Culture and market: The virtual capitalism (A case study of the site catharsis)

This paper discusses new forms of social interaction made by economic actors in the virtual environment. Which is the spirit assumed by virtual capitalism? The informationalism is presented within this work, as the basis of the expansion into the new configuration of virtual capitalism. I defend that in it, earlier phases of capitalism and its various historical formats coupled with new features assumed in the field of information technology coexist.

The Internet, by its network dimension, has always relied on collaborative practices for its creation, improvement and dissemination. But the current virtuous cycle experienced by this practice has taken on ever greater dimensions. It works as if there were an "army" of people working to update the cyberspace extensions, either by inserting new content, working with the improvement of its size and programs or acquiring and producing goods and services. Models of "collaborative sites" are increasingly most common; Internet users do not visit the pages only as observers, now, they also participate of the creation process.

I raise the following questions: how consumers, entrepreneurs and suppliers behave within this new sociality of cyberspace? And what are the consequences of their behavior? More precisely, this research investigates the appropriation of the cultural signs by the part of social actors and their relative changes in virtual goods and services (commodities), thus, its inherent process of commodification.

For a better understanding and location of the phenomenon, the CATHARSIS Portal, created in 2010 in São Paulo, Brazil, with the aim of facilitating the establishment, funding and publicity of cultural projects, was defined as a space of observation. This website condenses the explicit variables throughout this study, primarily with regard to the virtual realm of cultural entrepreneurship. It works with a concept developed in the U.S. called “crowdfunding" which means "collaborative funding.