Beyond control: libraries as sites of democratic communication and resistance

This article examines the role of media, digital technologies, and libraries in confronting corporate capitalism’s impact on cultural diversity, epistemic justice, and public discourse. Communication infrastructures are analysed as symbolic and political fields rather than neutral systems. The methodology is theoretical and interpretive, grounded in a critical literature review of authors such as Hepp, Hui, Santos, Lankes, Hertz, and Castells. Key concepts such as technodiversity, epistemicide, and counter-hegemonic public sphere guide the analysis of how media infrastructures intersect with institutional and grassroots resistance." ou "The key concepts of technodiversity, epistemicide, and counter-hegemonic public sphere guide the analysis of how media infrastructures intersect with institutional and grassroots resistance. The findings show that dominant ideologies are reproduced through global media systems but also challenged by marginalised groups. Digital "voluntary servitude" and algorithmic control point to a new technocolonialism. Hui’s concept of technodiversity responds to this by proposing culturally rooted technologies as alternatives to universalist models. Santos’s idea of an ecology of knowledges reinforces this view. Libraries, especially community-driven ones, emerge as spaces of symbolic resistance and epistemic pluralism, exemplified by cases like Biblioteca Parque de Manguinhos, Baobáxia, and Rede Wayuri. These initiatives illustrate how technologies and institutions can be reclaimed for emancipatory purposes. This is achieved through collaborative infrastructures and ethical communication. Ultimately, the article argues that media and libraries are central to resisting structural inequalities under corporate capitalism. Technodiversity provides a framework for imagining sustainable, plural, and locally grounded communication systems.