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On The Current Situation: Normal Violences, Pandemics, Emergencies, Necropolitics, Zombies, And Creepy Treehouses, Jeremy Hunsinger

Fast Capitalism

This paper argues that the university is changing in the pandemic but it is the broader contexts of the university and specifically neoliberal politics that originated the change. It then identified several situations that upon witnessing undermine the neoliberal systems of legitimation.

Author Biography

Jeremy Hunsinger, Wilfrid Laurier University

Jeremy Hunsinger is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. He teaches and researches critical internet studies, infrastructure studies, cultural politics, and the politics of knowledge. He has co-edited several volumes including two volumes of the International Handbook of Internet Research.

Capitalism, Racism, And Trumpism: Whitelash And The Politics Of Oppression, David G. Embrick, J. Scott Carter, Cameron Lippard, Bhoomi K. Thakore

Fast Capitalism

That the rising tide of fascism, headwinds of neoliberalism, or persistence of racism in the United States is institutional, systemic, and part of a long history of oppression towards various groups is not new news. The bigger question is how we got to a point in which overt manifestations of racism, sexism, faux democracy, and other forms of illegality and authoritarianism has once again become normalized. What does it mean when a sitting President claims that Mexican immigrants are rapists, criminals, and drug runners? How did we get to a point where we, collectively, are not as outraged as we …

Reactionary Technopolitics: A Critical Sociohistorical Review, Sean Doody

Fast Capitalism

This paper outlines a critical social history of reactionary media, political, and information networks ”what I refer to generally as technopolitics” in the United States and their significance to the hostility towards truth and fact that is a central feature of our political present. I begin with a critical review of the unique right-wing media and political ecosystem that emerged from the alliance between neoliberalism and social conservatism in the twentieth-century. In the second section, I focus on digitization, Trump, and the alt-right, and discuss the historical tethers connecting the latter to the cyber-libertarians and white supremacists operating on the …

Social Crises, Political Conflicts, And Cultural Contradictions Of Nixonland: Tracing Constitutional Crisis In The Usa From Nixon To Trump, Timothy W. Luke

Fast Capitalism

Many developments, like greater domestic turmoil, economic dislocation, social immobility, and political gridlock, suggest "the public" and "the private" are different domains with the US than they were decades ago in 1969 when President Nixon entered office. The constitutional state, as a theory and set of practices in the USA in the Nixon era was put under tremendous strains, and it seems clear that those pressures fractured it. After Vietnam, stagflation, Watergate, and the transitional Ford Administration, has it ever been the same? The Reagan-Bush assault on the New Deal and Great Society as well as the essentially permanent mobilization …

The Carnival King Of Capital, Charles Thorpe

Fast Capitalism

This paper argues that President Donald Trump may be understood as ruling through carnival. The theatrical reversal of conventional standards and rules, his carnivalesque incivility, is key to his political persona. It performs his claim to be an outsider, attacking and subverting the Washington DC establishment. But Trump's carnivalesque performance, far from undermining the dominant order, reflects it. What Trump represents is carnivalized capital, a financialized and globalized form of capital that has broken free of the social and legal restraints of the nation state. The carnivalesque chaos of Trump's presidency reflects the chaos of financialized capitalism.

Author Biography

Charles …

The United States Of Trump Corp.: The 'Not Normal/New Normal' Governing Style Of A Personal Brand, Steven Alfonso Panageotou, Joel M. Crombez

Fast Capitalism

Mired in inconsistency, contradiction, and scandal, Donald J. Trump's presidency appears to be anything but normal. This has prompted a great deal of searching among social scientists and journalists to understand what exactly is behind Trump's erratic governing style. These narratives center the new normal of American presidential politics on the extreme form of Trump's narcissistic behavior and his flagrant commitment to ethno-nationalist, authoritarian, and neoliberal practices. However, because these narratives rely on traditional political strategies and theories, they do not fully capture the most novel aspects of the Trump mode of governance. What is "not normal" about President Donald …

Making It Up As He Goes: Trump's Improvisational Rhetoric And The Hyper-Rhetorical Presidency, Richard Holtzman

