tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society

A Critique of the Chinese Radical Net-Philosophy Community

Zhongkai Qian, Ngai Pun — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 20:58:30 +0100

This article delves into the dynamics of the Chinese net-philosophy community, a unique digital and radical subculture where young enthusiasts engage with philosophical ideas outside of traditional academic frameworks. We examine how radical knowledge was produced, validated, and circulated within these net communities, focusing on the aestheticisation of knowledge and its impact on political engagement. This study reveals how alternative intellectual pursuit in a digitalised pile of debris, where form and style prioritise over substance, synchronising ideas and actions leads to the opposite of its progressive politics. Reviewing the aestheticisation and alienation of knowledge, we examine the recurrence of establishing authority and status and the implication of aesthetic hierarchies and performative politics on the net community’s capacity for meaningful political action. Ultimately, we argue that while the aestheticisation of knowledge acknowledged a broader post-millennial youth spiritual crisis, the net-philosophy community was marked by a depoliticisation of intellectual debates and the failure of political engagement in digital spaces.

Cosmolocalism Against Platform Capitalism: Evidence From Ridesharing

Yosuke Uchiyama — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 15:42:43 +0100

The rise of digital commons has expanded shared resources and addressed some challenges of traditional commons. However, this expansion has created new boundaries, forming a complex paradigm that challenges platform capitalism and demands alternative governance models. This study conceptualises shared resources within the framework of cosmolocalism, examining their formation, the processes of enclosure under platform capitalism, and potential pathways for de-embedding. Platform capitalism utilises legal frameworks and opaque algo-rithmic systems to appropriate resources and dominates digital labour markets, manifesting a contemporary tragedy of the commons characterised by exploitation and profit maximisation. Using ridesharing as a case study, this research highlights the dynamic nature of cosmolocal-ism and proposes strategies to counter exploitation. By integrating platform cooperativism and social common capital, this study offers sustainable, equitable resource management solu-tions, supported by a comparative analysis of business models.

Is Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid the Antidote to the Predatory Journal Problem?

Andrew Robert du Rocher — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:59:21 +0100

Academic capitalism has encouraged the development of pay-to-publish journals, and may have also encouraged the proliferation of poor-quality profit motivated predatory journals. Predatory journals undermine the confidence that people have in scientific research, and have created an ethical crisis. Alternatives to capitalist ideologies can reveal how an anti-capitalist intervention to the predatory journal problem might be developed. A response to the predatory journal problem might be developed using a collaborative behaviour referred to as mutual aid. Mutual aid is an organisational component of the anarchist communism proposed by Russian dissident, geographer, zoologist, and anarchist Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin. Networks of non-commercial not-for-profit online open access publishing houses and journals could be developed by faculty in higher education institutions using a mutual aid strategy. It is entirely possible that a gradual and sustained increase in (anti-capitalist) online open access journals would result in a gradual and sustained decrease in (capitalist) predatory journals.

Academic Quality or Commercial Concern? The Role of APCs in Open-Access Communication Studies Journals

Burak Ili — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 12:11:50 +0100

Despite the positive effects of the open access (OA) movement on academic publishing, commercial publishers' profit-driven policies continue to prevail, making the publishing process increasingly difficult for many researchers, particularly those from developing countries. This study critically examines open-access Q1 and Q2 journals listed in the Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR) within the field of Media and Communication Studies. Despite the OA movement’s goal of increasing access to information, the capitalist academic publishing model transforms knowledge production into a commercial activity through article processing charges (APCs). The research reveals that high APCs demanded by high-impact journals represent a significant barrier, especially for researchers with limited financial and institutional support. This situation underscores the urgent need for institutional reform in the structure of academic publishing, particularly within the field of Media and Communication Studies. The proposed reforms should focus on critical areas such as increased support for OA models, freeing journals and editorial boards from Western monopolies, fairly compensating the labour of reviewers and editors, and offering greater language support. Steps taken in this direction will contribute to the creation of a more transparent, fair, and inclusive structure for academic production and sharing processes.

