Rachel O’Dwyer, a media scholar and digital payments expert, teams up with Ashley Mears, a cultural sociology professor, to unravel our digital economic lives. They discuss the rise of digital payments and tokens, exploring how these tools reshape economic interactions. With insights into platform labor and the commodification of personal interactions, they highlight the social implications of the creator economy. The conversation also touches on the evolution of the internet, pondering whether technology fosters equality or perpetuates inequality.
43:05
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
menu_book Books
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
question_answer ANECDOTE
Rachel O'Dwyer's Interdisciplinary Path
Rachel O'Dwyer moved from fine art to studying digital media's social and political impact.
She focuses on money as a social technology, especially digital payments and tokens.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Ashley Mears' Career Journey
Ashley Mears transitioned from a fashion model to a sociologist studying labor and valuation in digital platforms.
Her research shifted to content farms and viral videos, revealing the addictiveness of platform labor.
insights INSIGHT
Gamified Addiction in Creator Economy
Content creators are addicted to platform metrics through gamification and immediate data feedback.
The platforms design systems that assign value but can cause creators to prioritize viral content over artistic values.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
In *Very Important People*, Ashley Mears delves into the elite global party circuit, exposing the intricate dynamics of beauty, status, and money. She spent eighteen months researching how clubs use beautiful women to attract wealthy men, highlighting issues of gender inequality and exploitation. The book offers a captivating narrative that critiques the conspicuous consumption of the wealthy, shedding light on the transactional nature of relationships within this exclusive world.
Tokens
The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform
Rachel O'Dwyer
Temporarily yours
Elizabeth Bernstein
Margo's Got Money Troubles
Rufi Thorpe
The novel follows Margo Millet, a young woman who becomes pregnant after a brief affair with her English professor. Despite the challenges, Margo decides to keep the baby and faces numerous financial and personal struggles. She turns to a controversial but lucrative career on OnlyFans to support her family, which further complicates her relationships and societal perceptions. The book explores themes of motherhood, financial independence, and the societal expectations placed on single mothers, all while maintaining a humorous and heartwarming tone.
New Money
How Payment Became Social Media
Lana Swartz
In 'New Money: How Payment Became Social Media', Lana Swartz explores the transformation of payment systems into social media platforms. She discusses how these changes impact societal integration, exclusion, and the creation of new forms of identity and community. The book provides historical context and examines the implications of these shifts in financial technologies.
Games
Agency as Art
C. Thi Nguyen
C. Thi Nguyen's "Games: Agency as Art" delves into the philosophical underpinnings of game design, exploring the concept of agency as a core element of the player experience. Nguyen argues that games are not merely entertainment but also artistic expressions that shape player agency through their mechanics and narrative. The book examines how different game designs influence player choices and actions, highlighting the interplay between player freedom and the constraints imposed by the game's rules. Nguyen's work challenges traditional notions of art and expands our understanding of how games can be both engaging and thought-provoking. It's a significant contribution to game studies and philosophy.
Addiction by design
Machine Gambling in Las Vegas
Natasha Dow Schüll
This book, based on fifteen years of field research in Las Vegas, explores how the mechanical rhythm of electronic gambling machines induces a trancelike state known as the 'machine zone.' In this state, gamblers' daily worries and bodily awareness fade away, and they continue to play not to win, but to maintain the state of continuous play. Schüll delves into the strategic design of game algorithms, machine ergonomics, casino architecture, and 'ambience management,' all aimed at maximizing 'time on device.' The book also examines the broader social and cultural implications of machine gambling, including the debate over whether addiction stems from the consumer, the product, or the interplay between the two[1][4][5].
We’re back with a new season on anything culture and inequality!
From clickbait culture and influencer marketing to content farms and algorithm-driven platforms, we kick off the 2025 season by unpacking the mechanics behind our increasingly digital economic lives. How has the digital realm evolved into a powerful economic force that's reshaping the way we live, work, and consume? We examine the spread of digital payments, the influence of tokens, and the growing power of algorithms in decision-making. Along the way, we'll consider broader shifts like platform labor, surveillance capitalism, and the emergence of a new digital feudalism.
We’re joined by Ashley Mears, Professor and Chair of Cultural Sociology and New Media at the University of Amsterdam. She’s the author of Pricing Beauty: The Making of a Fashion Model and Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit, and is widely recognized as an expert on the culture and economics of aesthetics and digital labour.
Also with us is Rachel O’Dwyer, a media scholar, writer, and lecturer at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. A leading authority on digital payments, blockchain, and the rise of tokens, Rachel brings a sharp critical lens to the infrastructures that shape our digital transactions and value systems. She’s is the author of Tokens: The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform.
This episode's host is Kobe De Keere, an Associate Professor of cultural sociology at the University of Amsterdam. He explores the moral and cultural dimensions of economic life, focusing on topics such as valuation, the labour market, and cryptocurrencies.
Further reading for this episode
- O'Dwyer, R. (2023). Tokens: The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform. Verso Books.
- Mears, A. (2023). Bringing Bourdieu to a content farm: Social media production fields and the cultural economy of attention. Social Media+ Society, 9(3), 20563051231193027.
- Schüll, Natasha Dow. Addiction by design: Machine gambling in Las Vegas. Princeton university press, 2012.
- Bailey, P. (1990). Parasexuality and glamour: The Victorian barmaid as cultural prototype. Gender & History, 2(2), 148-172
- Swartz, L. (2020). New money. Yale University Press.
Podcast editors of this season: Luuc Brans, Kobe De Keere, Sanne Pieters & Geert Veuskens
This podcast is co-financed from the BINQ project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Grant No. 101052649. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
This podcast is also kindly supported by the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam.
Culture & Inequality Podcast 
