Divergent Thinking and Capitalism: Can We Imagine Resistance to Power?

Autori

  • Adrián Bene

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4396/20250304

Parole chiave:

divergent thinking, normality, capitalism, biopower, governance, neurodiversity

Abstract

This study examines how different forms of divergent thinking have been stigmatized and, in the course of the history of modern European (and European-derived) social structures, increasingly colonized in the present day. This history is, on the one hand, the history of rationalism and a mechanistic worldview, and on the other hand, the expansion of capitalism based on profit and competition. In our analysis, we draw on the critique of Georg Lukács, who relied on both Max Weber and Karl Marx, and on Michel Foucault’s social history research on the control and normalization of “abnormal” behaviours that are incompatible with the principle of reason in relation to power and government techniques. We then examine the changing social perception of neurodiversity from the perspective of the emancipatory discourse on neurodiversity, linking it to the power relations of social imagery and global digital capitalism.

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Pubblicato

2026-06-16