Alex Rivera “Globalization From Below”
Ep. 28
Playing for Team Human today is digital media artist, activist, and filmmaker Alex Rivera. Known for his acclaimed 2008 feature film, Sleep Dealer, Rivera’s work explores the contradictions of a globalized economy and the simultaneous stigmatizing of immigrant laborers and erecting of border walls. Together, Rivera and Douglas Rushkoff interrogate the rhetoric of the digital “global village.” We’ll learn about what Rivera calls “Dronification,” a highly connected, yet ever-more alienated digital subjectivity. Rivera and Rushkoff then discuss how we might restore true human connection and build bottom-up solidarity, or what the Zapatistas call “globalization from below.”
In today’s intro monologue Rushkoff considers the need for both empowering local, grassroots organizing as well as fortifying public structures that bring the benefit of mutual aid and collectivity up to scale.
This episode closes with a song from Team Human co-producer/editor Stephen Bartolomei, entitled Kill Floor Rebellion. It’s a song “that celebrates border crossers and migrant workers, inspired by the true story of the Kill Floor Rebellion.”
Inspired by this episode? Check out the National Day Laborer Organizing Network for resources to get involved.Follow Team Human Show
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Credits
Hosted by Douglas Rushkoff
Produced by Josh Chapdelaine
Audio Edited & Mixed by Stephen Bartolomei.
Community Manager is Michael Bass.
Music by Fugazi (On this Episode you heard “Foreman’s Dog” in the intro – thanks to the kindness of the band and Dischord Records.)
Team Human is a Production of the Laboratory for Digital Humanism at Queens College.
