Issue 8.1

Fuelling collective work in the face of AI

The emergence of the AI age is radically transforming the nature, purpose and politics of knowledge production, particularly collective knowledge production. While artificial intelligence is often celebrated as a powerful manifestation of collective knowledge, drawing upon vast repositories of human-generated information, it is built on exploitative and extractive practices. Genuine collective knowledge production must be distinguished from such extraction and instead be grounded in principles of social justice, recognition, and reciprocity. We contend that knowledge is inherently collective, emerging through dialogue, relationships, lived experiences, and shared creativity. Understanding knowledge in this way challenges notions of ownership and commodification, emphasizing instead relationality, participation, and responsibility. Additionally, collective knowledge production requires openness to diverse perspectives, ongoing dialogue, and a commitment to acknowledging individual contributions while serving the communities from which knowledge emerges. In resisting the appropriation of collective knowledge by AI-driven systems, we advocate for the decommodification of knowledge and the cultivation of collaborative practices capable of fostering more just, democratic, and equitable futures.

Many articles in Issue 8.1 reflect on the importance of collective organizing and action as a form of resistance to neoliberal housing structures and narratives employed to justify the commodification of housing and the violence and precarity it often wreaks on tenants. Many of the authors employ a critical analysis of government policies and narratives in order to reveal how they are used to reinforce particular ideas and debates and to control public perception. At the same time, the authors engage in the production of new perspectives as a form of resistance and solidarity. Together, the pieces in this issue illuminate rich pathways toward how we might approach collective knowledge-making, organizing, and action.

doi.org/10.54825/VAZT1703

Issue editors: Solange Muñoz, Samantha Thompson, Derick Anderson, Melissa Fernández Arrigoitia, Maria Karagianni, Saila Maria Saaristo and Elara Shurety

Cover photo: Thiago Canettieri

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