Claudia Favarato   |   The Digipolitical

How is the digital reshaping the relations that build the political?

Political humanness. Digitality. Comparative political theory.

The political is an uncanny word, which describes the relations bonding individuals in groups, communities, or states, and creates (a)symmetrical structures of power. As the digital (that is, all that goes through a screen and interconnects devices via the internet) grows as the space for relating with others, it shapes who is involved in these exchanges, and how these relations play out.

Relations in the digitality cut short of many analogue constraints, such as spatial proximity or chronological synchrony: individuals no longer need to be in the same space, nor do they need to share a moment to relate. Their digital ‘copies’ – or digital-humans – are free to interact at any given time, anywhere. Also, who are there digital-humans? Are they ‘mere’ replicas of their analogue original, or more autonomous technology-enabled entities? What normative, ontological, and ethical frames guides their interaction with one another? Does the context of origin still play any role in it, or are their relations entirely determined by the rules of games regulating the digital?

Researching the digipolitical departs from the questions above to interpret the relational rendition and ontological reworking of the political in the digital. Centred on concept of relationality as analytical lens, it proposes a reading informed by global political thought, in which different philosophical schools and tradition establish a dialogue. African communitarianism represents one of these, and the focus of my current research.