Gene

Quantum mechanics

Transformation (genetics)

Linguistics

Process (computing)

Philosophy

Social theory

Literature

Operating system

Social change

Power (physics)

Biochemistry

Computer science

Enlightenment

Social transformation

Mythology

Physics

Unpacking

Political science

Epistemology

Sociology

Chemistry

Theology

Social science

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

In this article, it is argued that social theory must be renewed to comprehend the new power constellations and new challenges to aesthetic and intellectual ways of life that are being shaped by digital transformation. However, while social theory has to renew its tools in order to grasp previously unknown realities, it also runs the risk of being assimilated into the very process that it seeks to understand, or to assimilate so much of the dominant belief system that it loses its critical and creative potential. The aim of this article is to propose a particular, renewed social theory that consists in a recasting some social theoretic insights to be able to preserve aesthetic and intellectual potentials of critique and negation. Through the lens of this renewed social theory, digital transformation is understood as a form of economic domination, which, as this article shows, is sustained by un-enlightenment, that is, by fraudulent myths and misplaced metaphors.

Digital transformation and the renewal of social theory: Unpacking the new fraudulent myths and misplaced metaphors