@article{Schereretal, author = {Scherer, Andreas Georg and et al.,}, title = {New Challenges to the Enlightenment: How Twenty-First-Century Socio-technological Systems Facilitate Organized Immaturity and How to Counteract It}, series = {Business Ethics Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 3 (2023), pp. 409-439. [Online ISSN 2153-3326] [doi.org/10.1017/BEQ.2023.7]}, journal = {Business Ethics Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 3 (2023), pp. 409-439. [Online ISSN 2153-3326] [doi.org/10.1017/BEQ.2023.7]}, abstract = {Organized immaturity, the reduction of individual capacities for public use of reason constrained by socio-technological systems, constitutes a significant pushback against the project of Enlightenment. Forms of immaturity have long been a concern for philosophers and social theorists, such as Kant, Arendt, Fromm, Marcuse, and Foucault. Recently, Zuboff's concept of >surveillance capitalism< describes how advancements in digital technologies lead to new, increasingly sophisticated forms of organized immaturity in democratic societies. We discuss how socio-technological systems initially designed to meet human needs can inhibit the multidimensional development of individuals as mature citizens. To counteract these trends, we suggest two mechanisms: disorganizing immaturity as a way to safeguard individuals' and collectives' negative freedoms (freedoms from), and organizing maturity as a way to strengthen positive freedoms (freedoms to). Finally, we provide an outlook on the five further articles that constitute the Business Ethics Quarterly Special Issue >Socio-technological Conditions of Organized Immaturity in the Twenty-First Century.<}, language = {en} }