Constantine Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building (PISB)
Hassman Family Conference Room 103
3245 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
The Communication, Culture and Media graduate program welcomes David Arditi, PhD, associate professor of sociology, University of
Texas at Arlington, to campus. Dr. Arditi also serves as the director of the Center for
Theory. As a gigging drummer, David became interested in the livelihoods
of musicians. His research is focused on the intersection of music, culture,
and technology.
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.
His book Getting Signed: Record Contracts, Musicians and Power in Society, explores the way musicians’ dreams become their source of exploitation. David’s other books include Streaming Culture: Subscription Platforms and the Unending Consumption, and iTake-Over: The Recording Industry in the Streaming Era. David co-edited The Dialectic of Digital Culture with Jennifer Miller.
He is the editor of Fast Capitalism.