Политическая теория и философия (Political theory and philosophy)

Marco Briziarelli - Finding Closure: Epistemic Rent and the Exploitation of Interpretation This paper examines how digital platforms reorganise the circulation of meaning. It argues that platform infrastructures systematically privilege interpretations that minimise cognitive effort and maximise transmissibility, thus transforming epistemic closure into a site of rent extraction and differential value appropriation. By introducing the concepts of interpretive friction and epistemic rent, the paper shows how platforms function as rentier capitalists: they privatise the gains of accelerated meaning-making while socialising the costs of contextualisation, verification, and sustained ambiguity. The paper points out how the resulting closure economy represents a structural deskilling of interpretive labour under platform capitalism. https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/download/1867/1714

Yi-Ling Liu - The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet In the late 1990s, as the world was waking up to the power and emancipatory promise of the internet, Chinese authorities began constructing a system of online surveillance and censorship now known as the Great Firewall. But far from being a barren landscape, the digital world that sprouted up behind the firewall brimmed with new subcultures and tech innovations, offering many Chinese citizens previously unimaginable connection and opportunity. Today, as the country’s leadership intensifies its control of public discourse and Western headlines reduce the Chinese public to a faceless monolith, journalist Yi-Ling Liu presents an intimate portrait of China’s online ecosystem and a crucial lens into the on-the-ground reality of life there. Tracing the last three decades of the Chinese internet’s evolution from its lexicon to its memes to the precise nature of its censorship she equips readers with a critical tool to assess the past, present, and future of a global power. Drawing on years of firsthand reporting, The Wall Dancers weaves together the stories of individuals navigating China’s transformation into both the world’s largest online user base and one of its most populous authoritarian states. As these entrepreneurs, activists, artists, and dreamers experience the internet’s power as a tool for both control and liberation, they grapple with universal questions of success and authenticity, love and solidarity, faith and resilience. The Wall Dancers is at once an unforgettable work of human storytelling and a vital exploration of what it means to live with dignity and hope within the technological systems that now shape all our lives.

Benjamin Kunkel - The New National Question As globalization stalls, what possibilities might national-economic policy open up for the left? Benjamin Kunkel weighs the claims of its Marxist, Polanyian and psychoanalytic interpreters, asking whether the re-politicization of the economy might be joined to a renewed internationalism, adequate to ecological crisis. https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii160/articles/benjamin-kunkel-the-new-national-question

Jordi Maiso - From Damaged Life: The Critical Theory of Theodor W. Adorno This certainty that the conditions governing existence in contemporary societies generate irretrievably damaged lives lies at the heart of Theodor W. Adorno's critical theory. Emerging from the historical experience of fascism, Auschwitz, and the consolidation of advanced capitalism, Adorno's thought articulates critique from within a damaged reality. Under the coercion of overwhelming social powers, individual character is constituted as a “system of scars”. This notion of “damaged life” stands at the center of this book, which frames critique as emerging from a reality scarred by systemic coercion. It reconstructs Adorno's critical theory as an analysis of the new state of unfreedom linked to total socialization, the anthropological reshaping of subjectivity under advanced capitalism, and the very possibility of critique. Jordi Maiso's analysis spans key themes: the constellation of fascism and advanced capitalism, the culture industry's role in shaping consciousness, and the persistence of authoritarian potential in everyday life. Revisiting Adorno's conception of critique as a “science of mourning” and his insistence on determinate negation, the book shows how critical thought confronts a historical moment in which emancipatory horizons appear blocked yet remain necessary. Both historical and urgent, From Damaged Life: The Critical Theory of Theodor W. Adorno interrogates the persistence of fear, heteronomy, and avoidable suffering. It asks whether, under conditions marked by authoritarian regression and damaged subjectivity, critical theory can still resist resignation and keep the possibility of transformation alive.

Philip Jenkins - Decade of Nightmares: The End of the Sixties and the Making of Eighties America Why did the youthful optimism and openness of the sixties give way to Ronald Reagan and the spirit of conservative reaction a spirit that remains ascendant today? Drawing on a wide array of sources including tabloid journalism, popular fiction, movies, and television shows Philip Jenkins argues that a remarkable confluence of panics, scares, and a few genuine threats created a climate of fear that led to the conservative reaction. He identifies 1975 to 1986 as the watershed years. During this time, he says, there was a sharp increase in perceived threats to our security at home and abroad. At home, America seemed to be threatened by monstrous criminals serial killers, child abusers, Satanic cults, and predatory drug dealers, to name just a few. On the international scene, we were confronted by the Soviet Union and its evil empire, by OPEC with its stranglehold on global oil, by the Ayatollahs who made hostages of our diplomats in Iran. Increasingly, these dangers began to be described in terms of moral evil. Rejecting the radicalism of the '60s, which many saw as the source of the crisis, Americans adopted a more pessimistic interpretation of human behavior, which harked back to much older themes in American culture. This simpler but darker vision ultimately brought us Ronald Reagan and the ascendancy of the political Right, which more than two decades later shows no sign of loosening its grip. Writing in his usual crisp and witty prose, Jenkins offers a truly original and persuasive account of a period that continues to fascinate the American public. It is bound to captivate anyone who lived through this period, as well as all those who want to understand the forces that transformed and continue to define the American political landscape.

