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

The Relativistic Dirac-Brueckner Approach to Nuclear Matter

An overview on the relativistic Dirac-Brueckner approach to the nuclear many-body problem is given. Different approximation schemes are discussed, with particular emphasis on the nuclear self-energy and the saturation mechanism of nuclear matter. I will further discuss extensions of the standard approach, amongst other things the inclusion of non-nucleonic degrees of freedom, many-body forces and finally compare relativistic and non-relativistic approaches.Comment: 28 pages, 12 figs, ref. added, invited lecture at 307. WE-Heraeus-Seminar, "Relativistic Structure Models for the Physics of Radioactive Nuclear Beams," May 12-16, 2003, Bad Honnef, German

The dialectic: Not just the absolute recoil, but the world’s living fire that extinguishes and kindles itself. Reflections on Slavoj Žižek’s version of dialectical philosophy in "Absolute recoil. Towards a new foundation of dialectical materialism"

Slavoj Žižek shows in his book Absolute Recoil (and previous Hegelian works such as Less than Nothing) the importance of repeating Hegel’s dialectical philosophy in contemporary capitalism. Žižek contributes especially to a reconceptualisation of dialectical logic and based on it the dialectic of history. The reflections in this paper stress that the dialectic is only the absolute recoil, a sublation that posits its own presuppositions, by working as a living fire that extinguishes and kindles itself. I point out that a new foundation of dialectical materialism needs a proper Heraclitusian foundation. I discuss Žižek’s version of the dialectic that stresses the absolute recoil and the logic of retroactivity and point out its implications for the concept of history as well as Žižek’s own theoretical ambiguities that oscillate between postmodern relativism and mechanical materialism. I argue that Žižek’s version of the dialectic should be brought into a dialogue with the dialectical philosophies of the German Marxists Hans Heinz Holz and Herbert Hörz. Žižek’s achievement is that he helps keeping alive the fire of dialectical materialism in the 21st century. Such a dialectical fire is needed for a proper revolutionary theory

The Praxis School’s Marxist Humanism and Mihailo Marković’s Theory of Communication

Mihailo Marković (1923–2010) was one of the leading members of the Yugoslav Praxis Group. Among other topics, he worked on the theory of communication and dialectical meaning, which makes his approach relevant for a contemporary critical theory of communication. This paper asks: How did Mihailo Marković conceive of communication? Marković turned towards Serbian nationalism and became the Vice-President of the Serbian Socialist Party. Given that nationalism is a particular form of ideological communication, an ideological anti-praxis that communicates the principle of nationhood, a critical theory of communication also needs to engage with aspects of ideology and nationalism. This paper therefore also asks whether there is a nationalist potential in Marković’s theory in particular or even in Marxist humanism in general. For providing answers to these questions, the article revisits Yugoslav praxis philosophy, the concepts of praxis, communication, ideology and nationalism. It shows the importance of a full humanism and the pitfalls of truncated humanism in critical theory in general and the critical theory of communication in particular. Taking into account complete humanism, the paper introduces the concept of praxis communication

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

Surveillance and critical theory

In this comment, the author reflects on surveillance from a critical theory approach, his involvement in surveillance research and projects, and the status of the study of surveillance. The comment ascertains a lack of critical thinking about surveillance, questions the existence of something called “surveillance studies” as opposed to a critical theory of society, and reflects on issues such as Edward Snowden’s revelations, and Foucault and Marx in the context of surveillance

Medios sociales y esfera pública

This article analyses the notion of the public sphere, in view of the challenges posed by the social media. It argues that it is crucial to strengthen the democracy and in order to do this, a materialist approach is needed to see how social media and communication are integrated in power structures and political economy