[Air-L] 27 February "How the Far Right and Social Media Mobilize Working-Class Emotions" by Rosana Pinheiro-Machado

[Ülker Sözen]

We kindly would like to remind the online lecture by ECPR Research Network
on Digital Authoritarianism <https://ecpr.eu/group/digital-authoritarianism>
:

*“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 *

You can find more on the lecture and the zoom link here
<https://ecpr.eu/news/news/details/905>.

You can keep updated and get registered to our online seminar series here
<https://ecpr.eu/Events/337>.

Warm regards,

Steering Committee

Ülker Sözen <ulk.sozen at gmail.com>, 19 Şub 2026 Per, 13:30 tarihinde şunu
yazdı:

> We kindly invite you to the online lecture:
>
> *“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 *
>
> You can find more on the lecture and the zoom link here
> <https://ecpr.eu/news/news/details/905>.
>
> You can keep updated and get registered to our online seminar series here
> <https://ecpr.eu/Events/337>.
>
> Warm regards,
>
> ECPR Research Network on Digital Authoritarianism
>
> Steering Committee
>
> -----------------
>
> 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.
>
>