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

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If you are interested in democratic economic planning, these resources might be of help:

Democratic planning – an information website

https://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/29/1

Groos, 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-construction

International Network for Democratic Economic Planning

https://www.indep.network/

Democratic Planning Research Platform:

https://www.planningresearch.net/

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Shownotes

Cecilia Rikap at University College London (UCL):

https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/94616-cecilia-rikap

Cecilias 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#overview

Rikap, 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_THE5S57rt4kTs62Fp3kv5AUNj8rUTdn7ywK9LFhfEro

Rikap 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-sovereignty

Bensussan, 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:171107

Rikap, C. (2023) Mapping the Cloud. Big Tech taking the Sky by Storm. CITYPERC Working Paper, No. 2023-05.

https://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/280831

Rikap, C. (2024) From Planning AI to Planning the Green Transition. Intellectual Monopolization amid the ecological breakdown.

https://youtu.be/cckqeiwXuHA?si=N3lRKBiN-KVQaXyA

Rikap, C. (2022) Intellectual Monopoly Capitalism. Knowledge Predation and Corporate Planning in the 21st Century.

https://www.youtube.com/live/VMU1IHm8838?si=jiOLSryWIyM9NvYL

Rikap, C. (2022) Intellectual Monopoly Capitalism. How Big Tech Companies became the World’s largest Planners.

https://youtu.be/4va-JedZGQA?si=0p_Lm-CJ-mbK6GoN

on the concept of Value Chains:

https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/education/graduate-study/pgcerts/value-chain-defs

on “demand sensing”:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_sensing

on 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/c23vkd57471o

on 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_Khan

on the different political strands coming together in the current Trump Administration, including the influence of Curtis Yarvin:

https://youtu.be/YIPWekMahXc?si=mcY_ntC1-etzulF5

on Yann leCun:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yann_LeCun

Future Histories Episodes on Related Topics

S03E24 | Grace Blakeley on Capitalist Planning and its Alternatives

https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e24-grace-blakeley-on-capitalist-planning-and-its-alternatives/

S02E44 | Evgeny Morozov on Discovery Beyond Competition

https://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-World

https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s01/e42-moira-weigel-on-palantir-tech-nationalism-aggression-in-the-life-world/

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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

Andrew Gentes, “Exile to Siberia, 1590-1822” (Palgrave-McMillan, 2008)