Fascism: Critical Theory Perspectives
Tuesday, January 28, 18:00-20:00, E2.145
A research seminar organised by the Media Systems and Media Organisation Research Group at Paderborn University’s Department of Media Studies

The goal of this seminar is to discuss perspectives on how we can theorise and understand fascism. The presenters engage with a variety of critical theory approaches for advancing insights into the dynamics and structures of fascism, neo-fascism, and digital fascism. The seminar features two international guest researchers from Brazil (André Brandão) and Spain (Tatiana Fernández Paredes) who have spent some time at Paderborn University’s Media Systems and Media Organisation Research Group (led by Christian Fuchs).

What is Fascism?
Christian Fuchs, Paderborn University
Abstract: This introductory talk asks: What is fascism? First, a number of classical models and understandings of fascism are presented. Second, the presenter outlines his own model of how to theorise fascism. Third, some features of fascism in the contemporary age that is shaped by digital media and global, flexible, neoliberalism capitalism are discussed.

Christian Fuchs is Professor of Media Systems and Media Organisation at Paderborn University. He is a social theorist and social researcher who has published on various aspects of critical theory as well as (digital) media and society, including the books Social Media: A Critical Introduction; Media, Economy and Society: A Critical Introduction; Digital Fascism; Digital Demagogue; Nationalism on the Internet; Digital Capitalism, Digital Democracy and the Digital Public Sphere; Communication and Capitalism; Internet and Society. https://fuchsc.net, fuchschristian.bsky.social
 

Theorising Fascism with Henri Lefebvre
Tatiana Fernández Paredes
Open University of Catalonia: Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3)
Abstract: Henri Lefebvre (1901-1991) is one of the most influential French critical theorists. He became well-known internationally by his books “The Production of Space” and “The Critique of Everyday Life”. The objective of this presentation is to discuss how one can use elements of Henri Lefebvre’s critical philosophy for the analysis of fascism. Most of Lefebvre’s (more than 70) books were published in French and have not been translated into English, including various volumes on the state, the mystification of consciousness, and the rise of Nazism and fascism. It will be outlined how Lefebvre’s political analysis is relevant today. This involves discussing his critical analysis of the nation-state, nationalism, mystified consciousness, crises, and spatial aspects of nationalism and fascism.

Tatiana Fernández Paredes holds degrees in Sociology and International Relations. She is a PhD student at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya’s (UOC) Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) where she works in the Communication Networks & Social Change (CNSC) Research Group. Rosa Borge and Joan Ballcells supervise her PhD at UOC.

Neo-Fascism and Digitalisation
André Brandão
Federal University of Bahia, Brazil
Abstract: This presentation analysis contemporary far-right movements. It deals with the phenomenon of neo-fascism and its relationship to classical fascism. The focus is on economic, cultural, and psychological aspects of neo-fascism that take on unprecedented qualities. The presentation will also analysis neo-fascism’s mode of action on social media and its mutually beneficial relationship with big tech corporations.

André Brandão is a PhD candidate at the Federal University of Bahia (Brazil) and is currently a guest researcher at Paderborn University’s Department of Media Studies.
 

The fourth edition of Christian Fuchs’ textbook “Social Media: A Critical Introduction” was published in December 2024. It is available in an English and a German edition. The book gives an introduction to the use of critical theory for the analysis of the Internet and social media in society. The book has been adopted in hundreds of university courses across the world.
More information:
English edition:
Christian Fuchs. 2024. Social Media: A Critical Introduction. London: Sage. Fourth edition. 448 pages.
German edition:
Christian Fuchs, 2024. Soziale Medien und Kritische Theorie. Eine Einführung. Dritte, überarbeitete und erweiterte deutsche Auflage. München: UVK Verlag. 452 Seiten. 

Christian Fuchs has published a textbook on the foundations of media, economy, and society. It is available in English and German.

Christian Fuchs. 2024. Media, Economy and Society: A Critical Introduction. Abingdon: Routledge.
Christian Fuchs. 2023. Grundlagen der Medienökonomie: Medien, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. München: UVK/utb

The book introduces a variety of methods and topics, including the political economy of communication in capitalism, media concentration, advertising, global media and transnational media corporations, class relations and working conditions in the capitalist media and communication industry, the Internet and digital media, the information society and digital capitalism, the public sphere, Public Service Media, the Public Service Internet and the political economy of media management. Each chapter features a highly accessible introduction, recommended readings and lots of practical exercises where you will apply the Political Economy approach to concrete examples and cases.

