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Resistance against algorithms and platforms ¿Towards the articulation of a global social movement? Vol 24 (Nº 2) Beltrán Roca Martínez, Juan Antonio Roa Domínguez, and Lucía Benítez Eyzaguirre (guest editors)
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Teknokultura. Revista de Cultura Digital y Movimientos Sociales of the Complutense University of Madrid, indexed in JCR-Web of Science, Dialnet Metrics and with FECYT seal, calls for articles and video-essays for a thematic issue entitled ‘Resistance against algorithms and platforms: towards the articulation of a global social movement’, to be published in Vol 24 (No. 2) July-December 2027 (in final version) or immediately after acceptance (in advance online). In recent years, the use of digital platforms and algorithmic systems has profoundly transformed social, labour and political dynamics. Milan and Beraldo (2024) describe these phenomena as ‘movements with data’, highlighting how computerisation and intelligent systems impact on group formation, opportunity structures, action repertoires and collective identity. In parallel, resistance movements emerge that, from the local to the global, challenge the extractivist and unequal models promoted by these platforms. It is crucial to analyse the intersection between code, networks and algorithms because it redefines organisational practices, enabling new forms of collective action. According to Renzi (2015), understanding the role of architectures in communication opens up avenues for resistance and subversion through the ‘recoding’ of activist practices. Data hijacking has become a central feature of digital platforming, while data rights remain insufficiently guaranteed, both socially and occupationally. Dencik et al. (2024) point out that trade unions embrace the benefits of defending these rights, but it would only make sense if they enable more democratic and transparent labour practices. Moreover, a new elite emerges, the ‘coding elite’, which controls and extracts value from digital labour through algorithms and data, relegating a marginalised or unpaid working class (Burrell & Fourcade, 2021) and intensifying dynamics of oppression, de-skilling and exploitation in numerous labour contexts, such as warehouses, factories or transport companies (Cirillo et al., 2022). More radically, these power relations are hidden under the apparent disappearance of traditional labour relations in companies that manage supply and demand as if they were just a database (Todolí-Signes, 2017). However, algorithms continue to regulate shifts, hiring and distribution, perpetuating precariousness and damaging labour regulations (Zamponi & Caciagli, 2019). These changes require more open approaches to labour organisation, communication and decision-making (Moares, Nuez and Martinez Lucio, 2023), as well as the need to adapt forms of trade union struggle to technological transformations. Thus, Nissim and Simon (2021) advocate focusing trade unionism on the protection of workers' rights in an automated economy. Martinez Lucio et al. (2021) also highlight how technologies renew forms of collective engagement and action. Morales-Muñoz and Roca (2022), in this vein, illustrate how platform workers resort to multi-scalar practices and unconventional forms of organisation to respond to the challenges imposed by companies. Examples such as the mobilisation of riders in several countries (Tassinari & Maccarrone, 2017) demonstrate the ability to rebuild social ties and foster collective engagement, even in conditions of precariousness. This is achieved through new forms of action and the creation of self-organised spaces for unionism (Zamponi & Caciagli, 2019). Furthermore, these cases are often based either on drawing on new sources of power through communicative strategies and self-organisation (Però & Downey, 2022), or through more conventional mechanisms that seek to disrupt the circulation of goods through supply chains (Massimo, 2020). This monograph seeks to explore algorithmic resistance and imagination in the face of platforms from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives, as well as concrete case studies. It also aims to develop an analytical framework to investigate how information and communication technologies (ICTs) contribute to trade union renewal, addressing the challenges of digital trade unionism in ‘platformisation’ and the sharing economy. Suggested thematic lines:
Original research articles (maximum 7,000 words) or original video essays (maximum 10 minutes) will be accepted before 15 September 2026. Papers must not have been previously published or under consideration by other journals or publications. Research articles: Research articles: submission guidelines can be found at: https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/TEKN/about/submissions Each section has its own templates and can be downloaded at: https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/TEKN/Plantillas The section policies (editorial guidelines of the journal's sections, length, and blind review system) can be found at: https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/TEKN/politicasecciones Video essays: The maximum length of the video section is 10 minutes. The maximum length of the paper accompanying the video is 500/1,000 words, including references, graphics and other possible materials. The paper must not be under consideration for publication in any other academic journal. Authors should upload their video essay to Vimeo, preferably to a password-protected page, or Critical Commons, and then proceed to the submission process as indicated in the section on section policies and submission templates. The guest editors of this thematic issue are Beltrán Roca Martínez (University of Cádiz), Juan Antonio Roa Domínguez (University of Cádiz) and Lucía Benítez Eyzaguirre (University of Cádiz). If you have any queries, please contact the following e-mail addresses: jaroad00@gmail.com, lucia.benitez@uca.es and beltran.roca@uca.es. |
