2019/11/28 by Susi Geiger · 1 voice · 1 citation
Business, Management and Accounting · Social Sciences · #Information Systems Theories and Implementation #Innovation, Sustainability, Human-Machine Systems #Management and Organizational Studies
paper · doi:10.1080/17530350.2019.1684337
openalex publication_date 2019/11/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/21
This paper reflects on the relationship between high-tech disruption narratives and uncertainty. My main argument is that an economic sociology of the future is incomplete without addressing the ‘demonic’ or rather eschatological elements apparent in the promissory twin rhetoric of disruption and inevitability that a number of contemporary technology firms employ. The conjuring up of liberatory high-tech futures implicates a political-philosophical perspective of the end game. It utilizes at once the productive power of uncertainty to create visions of ‘absolute riches’ and societal gain but at the same time narrows these futures down to one inevitable alternative to the status quo. Through the examples of two Silicon Valley disruptor firms, I argue that these eschatological narratives need to be opened to social scientific critique in order to examine their potential societal consequences above and beyond the narrow geographic confines of ‘the Valley.’