Cecilia Rikap on Intellectual Monopoly Capitalism and Corporate Power in the Age of AI

Cecilia Rikap explains how today’s big tech hegemons build intellectual monopolies and use their power for corporate planning beyond ownership.This episode was recorded during a live event with Cecilia Rikap, hosted by the Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation Berlin. Many thanks to everybody involved!For information on the event, see: https://www.rosalux.de/en/event/es_detail/2MGCX---If you are interested in democratic economic planning, these resources might be of help:Democratic planning – an information websitehttps://www.democratic-planning.com/Sorg, C. & Groos, J. (eds.)(2025). Rethinking Economic Planning. Competition & Change Special Issue Volume 29 Issue 1.https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/ccha/29/1Groos, J. & Sorg, C. (2025). Creative Construction - Democratic Planning in the 21st Century and Beyond. Bristol University Press. [for a review copy, please contact: amber.lanfranchi[at]bristol.ac.uk]https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-constructionInternational Network for Democratic Economic Planninghttps://www.indep.network/Democratic Planning Research Platform:https://www.planningresearch.net/---ShownotesCecilia Rikap at University College London (UCL):https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/94616-cecilia-rikapCecilias upcoming book:Rikap, C. (2025). The Rulers. Corporate Power in the Age of AI and the Cloud. Verso Books.https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/790833/the-rulers-by-cecilia-rikap/Rikap, C., & Lundvall, B.-Å. (2021). The Digital Innovation Race: Conceptualizing the Emerging New World Order. Springer Nature.https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-89443-6#overviewRikap, C. (2021). Capitalism, Power and Innovation: Intellectual Monopoly Capitalism Uncovered. Routledge.https://www.routledge.com/Capitalism-Power-and-Innovation-Intellectual-Monopoly-Capitalism-Uncovered/Rikap/p/book/9780367750299?srsltid=AfmBOoohn2o3_THE5S57rt4kTs62Fp3kv5AUNj8rUTdn7ywK9LFhfEroRikap C., Durand, C., Paraná, E., Gerbaudo, P. and Marx P. (2024). Reclaiming Digital Sovereignty: A Roadmap to build a Digital Stack for People and the Planet.https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2024/dec/reclaiming-digital-sovereigntyBensussan, H., Durand, C., Rikap, C. (2023) 100 years of Corporate Planning. From Industrial Capitalism to Intellectual Monopoly Capitalism through the lenses of the Harvard Business Review (1922-2021).https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:171107Rikap, C. (2023) Mapping the Cloud. Big Tech taking the Sky by Storm. CITYPERC Working Paper, No. 2023-05.https://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/280831Rikap, C. (2024) From Planning AI to Planning the Green Transition. Intellectual Monopolization amid the ecological breakdown.https://youtu.be/cckqeiwXuHA?si=N3lRKBiN-KVQaXyARikap, C. (2022) Intellectual Monopoly Capitalism. Knowledge Predation and Corporate Planning in the 21st Century.https://www.youtube.com/live/VMU1IHm8838?si=jiOLSryWIyM9NvYLRikap, C. (2022) Intellectual Monopoly Capitalism. How Big Tech Companies became the World’s largest Planners.https://youtu.be/4va-JedZGQA?si=0p_Lm-CJ-mbK6GoNon the concept of Value Chains:https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/education/graduate-study/pgcerts/value-chain-defson “demand sensing”:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_sensingon the concept of „the stack” and its relation to states:Bratton, B. H. (2016). The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty. MIT Press.https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262029575/the-stack/on Doge and its cutting of jobs at US government agencies:https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c23vkd57471oon Lina Kahn, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under Biden and her policy efforts (including antitrust laws against Big Tech):https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lina_Khanon the different political strands coming together in the current Trump Administration, including the influence of Curtis Yarvin:https://youtu.be/YIPWekMahXc?si=mcY_ntC1-etzulF5on Yann leCun:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yann_LeCun Future Histories Episodes on Related TopicsS03E24 | Grace Blakeley on Capitalist Planning and its Alternativeshttps://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e24-grace-blakeley-on-capitalist-planning-and-its-alternatives/S02E44 | Evgeny Morozov on Discovery Beyond Competitionhttps://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s02/e44-evgeny-morozov-on-discovery-beyond-competition/S01E45 | Benjamin Bratton on Synthetic Catallaxies, Platforms or Platforms & Red Futurism (Part 2/2)https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s01/e45-benjamin-bratton-on-synthetic-catallaxies-platforms-of-platforms-red-futurism-part-2-2/S01E44 | Benjamin Bratton on Synthetic Catallaxies, Platforms or Platforms & Red Futurism (Part 1/2)https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s01/e44-benjamin-bratton-on-synthetic-catallaxies-platforms-of-platforms-red-futurism-part-1-2/S01E42 | Moira Weigel on Palantir, Tech-Nationalism & Aggression in the Life-Worldhttps://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s01/e42-moira-weigel-on-palantir-tech-nationalism-aggression-in-the-life-world/ Future Histories Contact & SupportIf you like Future Histories, please consider supporting us on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/join/FutureHistoriesContact: [email protected]: https://twitter.com/FutureHpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/futurehpodcast/Mastodon: https://mstdn.social/@FutureHistoriesEnglish webpage:https://futurehistories-international.com Episode Keywords#CeciliaRikap, #JanGroos, #Interview, #FutureHistories, #futurehistoriesinternational, #FutureHistoriesInternational, #BigTech, #CapitalistPlanning, #Monopolies, #PlatformCapitalism, #ProgressivePolitics, #EconomicPlanning, #TechnoPolitics, #Capitalism, #BigData, #TheStack, #Platform, #DataPolitics, #TechNationalism, #Techno-Nationalism, #PeterThiel, #SiliconValley, #Palantir, #CurtisYarvin, #IntellectualMonopolies, #KnowledgeCapitalism, #TechSovereignty, #DataColonialism, #AiAndCapitalism, #TechnoFeudalism, #IntellectualPropertyRegimes