Dear Colleagues,

Hope everyone had a restful and/or productive summer. Fast Capitalism 14.1 will be coming out in the next week or so. And I am finalizing the Fall colloquium series as I write this – schedule coming soon (yes, we are expanding the Colloquium to the Fall). But what I am writing about today is the Spring Colloquium.

This Spring, I would like the Center for Theory to focus around the theme: Digital Dialectic. The idea is that presenters would be working around a common theme. Presenters would attend each other’s talk to offer constructive feedback. Then participants (both presenters and non-presenters who have relevant work) could contribute their work to a collection – either published in Fast Capitalism or as an edited volume. In the latter phases, we would invite people from outside the UTA community to contribute as well. For those presenting, this will give you an opportunity to work on or polish something you may not otherwise have had time to work on. In the Spring, we will also plan to bring in an outside theorist working in the area.

The description of the Digital Dialectic is below and attached. Please circulate to colleagues who may be interested in participating, but may not be on the Theory listserv. Do not hesitate to ask me if you have questions or thoughts on the project. Let me know if you are interested in participating or have ideas about supplementing this structure.

Thanks,

David

Digital Dialectic

The development of the Internet, especially in the 1990s, was marked by utopian thinking. Writers, both academic and popular, imagined a more democratic world where information would be free. The rhetoric about the Internet, and later other digital technologies, was similar to ideas about the Enlightenment. In Dialectic of Enlightenment, Adorno and Horkheimer demonstrate that the exact developments in science and technology heralded by liberals as freedom bearing result in greater oppression of the masses. In many respects, the Internet and digital technologies are the next step in Enlightenment thinking. While utopian (and dystopian) visions of technology surround us, these visions obscure the everyday operation of power. This working group/project aims to explore the contradictions of digital technology to provide the critical work necessary to understand the role of digital technology in contemporary society.

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David Arditi, PhD

Assistant Professor of Sociology

Director – Center for Theory

University of Texas Arlington

Author of iTake Over: The Recording Industry in the Digital Era