Please join us for the book launch seminar:
The Left and Digital Politics
Imagining progressive alternatives in the age of digital monsters.
Tuesday 11 March, 17.00-19.00
Moore Annex Lecture Theatre
Royal Holloway University of London, Egham Hill, Egham, TW20 0EQ
With the author:
Dr Marco Guglielmo, University of Valencia (Spain)
and
Professor Ben O’Loughlin, Director of the New Political Communication Unit
About the book (open access here):
Digital platforms are more than devices, algorithms and websites. They organise societies through the leadership of platform capitalists and their allies in political institutions. We know that this leadership, or hegemony, fosters exploitation and inequalities. We also know that a politics of resistance is emerging among platform workers and communities around the digital commons.
Less known is how the left has been changing to have a say in digital politics. And what do left-wing parties think and do about platform societies? The Left and Digital Politics answers these questions by developing an updated Gramscian critical theory of (counter-)hegemony in platform societies and a comparative analysis of the ideologies and practices of key European left-wing parties.
The book provides a map of left-wing ideas and practices on digital politics, a compass to point out how some left-wing parties perform as barriers or allies of radical change, and an analytical toolkit to open new routes towards platform socialism.
The seminar:
We have chosen to adopt an interactive format for this event. After a 20-minute presentation, we will start an interactive session with open-ended Q&A.
Navigating the book's contents will enable a collective and open discussion on urgent questions. Have progressive of all sorts lost the battle over the Internet? Is there any future for social media beyond nativist moguls as Donald Trump and Elon Musk? Are there any chances to halt the proliferation of ‘digital monsters’ spreading online hate and disinformation? What possibilities exist to redirect Generative Artificial Intelligence into a toolkit for emancipation?
Reflecting on how multiple actors among the Left have thought about the digital transition during the 2010s, alongside the author’s normative propositions for a progressive digital organisation, will engage the audience in thinking about reclaiming progressive values for transformative technologies.
The author:
Marco Guglielmo (he/him) is Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Valencia (Spain). Previously, he was Lecturer in Politics at the Department of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy at Royal Holloway. His current research focuses on progressive imaginaries of the digital commons and alternative forms of artificial intelligence. Marco is co-editing with Dr Kat Gupta, Dr Pauline Heinrichs and Professor Ben O’Loughlin the book Navigating Platform Power: Agency and Resistance in Digital Spaces.
“Transforming Gramsci’s project of the Modern Prince into a Digital Princess*+ may not happen overnight, but Guglielmo’s book provides great inspiration. It advances concepts in networked revolution and informs strategies for wars of position and movement for a socialist future. The author holds the left to account in its search for a better digital politics, by challenging us to unearth patterns of agency of the digital platform ‘subaltern’. I recommend The Left and Digital Politics whole-heartedly to all those fighting for digital justice, and beyond.”
– Professor Phoebe Moore, University of Essex
“This book sets a new standard for understanding the thorny relationship between the left and digital politics today. Combining innovative theory with detailed empirical studies, Guglielmo sets out to understand how left-wing political projects have made use of digital technologies, both practically and ideologically. In so doing, he sets out new pathways towards platform socialism in an era of neoliberal rule, exhaustively mapping out the contemporary terrain and lines of potential alliance and conflict.”
– Dr Alex Williams, University of East Anglia