The Californian Ideology
| Author | Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron |
|---|---|
| Published | 1995 |
| Format | Article |
TL;DR — Barbrook and Cameron’s 1995 essay arguing that Silicon Valley fused hippie counterculture with free-market libertarianism into a new orthodoxy for the information age.
Written by two media theorists at the University of Westminster’s Hypermedia Research Centre and first published in Mute in 1995, then circulated on the nettime list; a revised version appeared in Science as Culture in 1996.
The essay names “a loose alliance of writers, hackers, capitalists and artists” on the US West Coast, promoted through Wired, whose belief in technology combines the cultural bohemianism of San Francisco with the entrepreneurial zeal of Silicon Valley. It argues the ideology rests on contradictions: it ignores the state funding and defence spending behind the industry, and the racial and class divisions of California, and offers a European, social-democratic alternative.
What it is: a short, influential polemic, standard reading in internet and media studies. The authors have released it freely, but no rights-holder copy was verified for this card.
Where this came from
- A copy saved in October 2026.
23 pages. A PDF copy is held in Kyle’s private archive; it is not linked or shared here.