Democracy  &  Nature, Vol. 5,  No. 1

 

Communal Stasis, Media, and a Civic Interpretation of the Historial Materialist Model

John Ely

 

Abstract: Though conceived generally within the framework of the culture industry, the terms 'media' and 'communication' have meanings derived from democratic articulation of civic virtue.  These meanings provide a way to look at the issue of media and communication as a dialectical  reinterpretation of the materialist concept of history.  This civic interpretation sees the "crisis" transition between modes of production  (heteronomous landed regimes) as a stasis driven period of civic constitutional development (autonomous development).  Periods of civic stasis or struggle between citizens also appear, following the 'regulation' interpretation of periods in capitalist development, in transitions between regimes of accumulation.  The article concludes by investigating media and civic struggle in the transition between a Fordist and a new, Bill 'Gatist' regime of accumulation.

 

 

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