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The end of identity as a political aggregation strategy: emerging assemblages Vol 23 (Nº 2) Beltrán Roca Joan Pujol Tarrés (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), Marisela Montenegro Martínez (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) y Ángel Gordo (Universidad Complutense de Madrid). |
Teknokultura. Revista de Cultura Digital y Movimientos Sociales of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, indexed in JRC, Dialnet Metrics and with FECYT seal, calls for articles and video-essays for a thematic issue "The end of identity as a strategy of political aggregation: emerging assemblages" to be published in vol. 23(2) July-December 2026 (final version) or immediately after its acceptance (online preview). It is undeniable that identity politics have brought significant advances in the promotion of social justice and the political participation of socially excluded groups, favouring awareness and solidarity between related identity categories. Identity, as a theoretical and political tool, has been the focus of feminist movements, struggles for sexual and gender diversity and anti-racism, among others. Although identity movements have served to win rights and freedoms, identity politics are currently being assimilated by the dominant governmental logics, for example, through the notion of the “white wound”. The populist right has been able to co-opt identity politics, positioning itself as the defender of dominant identities and eclipsing the necropolitical background of its proposals. At the same time, the post-Fordist economy places individual identity at the core of contemporary governmentality, generating processes of subjectivization that promote the personalization of personal desires and trajectories. The individualization of identity, fostered by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), has accelerated these processes of subjectivization through mechanisms such as, for example: the reflexive construction of self-image, the social validation of identity, the algorithmic moulding of media consumption, virtual communities, or the collapse of historical time into a continuous present. Lifestyle has become a core element in political identification and polarization in what has been called the culture wars (Hunter, 1992), leading to the progressive influence of identity in political positioning and sources of political information. As a result, the political has now become identity-based. The mutation and co-optation of identity politics are generating, among other things, processes of social disaggregation, compartmentalization of demands, individualization of inequalities and discrimination, identity isolation in collective action, lack of articulation with “other” problems, or the hierarchization of struggles. These processes hinder the configuration of responses that question and reverse the logics of contemporary governmentality. The multiplication, fragmentation and essentialization of identities is leading to a compartmentalization, individualization, hierarchization and segmentation of collective action that, in some cases, runs against the progressive agenda. Given the current centrality of identity in collective action, it is necessary to generate knowledge from activisms and critical academic studies that theoretically, epistemologically and politically problematize the impact of identity politics. This includes examining the processes of essentialization (identity inherent to the subject), homogenization (having the attributes of the category to which one belongs), exclusion (who can belong), representation (who can speak). Furthermore, it is necessary to construct and reflect on new forms of political articulation that transcend identity identifications and provide tools for political aggregation based, for example, on territory (community), resources (the commons), the environment (ecology), or the human (health). This special issue seeks contributions that analyse the current situation of identity politics and provide experiences of political aggregation that transcend identity logics. List of topics of interest:
Original research articles (maximum 7,000 words) or original video essays (maximum 10 minutes) will be accepted by 15 September 2025. Papers must not have been previously published or be under consideration by other journals or publications. Research articles: for submission guidelines, see: https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/TEKN/about/submissions Each section has its templates and can be downloaded at: https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/TEKN/Plantillas Las políticas de la sección (directrices editoriales de las secciones de la revista, extensión y sistema de revisión ciega) pueden consultarse en: https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/TEKN/politicasecciones. Video essays: The maximum length of the video section is 10 minutes. The maximum length of the paper accompanying the video is 500/1,000 words, including references, graphics and other possible materials. The paper must not be under consideration for publication in any other academic journal. Authors should upload their video essay to Vimeo, preferably to a password-protected page, or Critical Commons, and then proceed to the submission process as indicated in the section on section policies and submission templates This thematic issue will be coordinated by Joan Pujol Tarrés (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), Marisela Montenegro Martínez (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) and Ángel Gordo (Universidad Complutense de Madrid). For any queries, please contact the following e-mail addresses: joan.pujol@uab.cat; marisela.montenegro@uab.cat; ajgordol@ucm.es |
