Détournement vs recuperation

[Chris Anderson]

Détournement is literally rerouting, and it applies equally to computer hacking or culture jamming. There is a strand of contemporary techno-solutionism that sees détournement as something that can be enacted by entrepreneurs, that is, détournement has become part of the toolbox of creative destruction.

The opposite of détournement is recuperation "in which radical ideas are twisted, commodified, and absorbed in a more socially acceptable context." So putting détournement into that toolbox is an act of recuperation.

It strikes me that rerouting is a pragmatic way to limit ones own ideas. A way to think of cultural change as high-leverage "hacks" directed against low hanging fruit.

Or as josh2600 puts it:

If you want to drive dynamic change in the world, you have to change the underlying structure of complicated systems while steadfastly avoiding changes in user behavior. It turns out this is quite hard.

What are the biggest changes we can effect using this limited approach? How does it relate to other approaches?

Chris