Dr. Gustavo Robles

Biography

Gustavo Robles is a Gerda Henkel Postdoc Fellow at the University of Passau. He got his PhD in Philosophy at the National University of La Plata (Argentina), where he was an Associate Professor. He is also a Research Fellow within the International Research Group on Authoritarianism and Counterstrategies (IRGAC-Rosa Luxemburg Foundation), and carried out research stays at different German universities, including the University of Frankfurt, the University of Jena, and the Humboldt University of Berlin. His areas of interest include Critical Theory, contemporary political thought, social philosophy, and the political economy of digital capitalism.

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

"Senses of Freedom. Platform Work and Ideology in Argentina". In New Political Science. Journal of Culture and Politics. 47(3). 2025. In Press.
"¿Hacia dónde avanza la libertad? Argentina y la reacción libertaria". In Samir Gandesha (ed.). Espectros del Fascismo. Historia, Conceptos, Debates. Puebla: Editorial Universidad Benemérita de Puebla. 2025. In Press.
"Politik mit der Angst" (with Firoozeh Farvardin). En Südlink N° 221. Inkota Verlag. 2025
"From (individual) Fears to (collective) Cares" (with Firoozeh Farvardin). In www.irgac.org. 2025.
"Oft fehlt die emotionale Infrastruktur". In Die Tageszeitung. 28/11/2024.
"Affective Counterstrategies and Heterotopic Interventions". In orangotango kollektiv & IRGAC (ed.). Beyond Molotovs. A Visual Handbook of Anti-Authoritarian Strategies. Berlin: Transcript Verlag. 2024.
"Book Review of Neoliberalism Reloaded: Authoritarian Governmentality and the Rise of the Radical Right by Matías Saidel". In El Banquete de los Dioses. N° 14. 2024
"Hegemoniekrise und autoritäre Wende" (with Boerries Nehe). In Sub/urban. 11(3/4), 491-498. 2023
"La subjetividad autoritaria y el legado de la Escuela de Frankfurt". In Revista Avatares de la Comunicación y la Cultura. N° 25, 1-15. 2023.
"Für eine alternative Moderne. Studien zu Krise, Kultur und Mestizaje. Über Bolivar Echeverría". In Zeitschrift für philosophische Literatur. 10(1), 55-62. 2023.
"Die koloniale Materialität des Staates. Den autoritären Neoliberalismus vom Süden ausdenken" (with Boerries Nehe). In Christina Pauls, Martin Oppelt, Nicki K. Weber (ed.). Postkoloniale Staatsverständnisse. Hamburg: Nomos Verlag. 2023.
"La teoría del reconocimiento de Axel Honneth". In Camou, Antonio (ed.). Cuestiones de teoría social contemporánea. La Plata: EDULP. 2023.
"Today´s Fascism is based in our Need for Meaning in Life" (Interview with Samir Gandesha). In www.irgac.org. 2023.
"Neoliberalism at War and the Authoritarian Turn". In www.irgac.org. 2023.
"Authoritarian Neoliberalism from Below. Platform Capitalism and Subjectivity Argentina and Brazil" (with Fábio Franco). In Boerries Nehe. Global
Authoritarianism. Perspectives and Contestations from the South. Berlin: Transcript Verlag. 2023.

Lehrstuhl für Entwicklungspolitik