Digital networks, knowledge and post-truth: Challenges for democracy in times of pandemics

Authors

  • Edgardo Lander Instituto de Sociología, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela
  • Miriam Lang Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Quito, Ecuador https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1165-6788

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18617/liinc.v18i1.5910

Keywords:

Digital networks, Knowledge, Crisis of democracy, Right-wing extremism, Pandemic

Abstract

The truth regimes that were in force, although always contested, during the 20th century are being rapidly undermined by different factors: the growing influence of corporate interests in some branches of science, the reconfiguration of the public sphere by digital networks, which are also governed by oligopolistic profit logics, and the exploitation of the loss of shared referents by political interest groups, especially of the extreme right. The pandemic has accelerated this process, which threatens the possibilities of building democratic solutions to the multiple and civilizational crisis that human societies are experiencing

Author Biographies

  • Edgardo Lander, Instituto de Sociología, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela

    Edgardo Lander is a retired researcher and professor in the Department of Latin American Studies at the School of Sociology at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. He is a fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam and a co-founding member of the Permanent Working Group on Alternatives to Development, sponsored by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Among many other works, in 2000 he edited the book "La colonialidad del saber, eurocentrismo y ciencias sociales" (The coloniality of knowledge, Eurocentrism and social sciences).

  • Miriam Lang, Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Quito, Ecuador

    Miriam Lang es Profesora en el Area de Ambiente y Sustentabilidad en la Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Ecuador. Allí coordina la Maestría en Ecología Política y Alternativas al Desarrollo desde el 2020. Tiene un doctorado en Sociología y una Maestría en Estudios Latinoamericanos de la Universidad Libre de Berlín. Colabora con el Grupo de Trabajo Permanente Latinoamericano de Alternativas al Desarrollo y con movimientos sociales internacionalistas, feministas, ecologistas y antirracistas. Desde 2016, co-coordina el Grupo de Trabajo Global Beyond Development. Su investigación actual se centra en la crítica del desarrollo, las alternativas sistémicas y la implementación territorial del Buen Vivir. Combina perspectivas decoloniales y feministas con economía política y ecología política. Co-editó el libro Beyond Development - Alternative visions from Latin America (2013) que ha sido traducido a 9 idiomas.

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Published

28/04/2022

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 1 (2022): Challenges of Social Sciences in the Anthropocene

Section

Point of View

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Copyright (c) 2022 Edgardo Lander, Miriam Lang

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

LANDER, Edgardo; LANG, Miriam. Digital networks, knowledge and post-truth: Challenges for democracy in times of pandemics. Liinc em Revista, [S. l.], v. 18, n. 1, p. e5910, 2022. DOI: 10.18617/liinc.v18i1.5910. Disponível em: https://revista.ibict.br/liinc/article/view/5910. Acesso em: 2 may. 2025.