ABSTRACT
Wikipedia, the world’s largest encyclopedia and the Internet’s fifth most visited website, has been the focus of much research over the past decade, much of which uses big data or case studies to investigate issues of content quality and trends in the contributor base. A smaller number of researchers and theorists have explored the site and what it means for digital communication from a theoretical perspective, and in particular, from the lens of political economy[cM1][cM2]. Through reviewing some of the major scholarly work on the political economy of Wikipedia, this paper examines the major tensions that emerge from critical analysis of the project. Two major threads emerge in this literature – materiality/immateriality and ideologies that challenge capitalism – that help us understand Wikipedia’s place in the digital milieu and point to areas were new critical theoretical work is necessary.
