Problematizing the effects of technocapitalism through fiction? From the margins to the social worlds of cyberpunk

This contribution aims to show the heuristic interest that there may be in apprehending the margins, shady environments, falls and wanderings, troubled practices and more generally the social worlds of cyberpunk as fields of inquiry helping, thanks to their exploratory fictional form, to problematize and think about profound sociological trends and in particular the evolution of the conditions of existence in an expanding technocapitalist society. Behind the technological exuberance, the narratives and staging of this subgenre of science fiction indeed deploy a relatively coherent set of visions and representations, which can also offer resources for thinking about the effects of social insecurity on people’s identities, the forms of expression of marginalities, the grips that existences made fragile and uncertain can find in dislocated societies, and the logics by which criminal activities adapt in this new context.