This blew my mind!
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/09/22/business/20070923_NURSING_...
Check out the article too, but this graphic really crystallizes Jameson's application of the sublime to corporate and capitalist ... morass? Hmm words are failing me today--some combo of morass-labyrinth-towersohighitblotsoutthesun. I'm sure Anderson would have a suggestion here.
But seriously--talk about complexity! (even if the NY Times staff took the time to actually map it all out for us ... let's just table that for the sake of discussion) The audio clip mentions that the plaintiff's lawyer didn't even want to sue the umbrella companies because the corporate veil was too thick. Gives a clearer idea of how postmod. capitalist paradigms can really obscure any sense of location, accountability, or sense of actor behind the action.
Also note the article about how India is outsourcing jobs to the U.S. Sounds like flexible accumulation to me...
what I find quite frightening, in addition, is that I'm not sure that I even really understand the implications of the circular corporate health care map in relation to myself - which is the point of cognitive mapping, right? The visual certainly elucidates the relationship of one arm of this defensive health care web to the next, but I'm still a bit unclear as to the which 'layer' is responsible for the malpractice. And when someone pays to send a family member to the central nursing home, where does that money really go? The point, I think, is the cognitive mapping requires a great more complexity than even any two-dimensional visual apparatus may be able to offer. The intricacies of multinational capitol interactions move simultaneously vertically as they do horizontally. This was an interesting exercise of a mainstream media outlet to even break down the corporate relations as much as it did.
. . . what the heck does that mean?? Ha!
On a different note, I really enjoyed this animation. Capt. Haddock, I think it does a great job of illustrating the complexities of cognitive mapping--and this is just one entity in the whole system! Try locating this in the larger space that is American healthcare--yikes! Viewing/listening to this really illuminated for me the tip-of-the-iceberg mess that is the healthcare system of our country.
Thanks for the cool find :)
You can create LLCs and INCs without any employees and buildings as a way to protect a parent company from liability issues. It's used a lot in real estate whenever a new purchase is made to protect the whole firm from a bad project.
This is very good and concrete and gives me the shivers. You all might also be interested in this site: They Rule . It allows you to use existing data to build your own map of the networks of corporate power in the US. In terms of cognitive mapping, yes, it seems that a) there is a pretty coherent, though complicated, structure to corporate power (which is what the later marxist-leaning authors are implying; so how does poststructuralism fit into all this? i'm confused on this point) b) you need more than two dimensions for sure to start building models that are sophisticated enough to help understand the ways that power from these corporate structures will affect any specific person or group.
Really, honestly, though, I like to think that something like They Rule but much larger (with a 3d + time & layers interface), and based on much more information, could come to be. I have faith that it would be possible to start gathering enough information to build a useful model; you don't have to understand the complex ins and outs of postmodern theory to dislike the hegemony of corporate power, and if the Hacker Quarterly is any evidence, the tools for active resistance and community aren't as far out of reach as it sometimes seems.