Interrogating Digital Capitalism: A series of monthly events questioning liberal ideas of progress through technology
Digital technology powers neoliberal capitalism: it is central to globalisation, financialisation, the ‘flexible economy’, ongoing waves of automation and now, ‘big data capitalism’.
Liberals and many leftists assume that the problem is not the technology, but its abuse by corporations, the military and the state. But what if we are in a techno-social regime, in which these interests shape technology – and technology, in turn, shapes capitalism in a way that reinforces itself?
What if we are in a digital technocracy in which cybernetic principles of information capture and flexible control are becoming embedded throughout society? What if it is not just a matter of ‘rescuing the digital baby from the capitalist bathwater’?
Join us at this series of monthly events looking at current challenges raised by digital capitalism.
Event 1 – Digital Technology and Neoliberalism: the Basics
July 6th 2017, 7.15pm. Apple Tree pub function room. 45 Mount Pleasant, Clerkenwell, London WC1X 0AE
We apologise that due to a double booking by the previous venue, this event has been moved to the function room in the Lucas Arms Pub, 245A Grays Inn Road, WC1X 8QY. The meeting will be starting at 7.45pm in order to give you time to get there. We apologise again for the inconvenience.
How does digital technology function in, and shape, neoliberal capitalism?
Is it just a question of corporations using technology to their advantage, or has digital technology fundamentally reshaped the whole system?
Are we already, as a key anarchist critique ‘The Cybernetic Hypothesis’ suggests, enmeshed in a control system in which conventional resistance just strengthens the system?
Ursula Huws of the University of Hertfordshire will describe the nuts and bolts of how digital capitalism works.
Richard Hall of De Montfort University will look at a critique of digital capitalism developed by French anarchists in the 1990s.
- Free/donation only
7.15pm,7.45pm July 6th 2017Apple Tree pub function room. 45 Mount Pleasant, Clerkenwell, London WC1X 0AE.Lucas Arms Pub function room, 245A Grays Inn Road, WC1X 8QY
We apologise that this venue has no wheelchair access. Other events will be at accessible venues.
For more information contact info@breakingtheframe.org.uk