ABSTRACT
The task of Chapter 7 is to question the approaches that characterize web 2.0 as participatory by confronting them with the empirical reality of the political economy of web 2.0. The method used is empirical ideology critique. The analysis is based on the notion of participatory democracy, as grounded by Crawford Macpherson and Carole Pateman. Nine aspects of participatory democracy theory are outlined. The empirical analysis shows that contemporary web 2.0 is not participatory and that web 2.0 optimism has an ideological character. The author suggests that contemporary web 2.0 can better be theorized with the help of the Marxian categories of surplus value, exploitation and class. In this context, the notion of the Internet prosumer/produsage commodity is introduced.
