In our first Portuguese episode, we welcome Kenzo Soares Seto (he), a resident researcher at Yale Law School and a fellow of the Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy.Drawing on his unique trajectory, from street activism to parliamentary advising and academic research, Kenzo guides us through a profound discussion about the future of work and technology. He presents central concepts from his research, such as "platform subimperialism" and the "algorithm of the oppressed," showing how current digital technologies and big tech companies reproduce power relations and oppression in a Global South context.
The conversation moves on to practical alternatives: how can we build sovereign public policies and technologies that put control of data and algorithms in the hands of workers and communities?
With concrete examples, such as the initiatives of the MTST Technology Center and data_labe, Kenzo demonstrates that another digital world is possible, based on the solidarity economy, platform cooperativism, and the pedagogy of Paulo Freire.
This episode is an invitation to rethink technology not as a tool of exploitation, but as an instrument of liberation and the construction of dignified work for all.
Barricada TV - Canal de televisión autogestionado de Argentina
Contrate Quem Luta - Virtual assistant that connects MTST activists with people who need services.
data_labe - Data and narrative laboratory based in the Complexo do Alemão, Rio de Janeiro, that seeks to produce knowledge from the favela, decolonize data, and combat stereotypes.
Liga Coop - Mobility cooperative.
Nemer, David (2021). Tecnologia do Oprimido: desigualdade e o mundano digital nas favelas do Brasil. Editora Milfontes.
NetLab - NetLab UFRJ is an internet research laboratory dedicated to diagnosing the phenomenon of digital disinformation and its social consequences in Brazil.
Núcleo de Tecnologia do MTST - Internal collective of the Homeless Workers’ Movement (MTST) that develops digital tools to organize the struggle for housing.
Other publications by Kenzo
Seto, K. (2025). AI From the South: artificial intelligence in Latin America through the sociotechnical imaginaries of Brazilian tech workers. GLOBALIZATIONS. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2025.2465166
Seto, K. (2024). Platform sub-imperialism. Big Data & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517241249410
Seto; K. (2024). Muito além do Vale do Silício: o imaginário dos trabalhadores da tecnologia no Brasil entre o subimperialismo de plataforma e os algoritmos dos oprimidos. Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Escola de Comunicação, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Comunicação e Cultura, 2024-06-28. Disp. em:http://objdig.ufrj.br/30/teses/955555.pdf.
Seto, K. S. (2023). Subimperialismo de dados: uma crítica ao colonialismo de dados diante das Big Techs sul-americanas. Revista Eletrônica Internacional De Economia Política Da Informação Da Comunicação E Da Cultura, 25(2), 165–184. https://doi.org/10.54786/revistaeptic.v25i2.19199