The knowledge deficit: Liquid words as neo-liberal technologies

Abstract

The essay argues that the dynamic conjunction of neo-liberal globalization and the information technology revolution has created not only a new relationship with time – which itself is having an immensely consequential (if under-theorized) effect – but also a transformed relationship with the written word. Today reading and writing are increasingly conducted through liquid crystal display – a new technological form of the ancient technology of the printed word. The printed word has become liquid. This essay argues that liquid and accelerated and burgeoning volumes of words that are overwhelmingly oriented towards market-driven instrumentalized ends are creating a deficit in the accumulatio..