Knowledge Production and Intellectual Property: A Perspective on Scientific Publications in the Capitalist System

Sofia Guilhem Basilio — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 14:14:57 +0100

The digital revolution has reshaped the production, dissemination, and accessibility of scientific knowledge. However, capitalist logic persists, commodifying intellectual labour and concentrating market power within a few mega-publishers. This article critically examines scientific publishing through the lens of Marx’s theory of value, focusing on intellectual property rent as a mechanism of capital accumulation. By highlighting the Brazilian higher education system – where public resources are redirected to private publishers via paywalls and Article Processing Charges (APCs) – the paper exposes the contradictions of contemporary academic publishing. It critiques the dual exploitation of researchers as producers and consumers of knowledge and argues for alternative, equitable models like Open Access. Situating the analysis within global and local contexts, the article advocates for the democratisation of scientific knowledge as a resistance to commodification and privatisation.

Against the Mind of a Mindless Age, the Power of Computers and the Destruction of Reason: Responsibility for a Humane Development of Technology and Society

Klaus Fuchs-Kittowski — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 09:41:10 +0100

World peace demands a great moral effort from humans. In this contribution, the author points out the moral responsibility of computer scientists. He argues that we live in a mindless age where reason is being destroyed, which results in the devastation of Humanism. It is argued that war is not a natural and necessary feature of humanity and society but has a societal character. Anti-Humanism, would, however, propagate hatred. It is argued that the assumption that humans can or should be replaced by computers is part of contemporary anti-Humanism. The author stresses that humans are different from animals and computers. Humans can act like animals and computers but they do not have to as they have free will.
Autological thought is identified as a line of thinking that supports Humanism. There is a tendency in AI research to take and advance anti-Humanist positions. The outlined Humanism is based on approaches such as the ones by Karl Marx, Emil Fuchs, Salvador E. Luria, theories of self-organisation, Georg Lukács, Ernst Bloch, and Christoph Seidler.
The paper argues that scientific and technological progress alone is not enough but needs to be accompanied by and integrated with social responsibility and societal progress. It is suggested that a genuine communication society is created where we are human beings among human beings.

Acknowledgement: This paper was prepared for the conference “Wissenschaft zwischen Krieg und Frieden – Verantwortung für eine menschenwürdige Technik- und Gesellschaftsentwicklung” (14 March 2025, Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft, Berlin) where Klaus Fuchs-Kittowski’s 90th birthday was celebrated academically.

Trump’s Pre-Inauguration Rhetoric: A Neo-Colonial Blueprint Through Critical Theory

K M Vishnu Namboodiri, Agney GK — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 10:40:40 +0100

This article critically examines Donald Trump’s pre-inauguration rhetoric through the lens of critical theory, uncovering its neo-colonial and capitalist underpinnings. Drawing from the theoretical contributions of Jürgen Habermas, Louis Althusser, Kwame Nkrumah, Immanuel Wallerstein, and Guy Debord, the analysis demonstrates how Trump’s economic and militaristic declarations perpetuate global capitalist dominance. His rhetoric exemplifies the colonization of the lifeworld, the operation of ideological state apparatuses, and the spectacle of power, all of which work together to reproduce and legitimize neo-colonial exploitation. The synthesis of these critical theories provides a comprehensive critique, highlighting the ideological and structural mechanisms that sustain global inequalities and calling for a praxis of resistance towards a more equitable global order.

Review of Luc Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre’s book The Making of Public Space: News, Events and Opinions in the Twenty-First Century

Alan O'Connor — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 09:53:47 +0100

Written in elevated language and drawing on philosophers from Arendt to Wittgenstein, Luc Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre’s book The Making of Public Spaces sets out a theory of current affairs and politicisation. But does it add to our understanding of politics in the age of the internet? This article reviews the two French authors’ book.

Luc Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre. 2025. The Making of Public Space: News, Events and Opinions in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge: Polity Press. 294 pages.