How the Far Right and Social Media Mobilize Working-Class Emotions

Abstract

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Rosana Pinheiro-Machado (University College Dublin & DeepLab) Abstract: In this talk, Rosana Pinheiro-Machado examines how the global far right mobilises the platform-based working class through digital media in the context of capitalism’s transformation. Drawing on 25 years of ethnographic research and various research projects on economic precarity in the global south, especially Brazil, she explores how rage, aspiration, and the search for recognition shape ambivalent political subjectivities. The talk explores the concepts of precarious entitlement and self-worth to explain why digital entrepreneurship can both empower and entrap workers, influencing their ideological alignments.