AGENCY AND ALIENATION IN THE CONDITIONS OF DIGITAL CAPITALISM

UDC 316.47+316.772.4/5

  • Navitskaya Tatsiana Yawgen’yewna – Researcher of Department for Social-Philosophical and Anthropological Studies. Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (1/2, Surganova str., 220072, Minsk, Republic of Belarus). E-mail: navitskaya.philosophy@gmail.com

DOI: https://doi.org/10.52065/2520-6885-2023-269-1-33

Keywords: agency, alienation, digital capitalism, communicative capitalism, surveillance capitalism, platform capitalism, datafication, digitalization, mediatization, big data.

For citation: Navitskaya, T. Ja. Agency and alienation in the conditions of digital capitalism. Proceedings of BSTU, issue 6, History, Philosophy, 2023, no. 1 (269), pp. 181–186 (In Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.52065/2520-6885-2023-269-1-33.

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the relationship between agency and alienation in the conditions of digital capitalism. Its alienating essence is detailed in the concepts of communicative (J. Dean), surveillance (S. Zuboff) and platform capitalism (N. Srnicek). Alienation arises from the exploitation of communication and online activity, the human experience mediated by digital technologies and new media, and their subsequent expropriation in the form of data in order to create behavioral predictions. Predictive analytics allows to manage and manipulate human behavior, in this regard, the possibilities of user agency are vastly reduced.

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15.03.2023