Dr. Gustavo Robles

Biography

Gustavo Robles is a Gerda Henkel Foundation postdoctoral researcher at the University of Passau. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina), where he later served as an adjunct professor. He is also an affiliated researcher at the International Research Group on Authoritarianism and Counter-Strategies (IRGAC, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, University of Potsdam). His research stays took him to Goethe University Frankfurt, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Humboldt University Berlin, and the Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA, Brazil). His research areas are critical theory and contemporary political thought. His current lines of work include studies of authoritarianism, digital capitalism, and political subjectivities.

Research Focus Areas

Critical Theory & Frankfurt School
Authoritarianism and Far-Right Movements
Platform Capitalism & Digital Labour
Subjectivity & Ideology
Latin American Political Philosophy

Project description

Subjectivity and platform capitalism in Argentina

This subproject aims to analyse the subjective effects of working conditions in platform economies in Argentina. It will focus on what is currently known as gig economy, since it makes visible certain key elements of an ideological dimension of authoritarianism that involves the organization of labor processes and the production of subjective features.

This makes it a privileged site to observe the coexistence of technology and precarization inherent to the mode of accumulation of digital capitalism, as well as forms of authoritarianism embedded in the management of subjectivities, that is, techno-political modes of acting on bodies and psyche that are a necessary condition for the functioning of platform capitalism.

This project studies how in Argentina platform companies have reshaped the working conditions and workers' subjectivities with deep ideological and political consequences.

Publications

Robles, G. (in Press.). Technofascism North and South: Cyberlibertarianism and Its Latin American Translations. Navigationen. Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturwissenschaften, 26(2).
Robles, G., Cufré, S. (2026). O limbo argentino. Phenomenal World.https://www.phenomenalworld.org/pt-br/analises/o-limbo-argentino/
Robles, G., Orovitz Sanmartino, J. (2026). Utopías digitales periféricas. El imaginario tecnopolítico de las derechas en Argentina y El Salvador. Visioni LatinoAmericane, 18(34).https://www.openstarts.units.it/handle/10077/38051
Robles, G. (2025). Senses of Freedom: Platform Work and Ideology in Argentina. New Political Science, 47(4), 585–607.https://doi.org/10.1215/07393148-11963032
Robles, G., Orovitz Sanmartino, J. (2025). The Tech-Utopianism of the Latin American Libertarian Right. Dialogues on Digital Society, 1(3), 333–337.https://doi.org/10.1177/29768640251385694
Robles, G., Farvardin, F. (2025). Politik mit der Angst. Südlink, 221.https://webshop.inkota.de/suedlink-211-die-autoritaere-gefahr
Robles, G. (2025). Silicon Pampa: AI, Lithium and the Libertarian Techno-Utopianism in Milei's Argentina. Untold Magazine.https://untoldmag.org/silicon-pampa-how-mileis-techno-libertarian-dream-turns-argentina-into-a-data-colony-for-ai-and-lithium/
Robles, G. (2024). Affective Counterstrategies and Heterotopic Interventions. En orangotango kollektiv & IRGAC (eds.), Beyond Molotovs. A Visual Handbook of Anti-Authoritarian Strategies. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-7055-4/beyond-molotovs-a-visual-handbook-of-anti-authoritarian-strategies/