Cybernetic Capitalism - (Meaning Systems) by Jan Overwijk

About the Book

Cybernetic Capitalism develops a critical systems theory in order to conceptualize the cybernetic rationalization of contemporary capitalism. Today, the book argues, capital no longer aims at total communicability, but seeks to put the incommunicable to work.

Book Synopsis

A Conceptual Interrogation of Capital in a Cybernetic Environment

Cybernetic Capitalism presents a groundbreaking synthesis of Niklas Luhmann's systems theory and critical theory. Overwijk examines how neoliberal capitalism now thrives on the management of incommunicability rather than the pursuit of total communicability, harnessing ecological complexity as its driving force. Contrary to earlier critiques that highlighted capitalism's push to render all social life fully communicable, the current era encourages market incalculability, profits from user unpredictability, and spurs service
workers' creativity.

This ecological logic resonates with the extractivist drive of the Anthropocene, reframing our understanding of capitalism as an adaptive, environment-attuned system. Cybernetic Capitalism also exposes how these dynamics intersect with the cultural rise of conspiracy theories and radical-right irrationalism. By illuminating capitalism's paradoxical reliance on both rationalist and irrationalist currents, Overwijk provides a vital new lens for interpreting the complex politics of our time.

From the Back Cover

"Cybernetic Capitalism works to develop a critical systems theory on the basis of an encounter between the Frankfurt School notion of instrumental reason and the fundamental innovation of Luhmannian systems theory, namely operational closure. The book shows how we might fix what the author rightly perceives as the flaws in each. With an impressive clarity of conceptual thinking the book makes surprising and exciting connections between a vast number of disparate discourses."--Mark B. N. Hansen, Duke University

This book offers a conceptual interrogation of how capital navigates its cybernetic environment. Taking an immanent perspective, the book develops a unique synthesis between Niklas Luhmann's systems theory and the critical theory tradition. Overwijk shows how neoliberal capitalism's version of rationalization depends on the organization and management of society on the basis of cybernetic principles.

Overwijk seeks to update earlier critiques of cybernetic capitalism that stressed the system's colonization of its environment, its making the entirety of social life communicable. Under today's cybernetic rationalization, things are radically different. Neoliberal political economy aims to incite the incalculability of the market; platform capitalists venture to capitalize on the unpredictable efforts of their users; and post-Fordist management seeks to encourage the creativity of service workers. As this book uniquely shows, capital no longer aims at total communicability, but instead seeks to provoke and exploit the incommunicability of its environment. In this sense, it offers an ecological theory of capitalism, laying conceptual the groundwork for understanding the extractivist logic of the Anthropocene.

Cybernetic Capitalism shows how the cultural obsession with incommunicability that animates cybernetic rationalization has taken an irrationalist turn, resurfacing in the mysticism of conspiracy theory and radical-right politics. The book offers a novel and compelling materialist interpretation of today's paradoxical connections between neoliberal rationalism and radical-right irrationalism.

Jan Overwijk is NWO Rubicon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Review Quotes

As the curtains of 2025 rise to environmental catastrophe, record inequality, and an unbridled far right, how can we make sense of a world order that appears as irrational as it does relentless? What are we to do with that peculiar notion of rationalization when these and similar dynamics seem to have rendered it all but obsolete? In response, Jan Overwijk's Cybernetic Capitalism: A Critical Theory of the Incommunicable develops a "critical systems theory" with which to demystify our sociopolitical juncture.---Marc Kohlbry, Critical Inquiry

Cybernetic Capitalism works to develop a critical systems theory on the basis of an encounter between the Frankfurt School notion of instrumental reason and the fundamental innovation of Luhmannian systems theory, namely operational closure. The book shows how we might fix what the author rightly perceives as the flaws in each. With an impressive clarity of conceptual thinking the book makes surprising and exciting connections between a vast number of disparate discourses.---Mark B. N. Hansen, Duke University

About the Author

Jan Overwijk is NWO Rubicon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and Assistant Professor at the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht, The Netherlands.