Embrace the Antagonism, Build the Party! The New Communist Horizon in and Against Communicative Capitalism

Abstract

Jodi's main contributions are in the fields of political theory, media theory, and feminist theory. She has given invited lectured in universities, museums, and cultural spaces all over the world. Her work has been published in multiple languages including Serbian, Spanish, German, and Turkish. Jodi is also engaged in radical art and political practice, having worked as a collaborator with the Brooklyn-based art collective Not An Alternative, and as an activist and organizer with We Are Seneca Lake (an environmental group with a practice oriented to civil disobedience), the US organizing committee for the International Women's Strike, the organizing committee for the People's Congress of Resistance, and the Geneva Women's Assembly. With hundreds of interviews, popular media contributions, and other public appearances, Jodi is a true public intellectual.

Postdigital Anthropology: Hacks, Hackers, and the Human Condition

“…The paradigm is ensconced in books like Steven Levy's Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution or, to some lesser degree, in Bruce Sterling's The hacker crackdown: Law and disorder on the electronic frontier (1992), or certain films like WarGames (Badham 1983), etc. The figure resonates because it taps into a broader and long standing powerful American mythos of the rugged frontiersman (see Dean et al 2019). It also resonates because of larger than life individuals, even mythical characters in the hacker world such as the founder of the Free Software Foundation, Richard Stallman.…”

“…GC: Until recently, online spaces were often cast as uber participatory and by extension, more inherently democratic. Many theorists have convincingly and thoughtfully punctured that argument, however (Barney 2000;Dean 2009;Dean et al 2019). People are more apt to listen to these critiques now than ever before given what has transpired on the Internet.…”

“…In a narrow sense, the concept of post-truth refers to a curious mix of truth and lies exhibited in Donald Trump's presidential campaign (Jandrić 2018b). However, a deeper inquiry into the concept reveals philosophical questions about the nature of truth and human communication (Fuller and Jandrić 2019;Dean et al 2019). Arguably, Anonymous' actions are often directed towards revealing the truth.…”

“…PJ: The era of cheap oil, globalization, and digital technologies has brought about significant change in our social arrangements. Early theorists like Manuel Castells (Castells 2003) have talked about information capitalism; these days, scholars like Jodi Dean (Dean 2009;Dean et al 2019) are developing new concepts like communicative capitalism. What is the position of online activism within communicative capitalism?…”

“…PJ: These days, there is a lot of talk about reinventing Marxism for the digital age (see Dean 2009;Dean et al 2019). What is the relevance of Marx's theories for your work?…”