https://fastcapitalism.journal.library.uta.edu/index.php/fastcapitalism/issue/feed Fast Capitalism 2022-11-01T11:33:36-05:00 David Arditi darditi@uta.edu Open Journal Systems <div class="red">Journal devoted to analyzing the impact of information and communication technologies on self, society and culture in the 21st century. Bridges the social sciences and the humanities. Welcomes disciplinary and interdisciplinary work.</div> https://fastcapitalism.journal.library.uta.edu/index.php/fastcapitalism/article/view/444 Full Issue 2022-11-01T11:32:34-05:00 The Editors hang.phamvu@uta.edu ... 2022-11-01T11:30:48-05:00 Copyright (c) 2022 The Editors https://fastcapitalism.journal.library.uta.edu/index.php/fastcapitalism/article/view/445 Front Matter 2022-11-01T11:33:05-05:00 The Editors hang.phamvu@uta.edu ... 2022-11-01T11:30:48-05:00 Copyright (c) 2022 The Editors https://fastcapitalism.journal.library.uta.edu/index.php/fastcapitalism/article/view/446 About the Authors 2022-11-01T11:33:36-05:00 The Editors hang.phamvu@uta.edu ... 2022-11-01T11:30:48-05:00 Copyright (c) 2022 The Editors https://fastcapitalism.journal.library.uta.edu/index.php/fastcapitalism/article/view/447 The Manosphere as an Online Protection Racket: How the Red Pill Monetizes Male Need for Security in Modern Society 2022-10-31T10:50:38-05:00 Eva Bujalka hang.phamvu@uta.edu Tim Rich hang.phamvu@uta.edu Stuart Bender hang.phamvu@uta.edu To effectively manage, empathize with and respond to the implications and impact of the so-called ‘Manosphere,' this paper is centered on the premise that researchers require an understanding of the draw factors that lead individuals to engage, affiliate with, and contribute to the various groups that constitute this wider movement. This paper seeks to contribute to the growing body of knowledge around the Manosphere by exploring how thought leaders propagate symbiotic cycles of ontological security and insecurity through YouTube in a manner that resembles a protection racket. It argues that these constructed ontological security cycles provide a powerful impetus to not only draw individuals into the Manosphere, but also to extract material and social resources out of them that can be reinvited to retain them within the movement. 2022-11-01T11:30:48-05:00 Copyright (c) 2022 Eva Bujalka, Tim Rich, Stuart Bender https://fastcapitalism.journal.library.uta.edu/index.php/fastcapitalism/article/view/448 Cultural Politics and the Crisis of Education and Political Agency 2022-10-31T10:51:36-05:00 Henry Giroux hang.phamvu@uta.edu ... 2022-11-01T11:30:48-05:00 Copyright (c) 2022 Henry Giroux https://fastcapitalism.journal.library.uta.edu/index.php/fastcapitalism/article/view/449 Populism and Identity Politics in the U.S. Heartland 2022-10-31T10:56:12-05:00 Ann M. Oberhauser hang.phamvu@uta.edu Daniel Krier hang.phamvu@uta.edu The rise of populism on the political right in the U.S. and Europe in recent decades reflects a significant shift in political culture. This populism has been associated with the rejection of mainstream politics and increased hostility toward immigrants, racialized minorities, and other marginalized groups who are seen as threats to economic security and hegemonic social identities. In the U.S. Heartland, several key states flipped from Democrat to Republican in 2016, sealing Trump's win and leading to widespread debates about populist political attitudes in this region. This analysis draws from focus group discussions with community leaders in rural and micropolitan Iowa to understand how local discourses about economic and social change intersects with rising populist politics. Three characteristics of community life emerged as areas of concern among these groups; economic destabilization associated with neoliberalism, changes in social composition, and a profound sense of rurality. Our findings reveal how populism and identity movements on the political right are integrated with Heartland political culture, contributing to the recent electoral success of right-wing populist candidates. The discussion concludes with recommendations to promote a progressive and inclusive agenda for the Heartland and the U.S. as a whole. 2022-11-01T11:30:48-05:00 Copyright (c) 2022 Ann M. Oberhauser, Daniel Krier https://fastcapitalism.journal.library.uta.edu/index.php/fastcapitalism/article/view/450 The Dialectic of De-Holocenation: Waste and Wealth in the Anthropocene* 2022-10-31T11:10:50-05:00 Timothy W. Luke hang.phamvu@uta.edu ... 2022-11-01T11:30:48-05:00 Copyright (c) 2022 Timothy W. Luke https://fastcapitalism.journal.library.uta.edu/index.php/fastcapitalism/article/view/451 Culture After Work? Intellectual Property in Post-Scarcity Discourses 2022-10-31T11:11:21-05:00 Ryan Nolan hang.phamvu@uta.edu ... 