Introduction

Reviewing secondary literature on the ‘collaborative web’, the participatory Internet and history of crowdfunding this chapter establishes the contexts in which crowdfunding has been claimed to be a transformative new innovation that is creating new ways of working. Crowdfunding platforms, many claim, foster diversity in cultural and artistic production. Previous research has focused on whether they might offer a promising answer to recent financial crises and low investor confidence pointing to the recent history of growth globally that is here sketched. Looking beyond platforms’ functions and logic the introduction explains how the book takes a critical socio-economic approach to their study, signalling how they are indicative of a capitalist mind-set marked by the logics of ‘ecosystems’, ‘project-based’ value creation, and outsourcing. Reinforcing the ideology of the ‘creative project worker’ and entrepreneurialism these platforms are working hand in hand with liberalization and globalization processes. The book’s overall plan is outlined and how it is the outcome of research carried out within the Collab research project, financed by the French National Research Agency (ANR) involving fieldwork in France, in UK, Benelux, Spain and in various countries in the Global South (sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America).