“With clarity and thoroughness, Christian Fuchs succeeds brilliantly in guiding students through the fields of media economics and the political economy of the media. Covering the widest range of theoretical perspectives and substantive areas, from advertising to media management, from cultural labor to the public sphere, this book is essential reading for anyone who cares about the state of contemporary media”
— VINCENT MOSCO, author of the book “The Political Economy of Communication”

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction  

Part I: Foundations  

2. What is Political Economy? 
3. What is Media Economics? 
4. The Political Economy of Communication and the Media 
5. The Critical Tradition in the Analysis of Media, Communication, Economy & Society  

Part II: Applications  

6. The Political Economy of Media Concentration 
7. The Political Economy of Advertising 
8. The Political Economy of Global Media 
9. Media Work: The Political Economy of Cultural Labour in the Media Industry 
10. The Political Economy of the Internet and Digital Media 
11. The Political Economy of the Information Society and Digital Capitalism 
12. The Political Economy of the Public Sphere  and the Digital Public Sphere
13. The Political Economy of Public Service Media and the Public Service Internet 
14. The Political Economy of Media Management

More information: English book version, German book version

From July 9-13, 2023, the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR)‘s annual conference will take place in Lyon (France). The main conference theme is “Inhabiting the Planet: Challenges for Media, Communication and Beyond“. Christian Fuchs, who is Professor of Media Systems and Media Organisation at Paderborn University’s Department of Media Studies, will deliver the opening plenary talk “Humanity, Alienation, and (In)Justice in the Digital Age“ to around 1,200 on-site participants from around the world and many more participating online. Past IAMCR conference opening plenary speakers included leading social theorists and Media and Communication Studies scholars such as Manuel Castells, Wendy Chun, Raewyn Connell, Achille Mbembe, Vandana Shiva, Armand Mattelart, Bernard Miège, or Douglas Kellner.

Founded in 1957 with the help of UNESCO, the IAMCR is with around 3,000 members from around 100 countries and 33 sections and working groups that cover a vast area of themes and subfields, the world’s leading global association of scholars in Media and Communication Studies.

In his IAMCR plenary talk, Christian Fuchs asks how we can best understand and explain the challenges humanity is facing today in the light of digitalisation. In order to provide answers, he presents the foundations of an approach to research that stands in the tradition of the approach of the Political Economy of Communication and combines critical theory, critical empirical social research, and digital ethics.

Fuchs, who is a long-time member of IAMCR and its Political Economy Section, comments: “Humanity stands at a crossroads today. It faces big risks and challenges that are not caused but mediated by digital technologies such as the Internet, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing, social media, mobile phones, industry and labour 4.0, etc. If societies will continue to exist and if so, how they will look in fifty years from now, is uncertain. Human praxis is the decisive factor that shapes how we will live, work, decide, resolve conflicts, and make meanings in the future. What Media and Communication Studies need today in the light of these challenges is a critical theoretical, empirical and philosophical approach to the analysis of society, the media, communication, and digital technologies that foregrounds the importance and key role of human praxis in society and aims at overcoming universal alienation and society’s (digital) injustices”.
 

More information about the IAMCR Conference 2023 and Christian Fuchs' opening plenary talk: https://iamcr.org/lyon2023/opening
 

Lecture Series

Winter Term 2023/24

Time: Tuesday, 6-8 pm

Room: E2.339

Working Group Media Systems and Media Organisation

Department of Media Studies

Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Paderborn University

This lecture series presents critical theories and analyses of digital capitalism. The contributions show how we can best theorise digital capitalism critically and what forms of critical practice there are in digital capitalism. The lecture series “Critical Theories and Analyses of Digital Capitalism” aims to contribute to a better understanding of critical theories and the philosophy of practice in the context of digital capitalism.

Facebook and Google exploit our digital labour. In late 2022 and early 2023, Google laid off 12,000 employees, Microsoft 10,000, Twitter more than 10,000, Amazon 18,000, and Facebook 11,000. Algorithms are used by corporations for socially sorting and discriminating against customers who struggle to make ends meet and live in deprived neighbourhoods. Lots of clickwork is conducted by poorly paid women in the Global South. Digital fascism, fake news, post-truth culture and algorithmic politics circulate on capitalist and state-capitalist Internet platforms. Information war and echo chambers polarise the digital public sphere, making a new World War between imperialist powers that compete at the global level for the control of territory, economic power and political as well as ideological hegemony and the nuclear annihilation of humankind and life on Earth more likely. All of this is digital capitalism.

There are also forms of critical practice that grow out of the problems of digital capitalism and seek to solve them. Recently, digital workers assembling iPhones protested against the poor working conditions they faced at Foxconn in Zhengzhou during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, warehouse workers founded the Amazon Labor Union. The non-profit federated Internet platform Mastodon has become a viable digital alternative in the light of users’ discontent with Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter. Internet experts and users have co-written the Public Service Media and Public Service Internet Manifesto that demands turning the Internet into a public good and advancing digital democracy. While fascists spread post-truth on social media, the progressive news hour Democracy Now! has since 1996 utilised the non-commercial Internet, Public Service Media, as well as community radio and television stations for broadcasting a high-quality, independent news programme that reaches millions of viewers and questions fake news.

