Representing the Social Effects of Technocapitalism Through Fiction? On the Social Worlds of Cyberpunk and Their Reflexive Potential

Abstract

The rise of technocapitalism profoundly reshapes societal structures, sparking critical debate and demanding new analytical frameworks to grasp its multifaceted implications. This article argues that cyberpunk, far from mere speculative fiction, can function as a retrospective experimental laboratory for social theory. Its central claim is not that sociological theory simply enriches literary interpretation, but that literature – in this case, the foundational cyberpunk works of the 1980s – provides conceptual resources for apprehending technocapitalism in its current forms. Rather than focusing on detailed case studies of individual texts, the article develops a synoptic framework based on four recurring ‘refractions’ – existential, social, cultural and moral – that consistently structure the genre's portrayal of ‘high tech, low life’. By situating these fictional worlds alongside contemporary debates (from Kellner's work on technocapitalism to the effects of an era dominated by widespread uncertainty and systematic precarity, as analysed by Bauman), the article demonstrates how cyberpunk illuminates the paradoxes of technological advancement accompanied by social disintegration. Its contribution is twofold: first, to show how cyberpunk fiction remains heuristically valuable for understanding precariousness, marginality and moral deregulation under technocapitalism today; and second, to position literature as a resource for social theory, offering imaginative yet analytically illuminating insights into contemporary civilizational challenges.