In recent years, we have witnessed a growing polarization of political and ideological positions in public debate. The debate has moved from face-to-face forums to the digital environment. From a historical-cultural perspective (Wersch, 1998), we understand that the mediating tools used in social communication in this context, such as social networks and various digital media, with their characteristics, limitations, and possibilities, could be conditioning expression and, therefore, the internalization of discourses and affective-symbolic logics that tend toward extremism and the radicalization of messages (Marantz, 2020).

On the other hand, those of us who participate in these scenarios maintain a perception of freedom. We consider ourselves radically autonomous, while unknowingly cooperating with our own domination or surveillance. Hypnocracy (Xun, 2025) is based precisely on this paradox: the more intensely we experience the feeling of choice, the more deeply rooted the criteria by which we are classified, evaluated, and/or normalized become. Predictive algorithms, security protocols, and risk management systems do not need to prohibit; it is enough to filter, order, and hierarchize our possibilities for action and present them as agency-driven and spontaneous options, as proposed by Foucault's (2007) notion of biopolitics and governmentality, because we believe that we are witnessing a new phase: it is no longer just a matter of managing populations, but of governing from within the subject's own self-relation, that is, the way in which they think of themselves as free agents.

In this context, radical discourses, such as anti-feminist and anti-immigration discourses (Elis & Bhatia), and even those that imply a subhumanization of “others” (immigrants, minorities, women, etc.) (Teo, 2020), are consumed and recreated in monochromatic digital environments that reinforce confirmation biases and, therefore, the polarization of citizens' attitudes.

This dark political and social landscape has led us to inquire, within the framework of projects in which different scenarios of activity and social groups interact, those conditions that could build bridges between subjectivities that would otherwise remain isolated and, at present, opposed. From our practice in emancipatory projects in disadvantaged communities in contexts of cultural diversity, in which we have participated for 30 years, we have observed the emergence of hybrid scenarios of activity and hybrid psychological agents, which we will present as transformative possibilities (Macías-Gómez-Estern, 2020; 2021; Macías-Gómez-Estern et al., 2025).

These scenarios and agents have emerged throughout the process of face-to-face participation in activities with low levels of formalization, often mediated by artistic languages (e.g., music), and have generated systems that are resilient to crises and emancipatory transformations in the different groups and individuals participating (Martínez-Lozano et al; 2023; Lalueza et. al, 2024; Macías-Gómez-Estern & Lalueza, 2024). In this presentation, we will share our ongoing reflections on these ideas.

Our contribution is therefore situated at the intersection of political philosophy and critical psychology, and questions those other possible figures of the subject that can operate as counter-devices against the new regimes of power.

References:

Ellis, B. D., & Bhatia, S. (2019). Cultural psychology for a new era of citizenship politics. Culture & Psychology, 25(2), 220-240.

Foucault, M. (2007). Security, territory, population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977-1978.

Lalueza, J.L.; Martínez-Lozano, V. & Macías-Gómez-Estern, B. (2024). University-community partnerships as “hybrid contexts of activity”: learnings from two projects with Roma children in Spain. En M.W. Mahmood, M. Faulstich Orellana & J. Cano (eds). University-Community Partnerships for Transformative Education: Sowing Seeds of Resistance and Renewal, pp. 265-282. Springer Nature.

Macías-Gómez-Estern, B. (2020). "Hybrid psychology agent": Overcoming the about/for dichotomy from praxis, Theory & Psychology, 30 (3), 430-435. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354320923726

Macías-Gómez-Estern, B. (2021). Critical Psychology for community emancipation: insights from socio-educative praxis in hybrid setting. In Machin, R. (Ed.) The new waves in Social Psychology and Psychoanalysis. Empirical and theoretical tendencies and Challenges. Palgrave-McMillan (pp.25-54).

Macías-Gómez-Estern, B. & Lalueza, J.L. (2024). Navigating I-positionings in higher education Service Learning as hybrid scenarios: a case study, Language, Culture and Social Interaction, 45, 100805.