Fast Capitalism

Trump disregards the norms of presidential communication by regularly speaking or tweeting off-the-cuff with seemingly little forethought or editorial input. As White House administrations institutionalized presidential speechwriting and strategic communications over the past century, meticulously-crafted rhetoric became the norm. Trump's improvisational rhetoric is the antithesis of the highly-professionalized, disciplined approach to political communication we have come to expect from the presidency. This essay takes the position that his reliance on improvisational rhetoric is more than a matter of communication; it is a matter of governance. Trump regularly uses improvised communication to make important policy decisions. In doing so, the president …

Introduction To "This Is Not Normal", David M. Arditi, Timothy W. Luke

Fast Capitalism

Author Biographies

David M. Arditi, University of Texas Arlington

David Arditi is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he serves as Director of the Center for Theory. He researches the impact of digital technology on society. His forthcoming book, Getting Signed: Record Contracts, Musicians and Power in Society, explores the way musicians' dreams become their source of exploitation.

Timothy W. Luke, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Timothy W. Luke is a University Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science. Luke's areas of research specialization include environmental and cultural studies …

The Art Of The Deal, The Arts Of Democracy: Trump, Dewey, And Democracy, Nancy Sue Love

Fast Capitalism

Donald Trump's politics has been variously described as "neoliberal," "nationalist," "authoritarian," "populist," and even "fascist," and all these descriptors are appropriate in some respects. In this article, I explore the linkages between Trump, neoliberalism, and fascism through what may seem an unlikely aspect of his politics, that is, his artistry as a candidate and now the president. In elevating deal-making to an art form, Trump is not unique. Fascist leaders have long fancied themselves as artists and regarded politics as an art form. I argue that Trump's "art of the deal" materializes and normalizes the aesthetics of neoliberal capitalism; it …

About The Contributors

Impact: A Journal of Community and Cultural Inquiry in Education

No abstract provided.

Formatted Feelings: Rap As A Pedagogy Of Capitalized Emotion, Guanhua Yao

Impact: A Journal of Community and Cultural Inquiry in Education

This article examines mainstream rap as a key apparatus through which capital formats emotional life under platform capitalism. Utilizing grounded theory coding for ten Billboard No. 1 rap tracks released between 2005 and 2025, the analysis identifies durable affective templates, commodified desire, spectacularized power, and curated vulnerability, that standardize how emotion becomes legible, repeatable, and marketable. Synthesizing affect theory, media sociology, and social dramaturgy, the article argues that rap teaches listeners how to perform feeling in ways compatible with visibility regimes and datafied attention economies. Rather than treating these songs as expressive artifacts, the study reframes them as pedagogical infrastructures …

Notes On Redefining "Popular" Culture, Paul J. Ramsey

Impact: A Journal of Community and Cultural Inquiry in Education

This article critiques the classic literature on popular culture, redefines the concept for the contemporary era, and introduces the following articles in this special issue of Impact. The articles in this issue demonstrate not only the ways in which popular culture has evolved in recent decades but also reveal the deeply educational aspects of that culture by shining a light on what is learned through it. 

Keywords: popular culture, education, informal education

Noir As Politics: Spanish Language Hardboiled Detective Fiction And The Discontents Of The Left, Patrick Blaine

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

Saviano, Garrone, Gomorrah: Neorealism And Noir In The Land Of The Camorra, Fabrizio Cilento

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

Facebook Killed The Reunion Star: How Facebook Is Changing Who We Are And What We Do, Sara Ridenour

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

A Research Agenda For Social Media Surveillance, Daniel Trottier

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

A Contribution To The Critique Of The Political Economy Of Google, Christian Fuchs

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

A Notion Of Faces Not Laws: Facebook As Ideological Platform, Matthew Levy

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

A Hokies' Lament: American Social Psychosis And The Virginia Tech Killings, Stephen Pfohl

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

All The Rage: Digital Bodies And Deadly Play In The Age Of The Suicide Bomber, Carolyn Guertin

