The digital subject : power(s) of digital order, counter-conduct, and neo-luddism

Banjac, Marinko (author)

The article addresses the way the digital subject is constituted in contemporary digital capitalism while using Foucault’s theorisation of subjectivation, technologies of the self, and counter-conduct. Focus is initially given to the shaping behaviour of the digital order that normalises certain modes of existence and transforms subjects into calculable, controllable entities. At the same time, power relations in the digital order are inherently unstable, creating conditions for resistance. Building on Foucault’s concept of counter-conduct, the digital subject is argued to be neither completely autonomous nor completely determined. As a concrete articulation of counter-conduct on both the level of knowledge and level of material practices, Neo-luddism is critically interrogated, which we analyse as operating through refusal, resistance, and reimagination of technological arrangements within the digital order.

• Language: English
• Keywords: digital subject, digital capitalism, power, counter-conduct, neo-luddism, algorithms, resistance, selfhood
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.02 - Review Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 28.10.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 653-680
• Numbering: Letn. 63, št. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-190936
• UDC: 321.1: 004
• ISSN on article: 0040-3598
• DOI: 10.51936/tip.63.3.653
• COBISS.SI-ID: 304332291
• Publication date in RUL: 08.11.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Teorija in praksa : revija za družbena vprašanja
• Shortened title: Teor. praksa
• Publisher: Fakulteta za družbene vede
• ISSN: 0040-3598
• COBISS.SI-ID: 763652

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
• Description: A creative commons license that bans commercial use, but the users don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Digitalni subjekt

Abstract

Članek obravnava konstituiranje digitalnega subjekta v sodobnem digitalnem kapitalističnem redu, pri čemer se analitično naslanja na Foucaultove teoretizacije subjekta v razmerju do oblasti, tehnologije sebstva in proti-delovanja. Članek se najprej osredini na digitalni red, ki oblikuje vedenje, normalizira določene načine obstoja in subjekte preoblikuje v izračunljive, nadzorljive entitete. Hkrati pa so odnosi moči oziroma oblastni odnosi v digitalnem redu vedno nestabilni, kar ustvarja razmere za uporne prakse. Na podlagi Foucaultovega koncepta proti-delovanja prispevek argumentira neoludizem kot konkretno formo proti-delovanja na ravni vednosti in materialnih praks. Neoludizem kritično analiziramo kot delovanje skozi zavračanje, odpor in ponovno zamislitev tehnoloških ureditev znotraj digitalnega reda.

• Keywords: digitalni subjekt, digitalni kapitalizem, oblast, proti-delovanje, neoludizem, algoritmi, odpor, sebstvo