BYUNG-CHUL HAN – FROM THE PANOPTICON TO THE SMARTPHONE: power and otherness in the era of digital psychopolitics
This essay investigates the crisis of democracy in the digital age, analyzing how technology shapes psychological manipulation and social control. Drawing on the works of Byung-Chul Han, the study delves into how psychopolitics, digital surveillance, and affective communication on social networks un...
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | Brasil |
| Institución: | Universidade de Brasília (UnB) |
| Repositorio: | Pólemos (Brasília) |
| Idioma: | portugués |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/55150 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/polemos/article/view/55150 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Psicopolítica. Contemplação. Desempenho. Alteridade. Poder. Psychopolitics. Contemplation. Performance. Otherness. Power. |
| Sumario: | This essay investigates the crisis of democracy in the digital age, analyzing how technology shapes psychological manipulation and social control. Drawing on the works of Byung-Chul Han, the study delves into how psychopolitics, digital surveillance, and affective communication on social networks undermine the public sphere and discursive rationality, leading to self-exploitation and individual isolation. Smart power, exercised subtly and seductively, replaces physical coercion with psychological control disguised as freedom. The information society generates a truth deficit, while algorithmic personalization and accelerated communication manipulate public behavior and experience. The decline of otherness, given the inability to form a political “we,” weakens democracy and renders it vulnerable to neoliberal control. The article proposes resistance to hyperactivity and hypercommunication, advocating the cultivation of negativity, silence, and contemplation as antidotes to the crisis. Recovering otherness, genuine dialogue, and collective responsibility is crucial for rebuilding the public sphere and achieving authentic democracy. |
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