- This event has passed.
Platform Socialism: How to Reclaim Our Digital Future from Big Tech
Sat, April 23, 2022 @ 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
$3 – $11With author James Muldoon
A bold new manifesto for digital technology after capitalism
“A punchy analysis of the platform economy that offers more than a critique of big tech’s vision of our collective future. Muldoon sketches the contours of a democratic socialist alternative.”
— Aaron Benanav, Researcher at Humboldt University of Berlin and author of Automation and the Future of Work
“Encourages us to open our minds fully to the possibility of an alternative future, in which technology is put to work for the many, not the few’
— Lizzie O’Shea, lawyer and author of Future Histories
Whoever controls the platforms, controls the future. Platform Socialism sets out an alternative vision and concrete proposals for a digital economy that expands our freedom. Powerful tech companies now own the digital infrastructure of twenty-first century social life. Masquerading as global community builders, these companies have developed sophisticated new techniques for extracting wealth from their users.
James Muldoon shows how grassroots communities and transnational social movements can take back control from Big Tech. He reframes the technology debate and proposes a host of new ideas from the local to the international for how we can reclaim the emancipatory possibilities of digital platforms. Drawing on sources from forgotten histories to contemporary prototypes, he proposes an alternative system and charts a roadmap for how we can get there.
JAMES MULDOON is a Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Exeter, Head of Digital Research at Autonomy, and YouTube philosopher at Political Philosophy. He also works directly with digital businesses transitioning to fair work practices. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, Time magazine and the Huffington Post.