The Algorithmic Global Imaginary in Theory and Practice

In this project, Tommaso Durante explores our collective understanding of the 'global', what Antoni Gramsci would have called the common sense of the global, is being fundamentally reshaped by digital technologies, specifically algorithms and Big Data.

Tommaso Durante’s theory of the "algorithmic global imaginary" represents a critical evolution in our understanding of the social (collective) mental maps of our interconnected world. Building on the foundational work on the theory of the social imaginary, Durante argues that our shared sense of belonging to a global community is no longer shaped solely by national ideologies or mass media but is increasingly governed by the invisible logic of algorithms (an algorithmic ideology). Therefore, we need new thinking tools and identify new figures of knowledge (new theory and methodology) to approach the techno-symbolic global imaginary of the Digital Millennium.
By framing the global imaginary as algorithmic, Durante warns that our shared understanding of the world is increasingly shaped by corporate black boxes, potentially narrowing our cultural diversity under the guise of universal connectivity, thereby underpinning the post-neoliberal phase of globalisation.