Category: Critical Sociology
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Notes on Media Ecology, Disinformation & Propaganda, Pt. II: Research/Concepts
Understanding Contemporary Media Ecology, Disinformation & Propaganda Some authors who completed meta-analyses (Abu Arqoub et al. 2020, Li and Tang 2012, Zheng et al. 2016, Wasike 2017) have criticized the fact that most of the research on disinformation (and “fake news”) and in media and communication studies is atheoretical. It’s therefore necessary to use some…
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Notes on Media Ecology, Disinformation & Propaganda, Pt. I: How Not to Study Propaganda
Without pretending that disinformation and propaganda were in any sense less dangerous, destructive or widespread in the past, pre-Internet era, their sheer proliferation in the 21st century has been rather overwhelming. Among other things, we’ve seen genocides in Myanmar and Tigray being celebrated and intensified through social media, far right murder plots organized through forums,…
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List of Critical Readings
Here’s an ongoing list of critical/radical readings that have influenced me and that I want to keep as important references/resources! Some of those are also ones that I plan to read but I already know are crucial. Chuǎng: China FAQ Issue #1 (2016), esp. Sorghum & Steel: The Socialist Developmental Regime and the Forging of…
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Sociology & Liberation: Children, Adult Domination & Incest
Initial date (it’s an ongoing list/resource): 27.08.2022. In a way that is only paralleled by things like violence against disabled folks, the brutalization and dehumanization of children in modern society is one of the most overlooked forms of social domination and hierarchy, including in radical (left/anarchist/etc) circles. Moreover, it’s possibly the foremost type of oppression…
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Best Resources for Understanding The Capitalist System
Karl Marx wrote in 1848: Modern bourgeois society with its relations of production, of exchange, and of property, a society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer, who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by…
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Postcolonial Racism(s) & the Mainstreaming of Far Right Ideology
Originally written: 10.02.2022. The ideology and actions of the far right are often portrayed as an anomaly that is the very antithesis of liberal democracy or general nationalist conceptions: in many countries the authorities, political actors and the media claim that these ‘extremists’ have nothing to do with ‘us’, with ‘our’ values, with ‘good’ patriotism…
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Totalitarian Violence & Policing: From Counter-Insurgency to “Terror Capitalism”
Originally written: 11.02.2022. In the early hours of November 9, 2020, Austrian police raided the house of Salzburg University scholar Farid Hafez, pointing their guns at him and his family. Their warrant accused him of “terrorist” allegiances, wanting to “destroy Israel” and “establish a worldwide califate”, and supporting the toppling of Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah…
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Marx’s Conception of Surplus Population and the Lumpenproletariat
Originally written: 27.01.2021. After having reviewed Marx’s conception of the proletariat, the bourgeoisie, the landowning class, and the ‘intermediate classes’ – notably the petty-bourgeoisie and the peasantry, we now come to two last specific categories or concepts that contributed to his understanding of modern capitalist society: the lumpenproletariat and the relative surplus population. Relative Surplus…
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Marx’s Conception of the Middle Class(es), the Petty-Bourgeoisie and the Peasantry
Originally written: 21.01.2021. It is pretty common to hear, when talking about Marx’s conception of classes, that he thought the development of capitalism would simply reduce the social pyramid to a bipolar opposition between, on the one hand, the proletariat, and on the other hand, the bourgeoisie. This is almost always based on a quote…
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Marx’s Conception of the Ruling Class (2/2): The Landowner Class
Originally written: 11.01.2021. Across his political writings, Marx often talks about the ruling class as being composed of both capitalists and landowners. For instance, in Fictitious Splits in the International: Contrary to the sectarian organization, with their vagaries and rivalries, the International is a genuine and militant organization of the proletarian class of all countries,…