From November 21–23 2025, the symposium Global Fascization and Platform Capitalism. Perspectives from the South took place at the University of Passau. The event was jointly organized by the research group “Platformization, Forms of Authoritarianism, and the Future of Democracy: Perspectives from the Global South” of the Chair of Development Politics, University of Passau and the International Research Group on Authoritarianism and Counter-Strategies (IRGAC) from the University of Potsdam.
Against the backdrop of an accelerating global authoritarian turn—marked by the normalization of violence and the weaponization of digital infrastructures—the workshop served as a collaborative space to bridge the critical research agendas of both groups.
The program opened with the IRGAC session “For an Antifascist Science!”. The next day, the Platformization project research team gave presentations on their recent studies and the participants held extensive discussions on how platform capitalism intersects with authoritarian practices. On the second day, the focus was on sharpening analytical tools through conceptual debates on “Fascization” and “Counterstrategies” in the current global context.
The research project Platformization, Forms of Authoritarianism and the Future of Democracy: Perspectives from the South comprises Dr. Fathima Nizaruddin, Dr. Ülker Sözen, Dr. Gustavo Robles, Prof. Dr. Wolfram Schaffar, and student assistant Daud Samute. The project is funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung and based at the Chair of Development Politics at the University of Passau.
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