seguir hablando de «capitalismotardío» como si fuera a conllevarautomáticamente el colapso industrial y unaposterior revolución social.

en cada caso existe un contrastesorprendente entre un universo cosmológicotumultuoso y el proceso social, que busca lamediación, la llegada a un consenso. Ninguna deestas sociedades es completamente igualitaria,pues existen ciertas formas clave de dominio, almenos la de los hombres sobre las mujeres y losadultos sobre los más jóvenes.

Los mundos invisibles que lasrodean son, literalmente campos de batalla. Escomo si la labor incansable de lograr el consensoocultara una violencia intrínseca constante, oquizá sería más apropiado decir que en la prácticaes el proceso mediante el cual se calibra y secontiene esa violencia intrínseca

En las sociedadesigualitarias, que suelen poner un gran énfasis enla creación y el mantenimiento del consensocomunal

Echoing an old observation in activism about the “tyranny of structurelessness” (Freeman, 1972), power became difficult to contest when you remove the mechanisms to contest action. New visitors who didn’t immediately resonate with the space were turned off from the cold vision of geeks silently co-working next to each other. Longstanding members became frustrated by frequent clashes between hotheaded personalities. Then there were issues about what went where. Who didn’t put the hand drill back in the bin? Technology was a source of drama, particularly when commitments were discussed on email lists or in passing and then forgotten. Who said they would get the laser cutter running? Although sufficiently meta and informal to be palatable to members, it was hardly a smooth way to run an organization.

n large part the desire for autonomy alongside warm community relationships can be seen as an extension of what Fred Turner (2008) termed “new communalism.” New communalists emerged alongside the new left and believed in a kind of hive mind while rejecting formalized politics and institutions. Hackerspaces, as a kind of “third space” (Oldenburg, 1997), provided a site for these ideas to expand. Democracy was seen as cumbersome and slow. Do-ocracy provided speed and the freedom to act without consultation.