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

Mediated Ritual On Academic Ground, Neal King

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

To: Multiple Recipients: "There Is A Gunman On Campus...", Timothy W. Luke

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

Risk, Return To Industry, And The Future Of Democracy, Lukas Szrot

Fast Capitalism

Reflecting on 2020, I consider the possibility of the collapse of the United States, as well as the ways in which it has fallen short of representative and democratic promise. I argue that the spread of conspiratorial reason is symptomatic of the mistrust that has arisen from these failures. Drawing on naturalist, critical theory, and sociology of knowledge accounts of conspiratorial reason, I argue that such thinking is interest-bound, weaponizing mistrust, and is broadly appealing but ultimately disempowering, serving the ends of failed praxis and reification of power. I examine two possible sources of institutionalized mistrust: the "culture wars" thesis …

A Prelude To Insurrection: How A 4chan Refrain Anticipated The Capitol Riot, Marc Tuters

Fast Capitalism

This paper looks at how vernacular practices associated with fringe web communities seem to have found their way into reactionary American politics in recent years. Combining concepts from political communication (Bennett and Segerberg 2013) and from assemblage theory (Samson 2020), the paper looks at how key elements of the Capitol insurrection narrative initially emerged on 4chan as meme about a second civil war (called "the Boogaloo"), then spreading to social media and amplified by President Trump. In an effort to make sense of this relationship between the fringe the mainstream, the paper offers both original empirical analysis as well as …

Homoterrorism: Definition, Application, Subversion, Angelos Bollas

Fast Capitalism

On Friday, September 21, 2018, news reports on Greek corporate media announced the death of a man who had allegedly attempted to rob a jewellery store. The media announcement was accompanied by video footage in which two civilians were shown violently attacking the alleged thief while the latter was attempting to escape the jewellery store. A little later, the alleged thief was announced dead. This is the case of Zak Kostopoulos who was lynched in his attempt to escape a jewellery shop where he had found shelter from a threat that, to this day, remains unknown. Zak was lynched literally …

The Rise Of The Robots: Technocapitalism And The Policing Of Race, Constantine Gidaris

Fast Capitalism

This article critically engages with the emergence of police robots in the United States, arguing that their inevitable foray into everyday policing will fuel existing issues of racial discrimination. Building on Luis Suarez-Villa's (2009) conceptualization of technocapitalism, I situate police robots within a framework of social domination that thrives not only on its connections to corporatism and militarism, but also on technocapitalist conditions that invariably exacerbate the oppressive dynamics of racist and discriminatory policing. Although police robots will make police work safer for officers (Sharkey 2008), I contend that they will be used by the police as weaponized machines of …

Precarious Labor In Covid Times: The Case Of Musicians, David M. Arditi

Fast Capitalism

The coronavirus pandemic changed the way we think about work, the economy, and our everyday lives as governments shutdown all but the most essential public spaces. Workers who earn a living through precarious employment have faced unique barriers to securing wages. The impact of the pandemic shutdown was especially devastating on musicians' lives and many supporting workers in the entertainment industry. The structural insecurity of gig work became amplified as venues were forced to stop performances for a year or more. In this paper, I argue the current phase of capitalism that depends on precarious labor and unending consumption destroys …

The Academic Precariat Post-Covid-19, Aidan Cornelius-Bell, Piper A. Bell

Fast Capitalism

The nature of work has changed, in accelerated late-capitalism and as a result of the COVID-19 global health crisis. For academics, casualised and precarious, the sweeping institutional changes of contemporary neoliberal universities, the sharp rise in managerialism, and the political power plays of universities have created further untenable spaces for work and study. In this article we explore the relationship between doctoral studies, precarious academic employment, the pandemic, and the disproportionate effects of the changes in higher education on women. Through exploration of personal experience, as precarious academic workers, researchers, and doctoral students, we provide parallels to research literature across …

Modularity, Labor, And Ideology In Edtech Platforms, Mario Khreiche

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

Learning Management Systems As Anti-Convivial Tools, Edward Maclin

Fast Capitalism

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 …