2022-11-01T11:30:48-05:00 Copyright (c) 2022 Ryan Nolan https://fastcapitalism.journal.library.uta.edu/index.php/fastcapitalism/article/view/452 Neo-Imperialism and the Precarious Existence of Vietnamese Factory Workers During the Covid-19 Lockdowns in 2021 2022-10-31T11:13:23-05:00 Scott G. McNall hang.phamvu@uta.edu Ly Quoc Dang hang.phamvu@uta.edu <p>Based on interviews with Vietnamese factory workers we discuss the impact Covid lockdowns had on their lives and illuminate how fragile their economic circumstances are in general. Both the government and major international corporations, such as Samsung and Nike, took extraordinary steps to keep workers on factory floors when covid infections started spreading in 2020. The government and businesses pressed laborers to work, sleep, and eat in their factories to stop the spread of the virus and to keep production lines moving. There was a determined push to get people vaccinated. It wasn't just the Vietnamese government that tried to get jabs in arms; ninety U.S. corporate executives urged the U.S. government to speed vaccine delivery to the country. Japanese, South Korean, and other Southeast Asian companies located in Vietnam also joined in these efforts. The purported reason was that supply chains had been disrupted by covid and exporters feared they would not have products on the shelves for the coming holiday season. We argue that focusing on supply chain disruptions obscures the fact that what is being transferred between developing countries and those in the core is not just television sets and tennis shoes but human labor power. It is a form of economic imperialism in which countries no longer conquer another nation to extract wealth but operate through international corporations unfettered by ties to any specific country. The Vietnamese government offers international corporations significant tax breaks and other benefits to set up shop in industrial zones. Their profit margins are high and come at the expense of workers, who must work overtime and enlist other family members in their labor force to survive. We conclude by identifying actions the Vietnamese government could take to alleviate the plight of factory workers.</p> 2022-11-01T11:30:48-05:00 Copyright (c) 2022 Scott G. McNall, Ly Quoc Dang https://fastcapitalism.journal.library.uta.edu/index.php/fastcapitalism/article/view/453 Deep-Rooted Images: Situating (Extra) Institutional Appropriations of Deepfakes in the US and India 2022-10-31T11:13:54-05:00 Kailyn Slater hang.phamvu@uta.edu Akriti Rastogi hang.phamvu@uta.edu <p>The paper aims to map institutional and extra-institutional affordances and appropriations of deepfake images through an analytical framework that accounts for the socio-political contexts of the US and India. Our main argument involves the inevitable leakage of technologies outside institutions and its redressal through corporatized comebacks. Utilizing vernacular and global examples, we trace the perceived ownership and extended modalities of deepfake images and videos. While compositing (Manovich 2006) and habitual media (Chun 2016) predetermine our deep mediatized world (Hepp 2019), deepfakes, as a visual cultural technology newly popular within the political economy of media, offer a novel entry point into locating the neoliberal ethos of both socio-political contexts and their respective apparatuses and valences of control. Thus, the paper articulates the coordinates of deepfake affordances to situate the technological power and political rhetoric that governs our international media situation across differing but interrelated socio-political contexts.</p> 2022-11-01T11:30:48-05:00 Copyright (c) 2022 Kailyn Slater, Akriti Rastogi https://fastcapitalism.journal.library.uta.edu/index.php/fastcapitalism/article/view/454 Introduction to Special Section: Academic Automation, Machine Un/Learning and Artificial Non/Intelligences 2022-10-31T11:14:26-05:00 Jeremy Hunsinger hang.phamvu@uta.edu ... 2022-11-01T11:30:48-05:00 Copyright (c) 2022 Jeremy Hunsinger https://fastcapitalism.journal.library.uta.edu/index.php/fastcapitalism/article/view/455 Fast "Truths" and Slow Knowledge; Oracular Answers and Wikipedia's Epistemology 2022-10-31T11:14:56-05:00 Zachary McDowell hang.phamvu@uta.edu Matthew Vetter hang.phamvu@uta.edu ... 2022-11-01T11:30:48-05:00 Copyright (c) 2022 Zachary McDowell, Matthew Vetter https://fastcapitalism.journal.library.uta.edu/index.php/fastcapitalism/article/view/456 Learning Management Systems as Anti-Convivial Tools 2022-10-31T11:15:25-05:00 Edward Maclin hang.phamvu@uta.edu The last two decades have seen an increase in the number of online university classes operating under any of several commercial Learning Management Systems (LMS). Online classes expanded dramatically in the US during 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Students, faculty, and administrators frequently assume that LMSs are epistemologically neutral. These LMSs are designed to do exactly what they say on the tin: they are systems for managing learning. At the same time, they function based on implicit understandings of "learning," "management," and "systems" that privilege some knowledges, interactions, and discourses while de-emphasizing others. In this paper I argue that the LMS as a tool is not—in the terms of Ivan Illich—convivial. Rather, LMSs as designed enforce a technocratic perspective based on efficiency and replicability, making them actively anti-convivial. At the same time, problems with LMS-hosted classes are defined in technological terms, with additional improved software being seen as the main solution. I argue that employing a critical participatory pedagogy can begin to address these concerns. 2022-11-01T11:30:48-05:00 Copyright (c) 2022 Edward Maclin https://fastcapitalism.journal.library.uta.edu/index.php/fastcapitalism/article/view/457 Modularity, Labor, and Ideology in Edtech Platforms 2022-10-31T11:16:10-05:00 Mario Khreiche hang.phamvu@uta.edu ... 2022-11-01T11:30:48-05:00 Copyright (c) 2022 Mario Khreiche https://fastcapitalism.journal.library.uta.edu/index.php/fastcapitalism/article/view/459 Margaret Fuller: Feminist Theory Years Ahead of Its Time 2022-10-31T11:16:53-05:00 Charles Lemert hang.phamvu@uta.edu ... 2022-11-01T11:30:48-05:00 Copyright (c) 2022 Charles Lemert