Mao Jian - Rogue Verbs China’s dizzying modernization, concurrent with the advent of the online world, has found cultural expression in a starburst of new modes and forms, from avant-garde literature to users’ video posts, role-playing games and made-for-smartphone micro-dramas. Against diagnoses of ‘brain-rot’, Mao Jian detects a new sense of agency in their embrace of ‘going dark’. https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii160/articles/jian-mao-rogue-verbs

Ursula Huws - Reinventing the Welfare State. Digital Platforms and Public Policies The Covid-19 pandemic has tragically exposed how today’s welfare state cannot properly protect its citizens. Despite the valiant efforts of public sector workers, from under-resourced hospitals to a shortage of housing and affordable social care, the pandemic has shown how decades of neglect has caused hundreds to die. In this bold new book, leading policy analyst Ursula Huws shows how we can create a welfare state that is fair, affordable, and offers security for all. Huws focuses on some of the key issues of our time the gig economy, universal, free healthcare, and social care, to criticize the current state of welfare provision. Drawing on a lifetime of research on these topics, she clearly explains why we need to radically rethink how it could change. With positivity and rigor, she proposes new and original policy ideas, including critical discussions of Universal Basic Income and new legislation for universal workers’ rights. She also outlines a ‘digital welfare state’ for the 21st century. This would involve a repurposing of online platform technologies under public control to modernize and expand public services, and improve accessibility.

Екатерина Викулина - Тело власти и власть тела. Журнальная фотография оттепели Как в эпоху оттепели менялись представления о теле – и что об этом рассказывает фотография? Какими в объективе эпохи представали Хрущев и Эйзенхауэр? Как на страницах периодики создавалась советская космическая одиссея? Екатерина Викулина рассматривает телесные нормы, связанные с трудом, здоровьем, возрастом, гендером и этнической принадлежностью на материале журналов «Огонек», «Советское фото», «Здоровье», «Физкультура и спорт» и других изданий. Фотографии 1950–1960-х годов становятся отражением сразу двух трансформаций: с одной стороны, визуального языка, связанного с телом, а с другой – идеологии и культуры советского общества. В аналитическом фокусе этой книги – репрезентация власти, героические и повседневные тела, обнаженная натура и травмы войны.

Paul Chang - Protest Dialectics: State Repression and South Korea's Democracy Movement, 1970-1979 1970s South Korea is characterized by many as the "dark age for democracy." Most scholarship on South Korea's democracy movement and civil society has focused on the "student revolution" in 1960 and the large protest cycles in the 1980s which were followed by Korea's transition to democracy in 1987. But in his groundbreaking work of political and social history of 1970s South Korea, Paul Chang highlights the importance of understanding the emergence and evolution of the democracy movement in this oft-ignored decade. Protest Dialectics journeys back to 1970s South Korea and provides readers with an in-depth understanding of the numerous events in the 1970s that laid the groundwork for the 1980s democracy movement and the formation of civil society today. Chang shows how the narrative of the 1970s as democracy's "dark age" obfuscates the important material and discursive developments that became the foundations for the movement in the 1980s which, in turn, paved the way for the institutionalization of civil society after transition in 1987. To correct for these oversights in the literature and to better understand the origins of South Korea's vibrant social movement sector this book presents a comprehensive analysis of the emergence and evolution of the democracy movement in the 1970s.

Встреча с Другим: воображаемое в советских научно-популярных журналах Как развитие науки XX века меняли принятые в советской культуре представления о границах рационального познания? Почему фантастика стала одним из основных языков разговора о будущем и какие проблемы оставались за пределами публичного обсуждения? В новом выпуске мини-сезона «Археология советского» подкаста «Что изучают гуманитарии» обсуждаем с филологом и историком культуры Ильей Кукулиным его статью «Периодика для ИТР: советские научно-популярные журналы и моделирование интересов позднесоветской научно-технической интеллигенции» (НЛО №145). Разговор посвящен научно-технической интеллигенции как особой социальной группе, отношениям фантастики с советской властью, а также страхам и утопиям позднесоветской культуры. 0:15 — Начало подкаста, гость и тема выпуска 01:38 — Какой круг фантастики и эзотерики осваивался советскими научно-популярными. журналами 09:05 — Какие представления о будущем формировались в периодике для ИТР 14:52 — Какими были отношения научной фантастики и власти 20:20 —Цитата из статьи. Вопрос об официальной версии будущего 25:25 — Как рефлексировалась границу между «рациональным» и «иррациональным» в научно-технических журналах 31:10 — Об актуальных исследованиях Ильи Кукулина https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VaLpCLGKcSU&ra=m

Kojin Karatani - The End of Modern Literature: On Permanent Revolution What comes after the death of literature? Kojin Karatani, winner of the 2022 Berggruen Prize, examines the corpse, investigates the cause of death, and offers glimpses of an afterlife from various theoretical perspectives. The End of Modern Literature reimagines the significance and concept of literature. Alongside Karatani’s essential essay comes commentary and responses by Fredric Jameson, Bruce Robbins, Kenneth W. Warren, Gauri Viswanathan, Andrew Gibson, Young-il Cho, Yoshiki Tajiri, Michael K. Bourdaghs, and Jonathan E. Abel, along with an introduction that situates Karatani’s essay in his theoretical oeuvre.

Никита Петров - Время Андропова Эта книга о Юрии Владимировиче Андропове — самом известном председателе КГБ. Пятнадцать лет он руководил грозным ведомством на Лубянке и лишь пятнадцать месяцев стоял во главе страны. Оставленный им в истории след до сих пор вызывает жаркие споры. Андропов — самый загадочный руководитель СССР. Воображение будоражит все — от не раскрытой тайны его происхождения до так и не обозначенных внятно его замыслов на посту Генерального секретаря ЦК КПСС. Зачем пришел и чего хотел — это главный вопрос. В книге сделана попытка раскрыть тайну рождения, детства и отрочества Юрия Владимировича и описать его короткое и драматичное пребывание на вершине власти. Не обойден вниманием и период его работы в госбезопасности. В основе книги — многочисленные, ранее неизвестные документы, включая и материалы архива КГБ. Издание богато иллюстрировано: факсимиле множества документов, портреты соратников и близких Андропову людей.