In this talk, Tiziana Terranova from the Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale" discusses the commons and the common as terms that over the first two decades of the 21st century played a central role in positing the possibility of a radical alternative to the established and dominant system of social, economic and political relations. These systems are seen as responsible for the multiple and convergent crises of the present, such as the ecological, economic, social and political crises (Hardt and Negri; Venn; Berlant). The talk addresses the contemporary meaning of the meeting between technology and the commons, as opposed to the meaning that was attributed in the early 2000s when the notion of the digital commons, the creative commons, and commons-based peer production were posed. The conditions whereby the commons and technology are thinkable today include the massive informatization of society as well as the consolidation of the corporate stronghold over technology. This includes the rise of Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Cyberwar, and the Green Economy.

This talk was given during the Critiquing Big Tech: A Humanities Perspective conference in Tilburg, the Netherlands. This conference was organized by Nuno Atalaia (Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands), Niels Niessen (Tilburg University, the Netherlands), and Rianne Riemens (Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands).

The Keynote: 'The Question of Technology in the Common(s)' by Tiziana Terranova