Online Lecture: "How the Far Right and Social Media Mobilize Working-Class Emotions" by Rosana Pinheiro-Machado on February 27

“The Many Faces of Digital Authoritarianism" Lecture Series presents:

“How the Far Right and Social Media Mobilize Working-Class Emotions” by Prof. Dr. Rosana Pinheiro-Machado (University College Dublin & DeepLab)

Date and time: 27 February 2026, Friday 16:00-17:30 CET (15:00-16:30 UK Time)

Moderator: Dr. Ülker Sözen (University of Passau & Leipzig University)

Link: https://ecpr-eu.zoom.us/j/88407075148?pwd=KkzfZnxOIlzjeXvbpAssSdFHkXbB1Y.1

Meeting ID: 88407075148

Passcode: 560003

Abstract

Working-class support for reactionary politics is as old as capitalism itself, yet it remains one of the most paradoxical features of modern democracy. Long celebrated as the vanguard of progressive change, significant segments of low-income groups are now aligning with illiberal regimes, authoritarian populists, and far-right movements across the globe. This talk explores why. Drawing on twenty-five years of ethnographic research with workers in Brazil, and more recently in India and the Philippines, it argues that this alignment cannot be explained by economic deprivation, resentment, or cultural backlash alone. Instead, digital technologies emerge as pivotal in reshaping working-class political subjectivities. By introducing the concept of the authoritariat, the talk shows how platform labour, gig work, and the promise of self-employment destabilise democratic bonds while fostering new desires for recognition, autonomy, and self-worth. These dynamics are rooted in long histories of colonial marginality yet amplified in the 21st century by the deregulation of digital labour and the rise of Big Tech. Far from being trapped in nostalgia, reactionary politics derives its strength from projecting an imagined future—one that offers both rage and dreams to those historically excluded. In reframing debates on working-class politics toward the Global South, the talk theorises a new, deeply ambivalent political formation—part authoritarian, part conservative, part libertarian—that is profoundly consequential for the future of democracy.

Rosana Pinheiro-Machado, an anthropologist, is a Professor of Global Studies at University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland. She is the Director of the Digital Economy and Extreme Politics Lab (DeepLab) and the Principal Investigator of the European Research Council- funded project Flexible Work, Rigid Politics in Brazil, India, and the Philippines. Her ethnographic research explores the intersection of reactionary politics and precariousness in the emerging economies of the Global South.