Everyday Life and Everyday Communication in Coronavirus Capitalism

In 2020, the coronavirus crisis ruptured societies and their everyday life around the globe. This article is a contribution to critically theorising the changes societies have undergone in the light of the coronavirus crisis. It asks: How have everyday life and everyday communication changed in the coronavirus crisis? How does capitalism shape everyday life and everyday communication during this crisis? Section 2 focuses on how social space, everyday life, and everyday communication have changed in the coronavirus crisis. Section 3 focuses on the communication of ideology in the context of coronavirus by analysing the communication of coronavirus conspiracy stories and false coronavirus news. The coronavirus crisis is an existential crisis of humanity and society. It radically confronts humans with death and the fear of death. This collective experience can on the one hand result in new forms of solidarity and socialism or can on the other hand, if ideology and the far-right prevail, advance war and fascism. Political action and political economy are decisive factors in such a profound crisis that shatters society and everyday life

Internet, Kapitalismus und periphere Entwicklung im Waldviertel

Das Waldviertel ist eine strukturschwache Region im Norden Österreichs, die eine innere Peripherie und innere Kolonie des österreichischen und europäischen Kapitalismus darstellt. Dieser Artikel analysiert die politische Ökonomie des Internets im Waldviertel. Das Waldviertel ist konfrontiert mit hohen Ausbeutungsraten im Rahmen einer imperialistischen Arbeitsteilung, Werttransfer, ungleichem Tausch, Niedriglöhnen, der Abwanderung der Textilindustrie, hoher Arbeitslosigkeit, Landflucht, dem Abbau öffentlicher Infrastruktur und Bevölkerungsrückgang. Die Analyse verdeutlicht, dass die Situation des Waldviertels als innere Peripherie der kapitalistischen Zentren die Kommunikationsverhältnisse prägt. Der Zugang zu Computern, dem Internet und Breitband ist im Waldviertel schlechter als in anderen Regionen, die Internet- und Mobiltelefonverbindungsgeschwindigkeit ist tendenziell langsamer und die Region ist eher unattraktiv für WissensarbeiterInnen. Es gibt im Waldviertel auch Ansätze einer Alternativökonomie, die den Imperialismus infrage stellen. Im Bereich der Informationsökonomie bestehen Potenziale für die Gründung von sozialistischen Kooperativen im Bereich Hardware, Software und soziale Medien, die die kapitalistische Informationsgesellschaft infrage stellen und für Alternativen kämpfen

Authoritarian capitalism, authoritarian movements and authoritarian communication

Paolo Gerbaudo’s book The Mask and the Flag: Populism, Citizenism and Global Protest, whose approach is reflected in his Crosscurrents piece in the issue of Media, Culture & Society at hand, is a response to these societal, political and academic challenges. This CrossCurrents comment asks, I ask, the following: Why is it that right-wing authoritarian populism in recent times has become much more popular than left-wing movements? How do right-wing authoritarian movements communicate? Why is it that right-wing political communication strategies seem to garner and result in mass support? The critical theory of authoritarianism advanced by the Frankfurt School and related authors on fascism, Nazism, and the authoritarian personality help us to critically analyse the communication of authoritarianism. In this context, particularly the works by Franz Leopold Neumann, Erich Fromm, Theodor W. Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Leo Löwenthal, and Willhelm Reich are relevant

Revisiting the Althusser/E. P. Thompson-Controversy: Towards a Marxist theory of communication

This essay revisits the controversy between Louis Althusser’s Marxist structuralism and Edward P. Thompson’s Marxist humanism. It draws conclusions from this controversy for the foundations of the Marxist theory of communication. The controversy’s key disagreements concern the questions of how the economic and the non-economic (the base/superstructure problem), as well as structures and agency are related. Whereas Althusser focuses on articulation and over-determination, Thompson stresses the role of experience in society in general, and class societies in particular. This essay reflects on how both these approaches relate to the role of communication in society and capitalism. Communication is a process in which humans produce and reproduce social relations in manners that mediate not just understanding the world and other humans, but also the dialectic of structure and agency and the dialectic of society’s realms. For a Marxist theory of society, also the forgotten meaning of communication as commoning is of crucial importance

Digital labour: A comment on César Bolaño’s tripleC reflection

This paper is a reflection on César Bolaño’s tripleC article “Digitalisation and Labour: A Rejoinder to Christian Fuchs”. It discusses aspects of digital labour that relate to the dialectic of production and consumption, the category of prosumption, productive labour, housework, the international division of digital labour, and Facebook use as a form of ideological transport labour

Racism, nationalism and right-wing extremism online: The Austrian Presidential Election 2016 on Facebook

Thee 2016 Austrian presidential election saw a run-o between the Green party candidate Alexander Van der Bellen and the Freedom Party of Austria’s (FPÖ) far-right candidate Norbert Hofer. This paper asks: How did voters of Hofer express their support on Facebook? It presents the results of a qualitative ideology analysis of 6755 comments about the presidential election posted on the Facebook pages of FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache and FPÖ candidate Hofer. The results reveal insights into the contemporary political role of the online leadership ideology, online nationalism, new racism online, the friend/enemy-scheme online, and online militancy. Right-wing extremism 2.0 is a complex problem that stands in the context of contemporary crises and demagoguery