A Materialist Critique of Technofascism

In this talk, Dr. Möllers parses the current debate on technofascism(s) to develop a materialist understanding of technofascist formations from Science and Technology Studies (STS) and anti-colonial perspectives. She demonstrates that a focus on materiality highlights both the ordinariness and global/planetary dimensions of contemporary technofascist formations. She argues that a materialist understanding of technofascist formations clarifies that the struggle against them must not be limited to resisting Big Tech but must encompass the abolition of all infrastructures of state violence.

Norma Möllers is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Queen’s University, where she researches and teaches on technologies of state violence. Her forthcoming book Against Bias, available open access with MIT Press, is an ethnography of how computer scientists make algorithmic surveillance technology. Her current research focuses on the relationship between algorithmic warfare and digital capitalism. At the moment, she is thinking a lot about the responsibility of intellectuals in times of fascism and what we can do to support the collective struggle.