Cédric Durand, Nick Dyer-Witheford
Moderator: Mislav Žitko
Techno-feudalism has become a new buzzword. But can it hold its weight beyond casual use on social media? With the rise of platforms such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Airbnb, and TikTok, many authors have tried to give the term a more rigorous justification. They argue that digital monopolies are not merely competing within markets; they increasingly own market-like spaces themselves. Through servers, algorithms, apps, data systems, recommendation engines, and AI-driven tools, these platforms are able to control access, shape visibility, and extract rent.
From there, the comparison with feudalism comes almost naturally. In the classic account of capitalism, firms make profit by producing and selling goods or services. In feudalism, by contrast, lords extracted rent because they controlled land. The techno-feudalism thesis claims that today’s tech giants extract a new kind of “cloud rent” because they control digital territory: app stores, online marketplaces, social networks, search visibility, payment systems, user data, and access to attention.
But does the rise of Big Tech really amount to history moving backwards? Are there good reasons to believe that platform capitalism has morphed into a feudal-like social order? Or is techno-feudalism simply a powerful metaphor for monopoly capitalism in digital form? These are the questions this panel will address.
Cédric Durand is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Geneva. His research focuses on the transformation of contemporary capitalism. He is the author of Fictitious Capital. How Finance is Appropriating our Future (2017), Techno-feudalism. Critique of the Digital Economy (2024) and How to Change Course. The Principles of Ecological Planning (with Razmig Keucheyan, 2027). He contributes regularly to the New Left Review and engages regularly in public debates.
Nick Dyer-Witheford, profesor emeritus na Sveučilištu Western Ontario, autor je knjiga Cyber-Marx: Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High Technology Capitalism (Chicago: University of Illinois, 1999) i Cyber-Proletariat: Global Labour in the Digital Vortex (London: Pluto Press, 2015), koautor je knjige Inhuman Power: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Capitalism (Pluto, 2019) i, najnovije, s Alessandrom Mularoni, knjige Cybernetic Circulation Complex: Big Tech and Planetary Crisis (Verso, 2025).
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