Sociophobia: Political Change in the Digital Utopia (Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture) - Softcover

Rendueles, César; Simanowski, Roberto; Cleary, Heather

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0231175272 ISBN 13: 9780231175272

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2017

Synopsis

The great ideological cliche of our time, Cesar Rendueles argues in Sociophobia, is the idea that communication technologies can support positive social dynamics and improve economic and political conditions. We would like to believe that the Internet has given us the tools to overcome modernity's practical dilemmas and bring us into closer relation, but recent events show how technology has in fact driven us farther apart. Named one of the ten best books of the year by Babelia El Pais, Sociophobia looks at the root causes of neoliberal utopia's modern collapse. It begins by questioning the cyber-fetishist dogma that lulls us into thinking our passive relationship with technology plays a positive role in resolving longstanding differences. Rendueles claims that the World Wide Web has produced a diminished rather than augmented social reality. In other words, it has lowered our expectations with respect to political interventions and personal relations. In an effort to correct this trend, Rendueles embarks on an ambitious reassessment of our antagonistic political traditions to prove that post-capitalism is not only a feasible, intimate, and friendly system to strive for but also essential for moving past consumerism and political malaise.

About this title

About the Author

Roberto Simanowski (Prof. Dr. phil.) lehrt Medienwissenschaft an der Universität Basel. Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte sind Theorie, Geschichte, Ästhetik und Soziologie digitaler Medien, Intermedialität, Narrativität sowie Interkulturalität.

Edition details

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0231175272
• ISBN 13: 9780231175272
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208