Technotopia, power and risk
Edited by Vishwas Satgar
Digital capitalism promises progress, development and an end to the planetary crisis.
Digital Capitalism and its Limits in the Democratic Marxism series
Through a Marxist lens, contributors interrogate the implications of heightened technological innovation on employment, weak market democracies, climate change and labour power dynamics. They also explore alternatives for emancipatory futures in a digitalised world.
The 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) has been vaunted as the next major leap in digital capitalism. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, 3D printing, and robotisation mark this shift. These developments promise not only more progress, growth, and development, but also solutions to the multiple crises the world currently faces.
However, this transformation comes with complications. The billions invested in these technologies are accompanied by sharp geopolitical rivalries, as powerful states compete for control over them.
In response to these complex dynamics, Digital Capitalism and its Limits – Volume 8 in the Democratic Marxism series – challenges the dangerous technotopian imaginary shaping this digital-techno shift. It seeks to examine the risks and power relations embedded within this transformation.
Contributors critically engage with a range of urgent issues. These include the implications of algorithmic data extractivism, the securitisation of already fragile market democracies, and the social consequences of digital learning. They also address regulatory lags, shifts in labour process power dynamics, and the possibilities for emancipatory futures enabled by digital technologies.
Anchored in techno-realism, this volume encourages deeper and more critical thinking about digital capitalism. It brings together interdisciplinary perspectives to reflect on how we engage with this system. In doing so, it calls for rejecting certain aspects of digital capitalism in the public interest. Furthermore, it argues that we may need to democratise this system and guide it through a just transition to protect both human and non-human life.
About the editor
Vishwas Satgar is an associate professor of International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
He is the editor of the Democratic Marxism series and serves as the principal investigator for the Emancipatory Futures Studies in the Anthropocene project. He is also a democratic eco-socialist.
- Publisher | Wits University Press |
- ISBN | 9781776149445 |
- Recommended Price | R330.00 |
- Subject | Current Affairs |
For more information | Corina van der Spoel | +27 (0)11 717 8705/8700 | mail me |
