In the research project "Political Sociology of the Corona Protests", researchers from the Department of Sociology at the University of Basel are empirically investigating the current Corona protests in Switzerland and Germany. The aim of the research is to analyse the motivation, values and beliefs of the participants in rallies, actions and demonstrations directed against the corona-related measures.In order to be able to comprehensively investigate these new protests, a broad empirical approach (mixed-methods) will be pursued in the research project. This includes a quantitative online survey, ethnographic observations, qualitative interviews and document analyses.

Abstract:Theorists of post capitalism have recently argued for a more or less inevitable end to capitalism. They assume that private accumulation is systematically blocked by the inability of capitalist corporations to create revenues by setting prices as they lose control over the reproduction of their commodities and that in this process, capitalist labour will eventually disappear. Drawing on a case study of Amazon and thoughts on the policies of other leading digital corporations, we challenge these assumptions. Key corporate players of digitization are trying to become powerful monopolies and have partly succeeded in doing so, using the network effects and scaling opportunities of digital goods and building socio-technical ecosystems. These strategies have led to the development of in part isomorphic structures, hence creating a situation of oligopolistic market competition. We draw on basic assumptions of monopoly capital theory to argue that in this situation labour process rationalization becomes key to the corporation's competitive strategies. We see the expansion of digital control and the organizational structures applied by key corporate players of the digital economy as evidence for the expansion of capitalist labour, not its reduction.

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Zusammenfassung In den deutschsprachigen Gesellschaften sind bezüglich der Deutung einer pandemischen Lage und des richtigen Umgangs mit der Pandemie politische Konflikte entstanden. Das empirische Forschungsprojekt „Politische Soziologie der Corona-Proteste“ zeigt auf, dass es trotz motivationaler, inhaltlicher und weltanschaulicher Heterogenität dieser Protestbewegung eine zentrale verbindende Gemeinsamkeit gibt: Die Teilnehmer*innen und Sympathisant*innen der Proteste, die sich gegen die Corona-Maßnahmen richten, „vergemeinschaften“ sich über ein starkes Selbstverständnis als Kritiker*innen. In diesem Beitrag erfolgt eine Charakterisierung der „Coronakritiker*innen“ und Interpretationsvorschläge für eine soziologische Einordnung dieser Bewegung werden unterbreitet.

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