Digital Needs and the Commons under Informational Capitalism
A WIAS research seminar with talks by Sebastian Sevignani and Benjamin 
Birkinbine
Tue, June 6, 18:00-20:00
309 Regent Street, W1B 2HW, London
Boardroom
Organised by the Westminster Institute for Advanced Studies (WIAS)

Registration:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/digital-needs-and-the-commons-under-informational-capitalism-tickets-33491158958

How can we define informational “needs?” What type of information is 
necessary for human development, survival, and social progress? What is 
in this context the role of the information commons and digital commons? 
In what ways does capitalism restrict the fulfillment of these needs?

In this seminar, Dr. Sebastian Sevignani reflects on what needs are, how 
they develop, and offers proposals for what informational needs might 
be. Dr. Benjamin Birkinbine focuses specifically on the informational 
commons as one way to provide for such needs, while highlighting the 
contradictions that these movements face under capitalism. The overall 
goal for this discussion is to work toward a critical theory of needs 
under informational capitalism.

Benjamin J Birkinbine is Assistant Professor of Media Studies at 
University of Nevada, Reno. Whilst based at WIAS as international 
research fellow, he works towards a critical theory of the digital commons.

Sebastian Sevignani is Assistant Professor at the Department for General 
Sociology and Sociological Theory, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena. 
As WIAS international research fellow he works on foundations of a 
theory of digital needs.

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