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Modes of Structured

Interplay in the Modeling of

Digital Futures

Markus S. Schulz

Conflict, competition, and cooperation are thought as any other sociological field. This
the three fundamental modes of creating is especially true when tracing the origins of
future society. This article aims to show that how the principles of competition, conflict,
these three categories can be meaningfully and cooperation entered the field. Charles
applied to an analysis of the social shaping of Darwin’s evolution-theoretical concept of the
the new global mediascape and digital ‘survival of the fittest’ and Adam Smith’s
futures. It examines the rise of the Internet notion of the ‘invisible hand’ of the market
and its related technologies from a global and that could be entrusted with distributive and
comparative perspective, paying particular regulatory order functions came to inform
attention to the role of key social actors and the model of competition. Karl Marx’s
the changing modes of their interplay. It will notion of inevitable class struggle was taken
then discuss the social consequences of cur- up and further developed by different strands
rent trends and point to the stakes of future of conflict theory. Emile Durkheim’s notion
development. The goal is thereby not to pro- of a modern society held together by organic
vide an exhaustive account of the creation of integration and the collaboration of comple-
digital futures but to contribute to the orien- mentarily specialized social sectors lacked
tation of questions for empirical research attention to conflict but it raised important
with normative relevance. questions about the conditions of possibility
for social order and cooperation.
The field of futures studies, which began
to boom in the 1960s and 1970s, shared its
COMPETITION, CONFLICT, AND technological enthusiasm with the theorists
COOPERATION IN FUTURES of early industrialization. The wave of futures
RESEARCH studies prepared in the 1960s was above all
characterized by a belief in technology
Futures studies owe as much to nineteenth as savior. Books about the future in the
and early twentieth century traditions of year 2000 had become widely discussed