Join Jeremy Gilbert, Alex Williams, and Alison Winch for a discussion on the relationship between technology, finance, and political power in the 21st century.
Gilbert and William’s new book, Hegemony Now: How Big Tech and Wall Street Won the World (And How We Win it Back) reveals how neoliberalism, the rise of big tech and Wall Street have shaped the current political and financial landscape. What can be done to counter these forces and forge a more equitable future?
FUTURES Podcast has partnered with SPACE4 and Housmans Bookshop to present a series of live events about the impact of capitalism on digital technology.
Speakers
Jeremy Gilbert
Jeremy Gilbert is Professor of Cultural & Political Theory at the University of East London. He is the author of Common Ground: Democracy and Collectivity in an Age of Individualism, Anticapitalism and Culture: Radical Theory and Popular Politics and Twenty-First Century Socialism. He writes regularly in the British press, is the current editor of the journal New Formations, and hosts three regular podcasts: #ACFM (on Novara Media); Love is the Message; Culture, Power, Politics.
Alex Williams
Alex Williams is a political theorist and lecturer in digital media and society currently based at the University of East Anglia. His writings include Political Hegemony and Social Complexity, Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work (with Nick Srnicek), as well as numerous articles on the future of left politics and contemporary formations of digital power.
Alison Winch
Alison is a Lecturer in Promotional Media at Goldsmiths. She researches intimacy, power and sexual politics in a branded media culture. Her books include The New Patriarchs of Digital Capitalism: Celebrity Tech Founders and Networks of Power (Routledge 2021), which is co-authored with Ben Little. Her monograph Girlfriends and Postfeminist Sisterhood (Palgrave, 2013) looks at how the affect of friendship is harnessed in a media culture.
Moderated by
Luke Robert Mason
Luke Robert Mason is a futures theorist who studies the technological developments that will alter what it means to be human. He is the host of the FUTURES Podcast where he explores the topics of artificial intelligence, human enhancement, space travel and virtual reality. Throughout his career, he has interviewed hundreds of the world’s most influential thinkers on their visions for the future. These insights have informed his collaborations with innovators in the fields of advanced science, emerging technology, and the arts; and have provided him with a unique perspective on the world of tomorrow. He is currently an ESRC-funded postgraduate student at the University of Warwick where he is studying towards a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on the public perception of humanoid robots.
Featured Book
How did we come to live in a world dominated by big tech and finance?
Today power is in the hands of Wall Street and Silicon Valley. How do we understand this transformation in power? And what can we do about it?
We cannot change anything until we have a better understanding of how power works, who holds it, and why that matters. Through upgrading the concept of hegemony—understanding the importance of passive consent; the complexity of political interests; and the structural force of technology—Jeremy Gilbert and Alex Williams offer us an updated theory of power for the twenty-first century.
Hegemony Now explores how these forces came to control our world. The authors show how they have shaped the direction of politics and government as well as the neoliberal economy to benefit their own interests. However, this dominance is under threat. Following the 2008 financial crisis, a new order emerged in which the digital platform is the central new technology of both production and power. This offers new opportunities for counter hegemonic strategies to win back power. Hegemony Now outlines a dynamic socialist strategy for the twenty-first century.
Follow the Discussion
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@FUTURESPodcast | #FUTURESPodcast
About the SPACE4 (Venue)
SPACE4 is part of Outlandish, a co-op that builds websites and digital tools for social good. They are interested in tech for good, progressive economics, and social change. They provide co-working, meeting, and event space, primarily to social enterprises and digital activists.
About Housmans Bookshop
Housmans is the longest continuous-running radical bookshop in Britain, established in 1945 and based in London’s Kings Cross since 1959. They specialise in books, magazines, and periodicals of radical interest and progressive politics, such as feminism, pacifism, Black politics, LGBTQIA+ politics, environmental justice and anarchism.
Ticket Information
The £5 charge for this event is a deposit that will be refunded if you attend. Tickets are free for journalists and members of the press. Contact info@futurespodcast.net for more information.