The friction of mediation. For a critique of technologically mediated world-relations

João Tziminadis

doi:10.15448/2178-5694.2026.1.48820

Authors

João Tziminadis Erfurt University, Thuringia, Germany https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8181-3748

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15448/2178-5694.2026.1.48820

Keywords:

Philosophy of technology, Critical Theory, Hartmut Rosa, Technological mediation, World-relations

Abstract

While contemporary technology studies and philosophy have illuminated humanity’s constitutive technicity, they often bracket questions of modern social formation and alienation. Conversely, critical theory’s modernity diagnoses have tended to treat technology primarily as instrumental reason. This essay programmatically explores the tension between postphenomenology’s relational account of technological mediation and Hartmut Rosa’s critique of modernity. Introducing friction as constitutive discontinuity in mediated world-relations, it argues that modernity’s escalatory dynamics reduce friction to obstacles to be overcome. By foregrounding the friction of mediation, the paper sketches a critique of technologically mediated world relations oriented toward rehabilitating the engaging and transformative potential of friction.

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Author Biography

João Tziminadis, Erfurt University, Thuringia, Germany

João Tziminadis is a postdoctoral researcher at the Max-Weber-Kolleg, University of Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany, and holds a doctorate from the same institution. Also holds a master’s in Social Sciences from the São Paulo State University Júlio de Mesquita Filho (Unesp), Araraquara, SP, Brazil.

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