Mark Bergfeld examines the arguments put forward by Luis Suarez-Villa’s book Technocapitalism in the online journal Marx & Philosophy Review of Books.
Suarez-Villa’s greatest achievement is how he navigates beyond the crude cyber-utopianism of Clay Shirky or the technophobia of Eugene Morozov. Instead he embraces technological change while pointing towards its dark underbelly. This also holds true for his view on ‘social networks’. He ascribes to ‘social networks’ an immense creative potential and argues they provide the basis for human liberation. Yet, these same networks create new kinds of hierarchies and control mechanisms which industrial capitalism could have only dreamt of.
Note: This piece was published before rs21 was established as an independent organisation in January 2014. rs21 was founded by a group of people who had been in the opposition within the SWP and who left in response to its persistent mishandling of rape and sexual harassment allegations against a leading member.