Macías-Gómez-Estern, B., Martínez-Lozano, V., & Lalueza, J.L (2025). Re-envisioning collaborative university-community engagement through a critical ethnographic lens: transformative hybrid scenarios. Ethnography and Education, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457823.2025.2565009

Marantz, A. (2020). Antisocial: Online extremists, techno-utopians, and the hijacking of the American conversation. Penguin.

Seco-Martinez, J.M. (2025) La democracia Despierta. Frente al capitalismo de vigilancia. Aconcagua

Teo, T. (2020). Subhumanism: The re‐emergence of an affective‐symbolic ontology in the migration debate and beyond. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 50(2), 132-148.

Wertsch, J. V. (1991). Voices of the Mind: A Sociocultural Approach to Mediated Action. Harvard University Press.

Xun, J. (2025). Ipnocrazia. Trump, Muske l’architettura della realtà. Edizioni Tlon.

In contemporary Japan, the erosion of foundational connections—such as community, family, and company—that once supported people's lives has led to an increase in complex life challenges that cannot be addressed by traditional "targeted support." Consequently, the existence of people caught in the "gaps between systems" is becoming increasingly visible (Abe, 2007). We need the creation of open "spaces" within communities that transcend institutional frameworks limiting assistance recipients, spaces where anyone can drop in.

With this awareness, this presentation focuses on a space (X) where residents voluntarily gather to engage in creative improvement activities. Specifically, I examine the "Character Design Competition" project, which is planned to raise social awareness about children in need of support. Through this, activities that connect adults through enjoyment and hobbies have the potential to lead to unprecedented forms of child support is argued. For example, one of the project's initiators, who had always enjoyed ANIME and MANGA, pointed out that anime and manga have the potential to draw attention to children who need support. In the "Character Design Competition" project, participants' individual images of children become enriched. Many ideas that were initially unplanned emerged one after another (including manga, merchandise, and collaborations with YouTubers). Several members of "X" realized that the same project being undertaken within administrative services needs greater accountability but lacks authenticity on this issue. Such an activity can be seen as a form of “Art-based research” (Leavy, 2015) that enables people to engage with subjects in a fun way. Rather than planned support activities, the participants' connections forged through shared enjoyment paradoxically broadened their interest in children who need support.

Reference

Abe, A. (2007). Genndai nihon no syakaiteki haijo no genjou [Present condition of social exclusion of present age in Japan]. In H. Fukuhara (Ed.), Syakaiteki haijo/housetsu to syakai seisaku [Social exclusion/inclusion, and social policy] (pp. 129–152).Kyoto: Horitsu Bunka-Sha.

Leavy, P. (2015). Method Meets Art (2nd ed): Arts-Based Research Practice. Guilford Press.

Past research has found individuals’ willingness to engage with political activism to be linked with a variety of factors. These include personal experiences with discrimination or disenfranchisement, access to social and financial resources, and personality traits. The present study focuses on perspectives on activism and activist identity within queer/LGBTQI* individuals and examines the ways in which political engagement is approached within this population. Queer individuals are all directly or indirectly confronted with politicisation and discrimination, but may show highly varied experiences of identity, social positioning, access to resources, and political opinion.

We investigate the role of the above factors within a sample of 100 LGBTQI* individuals through a mixed questionnaire and narrative qualitative interviews.

As part of this study design and to represent this complex tension field, this project employs a custom sentence completion method derived from K. Kullasepps DDTC (Kullasepp, 2008) method to explore individuals inner conflicts, role negotiations and overall meaning construction surrounding activism and queer community. Through this qualitative methodology, new theoretical avenues are opened. They may not only be built on to better understand activism and political engagement within complex social and identity networks, but also may provide a base to offer tailored practical support agency and access to political work for members of politicised communities.

Kullasepp, K. (2008). Dialogical becoming. Professional identity formation of

psychology students. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Tallinn University, Estonia.