Bio
Evgeny Morozov The Net Delusion and To Save Everything, Click Here. Morozov’s monthly column on technology and politics appears in The Observer (UK), Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany), El Pais (Spain), Le Monde Diplomatique (France) and several other newspapers. His writings have appeared in The NewYorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and other publications. Previously a senior editor at The New Republic, he has been a fellow at Georgetown University, Stanford University, Open Society Foundations, NewAmerica Foundation, and the American Academy in Berlin.
Now that tech firms occupy top spots on any list of the world’s most valuable companies, a profound structural transformation of the economy can hardly be denied. The immense size and global scale of operations of many of these firms have produced major savings, with Uber taking on welfare-boosting role that Walmart played during an earlier era. Likewise, the adoption and active promotion of the “home ownership” ideology by governments boosted the popularity of global platforms like Airbnb as a way to cash in on one’s assets. However, the parallel shadow welfare state operated by Silicon Valley is nothing of the kind, paving the way to a new form of feudalism. But how adequate are the alternatives, from cooperatives to new forms of data ownership, and what are the challenges that stand in their way?