulation
  • Chapter 5. Amazon and Baron Bezos
  • Chapter 6. Unboxed: Content Creators and influencers
  • Chapter 7. Metaverse: enclosing new spaces
  • Chapter 8. From Patron to Patreon: Crowdfunding Information
  • Chapter 9. Conclusion: Fed-up While Locked Down

About the authors



David Arditi is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Arlington,a scholar of digital technology and an expert on streaming cultures.