Calculating Hegemony

Seminar summary

This event will be a more informal and convivial discussion with Jeremy Gilbert and Alex Williams about their recently co-authored book, Hegemony Now: How Big Tech and Wall Street Won the World (And How We Win it Back). In particular it will focus on the theorization of transformations in the nature of hegemonic power relationships in an age of platformisation.

“Today power is in the hands of Wall Street and Silicon Valley. How do we understand this transformation in power? And what can we do about it?

We cannot change anything until we have a better understanding of how power works, who holds it, and why that matters. Through upgrading the concept of hegemony – understanding the importance of passive consent; the complexity of political interests; and the structural force of technology – Jeremy Gilbert and Alex Williams offer us an updated theory of power for the twenty-first century.

Hegemony Now explores how these forces came to control our world. The authors show how they have shaped the direction of politics and government as well as the neoliberal economy to benefit their own interests. However, this dominance is under threat. Following the 2008 financial crisis, a new order emerged in which the digital platform is the central new technology of both production and power. This offers new opportunities for counter hegemonic strategies to win back power. Hegemony Now outlines a dynamic socialist strategy for the twenty-first century.”

How to attend this seminar

We warmly welcome you to join us on our Colchester campus, room NTC.2.04 on Thursday 2 November 2023 at 1pm.

This seminar is free to attend with no need to register in advance.

If you are unable to make it in person the seminar will be available to watch live online.

Speaker bio

Jeremy Gilbert

Jeremy Gilbert is Professor of Cultural & Political Theory at the University of East London. He is the author of Common Ground: Democracy and Collectivity in an Age of Individualism, Anticapitalism and Culture: Radical Theory and Popular Politics and Twenty-First Century Socialism.

He writes regularly in the British press, is the current editor of the journal New Formations, and hosts three regular podcasts: #ACFM (on Novara Media); Love is the Message; Culture, Power, Politics.

Alex Williams

Alex Williams is a political theorist and lecturer in digital media and society currently based at the University of East Anglia. His writings include Political Hegemony and Social Complexity, Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work (with Nick Srnicek), as well as numerous articles on the future of left politics and contemporary formations of digital power.

For more information please contact the COVER Seminar Organisers