Coming of Age in Secondlife – Chapter 8
Nov 22nd, 2008 by nmsliwa
Chapter 8 in Tom Boellstorff’s Coming of Age in Second Life is the second to last chapter in the book and the first chapter in section three labeled: The Age of Techne. This chapter, Boellstorff says, “examines the political economy of Second Life” (p.205). For the reader this means that for the final section of the book Boellstorff moves away from his specific ethnographic critique of Second Life and begins to view the world of Second Life under a much larger scope. The idea of “creationist capitalism”, which Boellstorff discusses at the beginning of this chapter is directly related to the research that I, and the rest of my classmates are currently conducting. According to Boellstorff, creationist capitalism is ” a mode of capitalism in which labor is understood in terms of creativity, so that production is understood as creation” (p. 206). The specific part of Second Life which I have been interacting with for the past several weeks is this idea of production as an extention of creation. I have been creating shirts using Photoshop for production. Even the architecture which I have developed or created from scratch is an extension of my creative self and is meant for the purposes of production. I personally have already reaped the benefits of the capitalist economy of Secondlife and have watched my Linden dollar account increase as my shirts are sold in the store.
Another issue discussed in Chapter 8 which has been particularly meaningful during my research is property. According to the chapter, “only by owning property could residents build objects with permanence” (Boellstorff, p.215). My group and I are currently facing difficulties pertaining to property. We are currently having a store in Taste of India rented for us on our behalf so that we may use it to set up our clothing. However, yesterday Kyle and myself received a message on Second Life which suggested that we would not be allowed to reside there any longer. All of the other stores around us disappeared and there was no one to give us answers. Today, someone told me once again that my shop would be moving but did not tell me where. This incident reiterates the fact that in Second Life unless one actually owns the property one does not have rights to that space. I thought that renting the space would surfice, however, only time will tell if our shop will remain as it is. I felt that it was somewhat ironic to read about property and capitalist creativity right in the midst of these somewhat economic related struggles my group is currently experiencing.
Just a side -note. I just realized earlier today while flipping through my book that there is a glossary in the back of the book which includes abbreviations to use while in Second Life. I found it very interesting and just thought I’d drop a comment about it here.