Journal article about base/superstructure and ideology in the works of Stuart Hall, Georg Lukács, and Raymond Williams.

Christian Fuchs. 2023. The Problems of Base/Superstructure and Ideology in the Works of Stuart Hall, Georg Lukács, and Raymond Williams. The Communication Review. Online First, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10714421.2023.2242068

We live in times of deep crisis. General crises of society often are accompanied by ideological struggles. Given this context, it is important that social theory reinvigorates the analysis of ideology. For doing so, it makes sense to engage with classical theories of ideology. This paper contributes to this task. It asks: How are the economic and the non-economic related? What is ideology? This article deals with the base/superstructure problem and the problem of ideology via an engagement with selected aspects of Stuart Hall’s, Georg Lukács’s and Raymond Williams’s works. The commonality of Hall’s, Lukács’s and Williams’s thoughts that makes a joint engagement with their works feasible is that they all three dealt with aspects of culture from a critical theory perspective and are in one way or another representatives of Cultural Marxism. While Lukács’s works and Cultural Studies are often presented as conflicting approaches, this paper shows that concerning the question of how the economic and the non-economic are related and how we can think of ideology, the approaches of Lukács, Williams, and Hall complement each other, which allows critical theories of culture to draw on all three approaches and to combine elements from them in a synergistic manner. There are parallels between Williams’, Hall’s, and Lukács’s solutions to the base/superstructure problem. Williams argues that the economic exerts pressures on and sets limits to the non-economic. Hall writes that the economic determines the non-economic in the first instance. Lukács argues that the economic circumscribes subjectivity and the non-economic

Der digitale Kapitalismus

Neues Buch, veröffentlicht im Jahr 2023:
Christian Fuchs. 2023. Der digitale Kapitalismus. Arbeit, Entfremdung und Ideologie im Informationszeitalter. Buchserie „Arbeitsgesellschaft im Wandel” (Hrsg./Eds.: Brigitte Aulenbacher, Birgit Riegraf, Karin Scherschel). Weinheim: Beltz Juventa. ISBN 978-3-7799-7144-3. 305 Seiten.
Mehr Information

Digital Humanism

Published in autumn 2022:
Christian Fuchs 2022. Digital Humanism. A Philosophy for 21st Century Digital Society. SocietyNow Series. Bingley: Emerald. ISBN 9781803824222. 272 pages.

This book introduces the approach of Digital Humanism and outlines foundations of a Radical Digital Humanism.
“Digital Humanism refuses to transform humans into machines and to think of machines as humans. This is why this book is such an important and timely intervention.”
– Eva Illouz, Director of Studies at EHESS, Paris
More information 

Digital Capitalism


Christian Fuchs. 2022. Digital Capitalism: Media, Communication and Society Volume Three. London: Routledge. ISBN: 978-1-032-11918-2 (hbk). ISBN: 978-1-032-11920-5 (pbk). ISBN: 978-1-003-22214-9 (ebk). 342 pages.

The book “Digital Capitalism” is the third volume in Christian Fuchs’s Media, Communication and Society book series. It illuminates what it means to live in an age of digital capitalism.
More information is available here.

The Public Service Media and Public Service Internet Manifesto

Democracy requires Public Service Media and a Public Service Internet.

Please support, share and sign the Public Service Media and Public Service Internet Manifesto:
http://bit.ly/signPSManifesto (please sign the Manifesto)
http://bit.ly/psmmanifesto (Manifesto)
#PSMIManifesto

Open access book version of the Manifesto: Christian Fuchs and Klaus Unterberger, eds. 2021. The Public Service Media and Public Service Internet Manifesto. London: University of Westminster Press. 135 pages
Open access book: http://doi.org/10.16997/book60
ISBN (PDF): 978-1-914386-29-9
ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-914386-30-5
ISBN (Kindle): 978-1-914386-31-2
This open access book presents the collectively authored Public Service Media and Public Service Internet Manifesto and accompanying materials.


Video of the launch event


Press release:
Occupy the Internet: 200 Media Experts Publish an Alarming Wake Up Call and Demand a Public Service Internet

Discussion:
Channel 4: Rather Than Privatising Public Service Media We Should Be Expanding It Online

Further Infos:

ORF DialogForum: Das Internet Manifesto (The Internet Manifesto). October 4, 2021 (broadcast on October 7 & 9, 2021, on ORF III). Video YouTube

ORF Digital.Leben: Manifest für ein öffentlich-rechtliches Internet (Manifesto for a Public Service Internet). ORF Radio Ö1, October 4, 2021. Audio

ORF Press Release: ORF-Public-Value-Tag: Weltweites Public-Service-Internet-Manifest vorgestellt (ORF Public Value Day: Presentation of a Global Public Service Internet Manifesto). ORF, October 4, 2021. Web PDF

Christian Fuchs. 2021. Channel 4: Rather Than Privatising Public Service Media We Should Be Expanding It Online. The Conversation, 23 June 2021. Link


Christian Fuchs’ Podcast: The Communication of Death and Love: A Philosophical Approach


Podbean version
Spotify version (featuring music by Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Soap & Skin, Pulp, Johnny Cash, The Kills, L7, Arcade Fire)

In this episode of his podcast, Christian Fuchs talks about what it means to take a philosophical approach on the communication of death and love.

The episode deals with the following questions: What philosophical positions are there on death? What ways are there for humans to mourn their loved ones? What kind of communication process is mourning? What is the role of death in capitalism? What is the relationship of death and love?

A written version is available as Creative Commons text here: https://doi.org/10.16997/book45.m

Music
Bonnie “Prince” Billy: Death to Everyone
Soap & Skin: Deathmental
Pulp: Death Goes to the Disco
Johnny Cash: Hurt
The Kills: Doing it to Death
L7: Pretend We’re Dead
Arcade Fire: No Cars Go

Third edition of Christian Fuchs’ “Social Media: A Critical Introduction” published

Christian Fuchs. 2021. Social Media: A Critical Introduction. London: Sage. Third edition. 448 pages.

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This book gives a critical introduction to the way social media has changed everyday life and society. More information is available here. The third edition features six new chapters and a fundamental revision of the second edition’s chapters.

The German edition of this book was published in 2021 by UVK/utb

Order at Sage, Amazon UK, Amazon.com