Mainstreaming Counter Co Optation and Depoliticization by a…主流计数器选择和消除.pdfVIP

Mainstreaming, Counter-Co-Optation, and Depoliticization by a Counterculture Tiebing Shi Northwest Missouri State University Drawing on the social constructionist theory of social movement, this netnographic study examines the relationship between countercultures and the mainstream culture/dominant corporations in the context of free/open source software culture. The result shows that when a counterculture aims to change the social order in a domain of the marketplace, the counterculture or a sect of it could mainstream its subversive ideologies and practices, counter-co-opt certain tools (e.g., laws) of the mainstream culture and dominant corporations, preempt some forms of corporate co-optation, depoliticize its own ideologies and practices, and both confront and collaborate with the mainstream culture and dominant corporations. The relationship between countercultures and the mainstream culture/dominant corporations has intrigued consumer culture researchers for decades (Frank, 1993; Holt, 2002; Marcuse, 1964). In the literature on the focal relationship there are three different theories. The classic co-optation theory (Ewen, 1988) conceptualizes this relationship as a confrontational one and assumes a doomed fate of countercultures. In contrast, the hip consumer variation of co-optation theory (Heath Potter, 2004) conceptualizes this relationship as a symbiotic one. But the re-politicizing co-optation theory (Thompson Coskuner-Balli, 2007) argues that by creating countervailing markets, a counterculture can reclaim its cultural meanings co-opted by corporations. Despite their differences, the three theories implicitly assume that countercultures