Political ecology of digital capitalism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46661/rev.int.pensampolit..8546Keywords:
green capitalism, digital transition, solutionism, developmentismAbstract
This article challenges the narrative that portrays the digital economy as environmentally friendly, harmless, and devoid of material consequences. In the first section, I examine the smartphone supply chain to illustrate how everyday items in the digital economy contribute to and reinforce environmentally detrimental industrial and extractive practices. The second part conducts an analysis of the ideological and discursive tools employed by digital capitalist institutions to systematically mask extensive environmental damage. Within this framework, I identify and analyze three fundamental axioms of the political ecology of digital capitalism: perpetual capitalism and growth, technological solutionism, and the choice between a green and digital civilization or impending catastrophe.
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