Capital Experimentation with Person/a Formation: How Facebook’s Monetization Refigures the Relationship Between Property, Personhood and Protest - Abstract, Keywords, and Introduction

Sep 1, 2026

Upload by Melati

This paper examines the conditions of possibility for protest shaped when browsers are tracked immediately by Facebook, showing how tracking helps constitute contemporary personhood. It argues that Facebook’s financial operations should be understood as a powerful advertising oligopoly that lubricates capital circulation, while Facebook experiments with monetization and financialization. Tracing shifts from the possessive individual to the subject of value and the present dividual, it highlights contradictions that make an authentic self harder to sustain.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatDOCX

Pages31

Reading Time11 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Tracking and the making of personhood

Protest, property, and personhood

Capital Experimentation with Person/a Formation: How Facebook’s monetization refigures the relationship between property, personhood and protest Beverley Skeggs and Simon Yuill, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council under Grant ES/KO10786/1 Corresponding author: b.skeggs@gold.ac.uk Words: 7,899 Abstract This paper examines the conditions of possibility for protest that are shaped when we open our browsers and are immediately tracked by Facebook. It points to the significance of tracking in the making of contemporary personhood showing how the relationship between property and personhood is being currently reconfigured as Facebook experiments with ways to accrue maximum profit. It outlines in detail the different ways by which Facebook operates financially, arguing that it is better understood as a powerful advertising oligopoly that lubricates the circulation of capital rather than just as a social network. By charting the movement from the liberal ‘possessive individual’, to the neo-liberal ‘subject of value into the present disaggregated ‘dividual’. it reveals inherent contradictions as Facebook builds its financializing and monetizing capacity. We show how the contemporary neo-liberal imperative to perform and authorise one’s ‘self’ is more likely to produce a curated persona rather than the ‘authentic’ self demanded by Facebook, making accurate dividuation more difficult to achieve. We draw on our ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council, UK) funded research project, on the relationship between values and value, which uses custom built software to track Facebook’s tracking. Our research revealed how Facebook drew clear distinctions between high net worth users and the remainder, making the protesting bourgeois ‘subject of value’ much more likely to be subject to expropriation. We ask: what does it mean if the communicative networks for protest are just another opportunity for profit making and lubricating financialization? Keywords: Facebook, software, personhood, protest, monetization, labour Introduction This paper examines the conditions of possibility for protest that are shaped when we open our browsers and are immediately tracked by Facebook. It points to the significance of tracking in the making of contemporary personhood showing how the relationship between property and personhood is being currently reconfigured as Facebook experiments with ways to accrue maximum profit. It outlines in detail the different ways by which Facebook operates financially, arguing that it is better understood as a powerful advertising oligopoly that lubricates the circulation of capital rather than just as a social network. By charting the movement from the liberal ‘possessive individual’, to the neo-liberal ‘subject of value’, into the present disaggregated ‘dividual’, it reveals inherent contradictions as Facebook builds its financializing and monetizing capacity. We show how the contemporary neo-liberal imperative to perform and authorize one’s value in public is more likely to produce a curated persona rather than the ‘authentic’ self demanded by Facebook, making accurate dividuation more difficult to achieve. We draw on our ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council, UK) funded research project, on the relationship between values and value, which uses custom built software to track Facebook’s tracking. Now what has this to do with protest you may ask? We think analysis of property, protest and personhood can enable us to understand the conditions that underwrite protest – both in terms of who is protesting, what sort of person, and the wider ecology by which the different variants of capitalism and algorithmically mediated social relations shape the conditions for protest. We come to this having been involved in the UK miners Strike in 1984-5. This was one of the longest and hardest protests in UK history and its result rendered the future possibility of

FAQs

How does Facebook tracking shape contemporary personhood in the paper?

The paper argues that opening browsers to immediate Facebook tracking helps constitute contemporary personhood. It shows how tracking contributes to a reconfigured relationship between property and personhood.

How does the paper characterize Facebook’s financial role?

Facebook is presented as a powerful advertising oligopoly that facilitates the circulation of capital, not merely as a social network. The analysis focuses on how Facebook accrues maximum profit through monetization experiments.

Why does the paper link Facebook monetization to difficulties for protest?

It asks what it means if communicative networks for protest are also opportunities for profit. The paper suggests that platform-driven imperatives can produce curated personas, complicating accurate dividuation and affecting who can effectively protest.

Sep 1, 2026

Upload by Melati