IMCA Research Seminar - Domen Bajde, University of Southern Denmark

On the Road to Web3: Re-Imagining the Web and Digital Ownership

Abstract

It is fascinating how the Web has been imagined and reimagined over the past three decades. From the deliciously naïve visions of the early Web (posthumously named Web 1.0), via the postapocalyptic reinvention of Web 2.0, and onto the contentious imaginations of Web3. My aim is to critically unpack the successive imaginaries of the Web by probing into the shifting role of ownership in (re)imagining the transformative potential of the Web. Based on this foundation, I will then zoom into non-fungible tokens (NFTs); for some, the ‘objectum non grata’ of Web3, but for my purposes an intriguing experiment in digital ownership, scarcity and singularization.

Bio:

Domen Bajde, is a professor of consumption, culture and commerce at University of Southern Denmark. He is a consumer culture and market systems scholar whose primary research interests include: the study of emergent forms of digital consumption and technology markets, consumption and market ethics, and relational philosophy. His recent focus on digital ownership in the context of Web3 builds upon earlier experience with exploring the transformations and controversies surrounding new forms of digital consumption and technology markets, exemplified by his research on affective dynamics on online platforms (Bajde and Rojas 2021), tech. industry visioneering (Bajde, Nøjgaard and Kuruoglu 2022), the sharing economy (Bajde, Golf Papez and Culiberg 2024), and platform user governance (Bajde et. al 2023; Bajde, Kos & Bajde 2015).