Paper presented at the 40th World Congress of the International Institute of Sociology, New Delhi, India, 16-19 February, 2012.

1. ”Cumming” to Terms with
Communicative Capitalism
Dr Martin Berg
Halmstad University / Good Old
martin.berg@hh.se

2. Who’s talking?
Martin Berg
PhD in Sociology 2008, Lund University, Sweden
Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Halmstad University,
Sweden
(Corporate) Senior Researcher at the digital agency
Good Old with financial support from the Bank of
Sweden Tercentenary Foundation (3 year post-
doctoral research project on online sociability)

3. C’licking the other
Social interaction and bodily practices on
cam4.com: ”the largest worldwide webcam
community”
Some introductory notes from my observations:
”4000 buttplug (doesnt all go in), 5000 cum, tip further
if u want tnx ^^”
”such a fine boy! Wow!” / ”over 5000 About time to cum!”

4. Aim and scope
Analysis of various forms of social interaction on
cam4.com by placing certain emphasis on the digitally
mediated setting as a structured social space in
which the user interface renders certain social
patterns and communicative actions intelligible.
An account of the social web that does not avoid the
carnal, vulgar and filthy aspects of social life
The user interface and the forms of interaction on
cam4.com are situated in a wider societal context

5. Cam4: a closer look
”[N]ot just a
webcam site, it's
a whole open
sexual social
community,
where most
importantly you
can always be
yourself and get
tipped for that”

6. Development of the internet
This particular kind of online amateur pornography
needs to be situated in the mode of social
organisation that characterises the internet of today
Two undertheorised aspects of the internet: 1) online
space is not so o en theorised as a ”space” anymore,
and 2) the relationship between online interaction and
late modernity is seldom discussed

7. Porn 2.0
Online pornography is o en rendered invisible in
online metrics and interpretations of the social web
Watching porn is a question of physically clicking,
scrolling, wanking and flickering through bodies on
display, and not so much about fantasmagoric
encounters in a virtual La-La land
The interface as a ”space of public privacy” and offers
a distanced intimacy

8. The interface
The body occupies a central position in the interface:
it is the very focus of activity as well as the object of
social interaction.
Interpassivity rather than interactivity: the interface
seems to facilitate a ”sense of being active through
another subject who does the job for me” /Žižek
Micropayments as a means for partaking in the show
without any significant effort: it is a way to inscribe
oneself in the plot that is revealing on screen

9. Communicative capitalism
Communicative capitalism is that ”economic-
ideological form wherein reflexivity captures
creativity and resistance” /Dean
Processes of reflexivity become particularly clear
when transferred to online sociability
The relationship between the individual and the
generalised other has become fundamentally
corrupt in communicative capitalism.

10. Concluding remarks
Cumming to terms with communicative capitalism
is a question of symbolic and structural alignment:
certain desires are installed by the socio-cultural
context and enacted through the interface
The specific context on cam4.com blurs the
boundaries between private and public: we enjoy
for ourselves among others; we are private in public
Money and micropayments provide a dual sense of
intimacy