Gift Economy

Gift Economy in sociolgy is an interesting concept to understand. There are different aspects of this economy and they include, identity, ongoing interactions, and history. The public good which when its shared does not produce its quality. With the public good we realize that it is generalized reciprocity, and within our group we hope for change. For example, with identity in the gift economy, one will be more likely to do a random act of kindness for someone that they know. We have all see those bumper stickers that say, "Do a random act of kindness today." This relates to the gift economy.

After reading about the history of the gift economy it was interesting to see how much has changed since 21 years ago with the economy and its ways. Richard Barbrook stated, "How has the hi-tech gift economy evolved since 1998, when the paper was written? This article was a product of its time. When I originally wrote The Hi-Tech Gift Economy, the Net was still a novelty for most people even in the developed world. Nearly 8 years later, using this technology is no longer something special. This means that it is impossible to understand my article without remembering the bizarre moment in the late-1990s when so many pundits believed that the Net had almost magical powers. Led by Wired, dotcom boosters were claiming that the Net was creating the free market only found up to then in neo-classical economics textbooks. Inspired by post-modernist gurus, new media activists were convinced that humanity would soon liberate itself from corporate control by escaping into cyberspace." (Barbrook 1).

The gift economy is not a new term. People have heard it throughout their life in different scenarios. Some of us understand that the gift economy can be related with the internet and the giving of one to another without expecting a type of payment in return. The web continues to be this type of machine that sucks all information up and bonds it together to help people like us who surf it and want to recieve knowledge and information.