Digital capitalism shapes our lives. Digital capitalism needs to be better understood. We need critical theories of digital capitalism. We need to better understand praxes that challenge digital capitalism. The lecture series highlights the contradiction between (digital) capitalism on the one hand and (digital) praxis on the other in the form of talks, debates, and discussions.

In the book “Digital Capitalism“, Christian Fuchs develops the foundations of a critical social theory of digital capitalism. The book illuminates the interaction of economy, politics and culture in the digital capitalist society. The German edition is available under the title »Der digitale Kapitalismus. Arbeit, Entfremdung und Ideologie im Informationszeitalter«.

More information:
https://fuchsc.uti.at/books/digital-capitalism-media-communication-and-society-volume-three/
https://fuchsc.uti.at/books/der-digitale-kapitalismus/

Christian Fuchs. 2022. Digital Capitalism: Media, Communication and Society Volume Three. London: Routledge. ISBN: 978-1-032-11918-2 (hbk). ISBN: 978-1-032-11920-5  (pbk). ISBN: 978-1-003-22214-9 (ebk). 342 pages.

Christian Fuchs. 2023. Der digitale Kapitalismus. Arbeit, Entfremdung und Ideologie im Informationszeitalter. Buchserie „Arbeitsgesellschaft im Wandel” (Hrsg./Eds.: Brigitte Aulenbacher, Birgit Riegraf, Karin Scherschel). Weinheim: Beltz Juventa. ISBN 978-3-7799-7144-3. 305 Seiten.

Christian Fuchs, who is Professor of Media Systems and Media Organisation at Paderborn University, has published a new book about the structural transformation of the public sphere and democracy in the light of digitalisation.

The book Digital Democracy and the Digital Public Sphere draws on radical Humanist theory to address questions about the digital public sphere and the challenges and opportunities for digital democracy today.

The book discusses topics such as digital democracy, the digital public sphere, digital alienation, sustainability in digital democracy, journalism and democracy, public service media, the public service Internet, and democratic communications. Fuchs argues for the creation of a Public Service Internet run by Public Service Media that consists of platforms such as a public service YouTube and Club 2.0, a renewed digital democracy and digital public sphere version of the legendary debate programme formats Club 2 and After Dark.

Digital Democracy and the Digital Public Sphere is the sixth volume in Christian Fuchs’s Media, Communication and Society book series published by Routledge.

More information and sample chapters are available here:
https://fuchsc.uti.at/books/digital-democracy-and-the-digital-public-sphere/

Christian Fuchs. 2023. Digital Democracy and the Digital Public Sphere. Media, Communication and Society Volume Six. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781032362724 (pbk), ISBN 9781032362731 (hbk), ISBN: 9781003331087 (ebk). 320 pages.

Christian Fuchs, who is Professor of Media Systems and Media Organisation at Paderborn University, has published the book Digital Ethics.

Based on the notions of alienation, communication (in)justice, media (in)justice, and digital (in)justice, Digital Ethics analyses ethics in the context of digital labour and the surveillance capitalism; social media research ethics; privacy on Facebook; participation, co-operation, and sustainability in the information society; the digital commons; the digital public sphere; and digital democracy. 

Digital Ethics is the fifth volume in Christian Fuchs’s Media, Communication and Society book series published by Routledge.

More information and sample chapters are available here:
https://fuchsc.uti.at/books/digital-ethics/

Fuchs, Christian. 2023. Digital Ethics. Media, Communication and Society Volume Five. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781032246161.

Since summer term 2022, Prof. Dr. Christian Fuchs has held the Chair of Media Systems and Media Organisation and has led the working and research group Media Systems and Media Organisation.

In winter term 2021/2022,  Dr. Michaela Wünsch was Substitute Professor of Media Systems and Media Organisation.  More information on her work can be found here. 

In summer term 2021, Dr. Florian Hoof was Substitute Professor of Media Systems and Media Organisation. He can be reached here.

Im winter term 2019/2020, summer term 2020, and winter term 2020/2021, Dr. Sebastian Sevignani was Substitute Professor of Media Systems and Media Organisation. Dr. Sevignani can be reached here.

In September 2020 (September 24-25, 2020), the Chair and Focus Area of Media Systems and Media Organisation organised a summer school in critical communication stuides (KriKoWi Summer School 2020) on the topic of "Property, Media, Public Sphere) „Eigentum, Medien, Öffentlichkeit“ together with KriKoWi: Network of Critical Communication Studies (Kritische Kommunikationswissenschaft)

Prof. Dr. Jörg Müller-Lietzkow, who formely held the Chair of Media Systems and Media Organisation, no longer works at Paderborn University since July 1, 2019. You can now reach him at the e-mail address joerg.mueller-lietzkow(at)vw.hcu-hamburg(dot)de in his role as President of HafenCity University Hamburg. Concerning research, you can reach him at the e-mail address joerg.mueller-lietzkow(at)hcu-hamburg(dot)de. More information on his work is available here.