On Critical “Technopolitical Pedagogies”

Learning and Knowledge Sharing with Public Library/Memory of the World and syllabus ⦚ Pirate Care

Abstract

This article explores the pedagogical and political dimensions of the specific content-form relations of the projects Public Library/Memory of the World and syllabus ⦚ Pirate Care. Public Library/Memory of the World (2012–ongoing) by Marcell Mars and Tomislav Medak serves as an online shadow library in response to the ongoing commodification of academic research and threats to public libraries. syllabus⦚ Pirate Care (2019), a project initiated by Valeria Graziano, Mars, and Medak, offers learning resources that address the crisis of care and its criminalisation under neoliberal policies. By employing “technopolitical pedagogies” and advocating the sharing of knowledge, these projects enable forms of practical and political orientation in a world of “insuppressible friction.” They use network technologies and open-source tools to provide access to information and support civil disobedience against restrictive intellectual property laws. The article argues that these projects represent critical pedagogical interventions, hacking the monodimensional tendencies of educational systems and library catalogues, and produce commoner positions.