Ideology, Information and the Critique of Institutions in French thought since the 1970s

Ideology, Information and the Critique of Institutions in French thought since the 1970s

Ever since the publication of Daniel Bell’s The End of Ideology (1960) and Jean-François Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition (1979), ideology is said to have vanished and a ‘reflexive modernity’ emerged. How have information technology and new media transformed ideology? How do we diagnose ideological propositions today when the critique of institutions has been accomplished? How does ideology critique account for the values of ‘self-realisation’, ‘creativity’ and ‘autonomy’ that have become the centre of new management policies, both in private, and in public institutions? The aim of this colloquium is to reassess the contemporary relevance work of Henri Lefebvre, Erving Goffman, Félix Guattari and the project of ideology critique by examining the broad social and political issues of information, Big Data, the privatisation of institutions and austerity.

14:30-15:15 Ideology and the Ecology of Information in Everyday Life
Dr Robert Porter (Ulster University, UK)

This presentation will connect Henri Lefebvre’s work on cybernetics with recent works in media and cultural studies (Lev Manovich and Ian Bogost) to question the role of data in politics and ideology today.

15:30-16:15 Totalising Institutions: A Critique
Dr Iain MacKenzie (University of Kent, UK)

In 1957, Erving Goffman introduced the notion of ‘total institution’ to think about the increasing institutionalisation of life and society. Totalising institutions are those that bring aspects of our lives into a totality but they also paradoxically multiply the selves into divided selves or ‘dividuals’ (Guattari). How do institutions today function in relation to ideology and technological inventions?

Discussant: Prof. Dr. Sabine Hake (FRIAS)

Organiser: Dr Benoît Dillet (FRIAS)

For more information: benoit.dillet@frias.uni-freiburg.de