Sermaye ve Duygular: Çorapların Yeri

by Christian Marazzi, Münevver Çelik (Çevirmen)

Bugünden geçmişe bakma olanağı sunan, tersten bir öngörü kitabı Sermaye ve Duygular. Yirminci yüzyılın son çeyreğinde ayyuka çıkan ekonomik ve politik krizin reçetesi olarak sunulan neoliberalizm ve küreselleşmenin, sonunda bir kâbus gibi dünyanın üzerine nasıl çöktüğünün izlerini sürmek mümkün bu kitapta. Kitap, krizlerle şekillenen bir geçiş dönemindeki dönüşümleri dışarıdan değil içeriden anlamayı öneriyor. Öyle ki bir kadının yerde bırakılmış çorapları her seferinde gidip yerine koyması kadar içeriden… Marazzi en gündelik deneyimlerimizden başlayarak dilin, iletişimin ve duyguların üretime nasıl dahil edildiğini, emeğin niteliklerinin nasıl dönüştüğünü, nasıl yeni bir öznellik üretiminin kurulduğunu araştırıyor. Sadece üretim süreçlerinin değil yönetim süreçlerinin de nasıl art zamanlılıktan çıkıp eşzamanlılıkla örgütlendiğini vurguluyor. Dağılıp yok olmakta olanın yerini alan yeninin yarattığı yıkımın, yaşam güçlerine açtığı savaşı gözler önüne seriyor. “Komuta biçimlerinde” ve “iktidarın eklemlenmelerinde” yaşanan “paradigmatik kaymanın” iki önemli hattı olarak borç ve savaşı öne çıkarıyor. Bu minvalde cinsiyetler arası, dinler veya mezhepler arası ya da etnik köken kaynaklı her türden ırkçılığı, çok cepheli bir dünya savaşını, göçü, her türlü güvencesizliği ve kırılganlığı, kentsel yıkımı ve tüm dünyayı saran gelecek kaygısını içeriden okuyor. Marazzi’ye göre sermayenin küresel krizden kaçarken savaşa sarıldığı ve yaşam güçlerine saldırdığı her yerde, bize düşen “iktidarın gözünde yaşamın ne kadar da değersiz olduğunu bir kere daha hatırlamaktır.”

Genres: Philosophy, Economics, Politics, Nonfiction

152 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Christian Marazzi was born in Lugano, Switzerland, in 1951. He obtained a degree in Political Science at the University of Padova, a master's degree at the London School of Economics and a doctoral degree in Economics at the City University of London. He has taught at the University of Padova, the State University of New York, and at the University of Lausanne. He is currently Director of Socio-Economic Research at the Scuola Universitaria della Svizzera Italiana.

Reviews

[Shannon Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s a reason bifo references this guy in every single one of his books he’s kind of goated

[Malcolm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Changes in the way the capitalist economy works have, in recent years, posed serious challenges for critical analysts, for those who do not accept that the models and ideas of mainstream economics – the ones that hold that an increase in share price indices mean we’re all better off because we’re all better off when ‘the economy’ does well. The problem has been that many of these critical analysts are stuck with models and assumptions that come from and work well when we’re looking at factories, at making stuff, and at types of work where we leave it all in the plant and go home at night. These models and assumptions are also developed for conditions where national economies hold true.

The really big problem with these models is not that they are wrong and the neo-liberals are right – far from it. The bigger part of the problem is that the dominant forces in capitalist economies are shifting and we have seen, over the last 50 years or so, a slow but now rapidly accelerating growth in the proportion of global economic activity that is down to finance capital (money for money’s sake) instead of manufacturing or industrial capital. More importantly, and alongside this, we have seen major changes in policy that are designed to allow and encourage the spread and use of finance capital – so limits on monetary transfers have been lifted and we have seen widespread deregulation of finance sectors. As well as these changes, we have seen the growing importance of service sectors and service economies – social care services, travel and tourism, entertainment and so forth; economic sectors that rely on relationships, emotions and interactions between people, not just stuff. What is more, we also have a whole range of computerised industrial products that mean we have a huge set of data, information and knowledge about economic activity – electronic stock control (the scanner at the supermarket), personal data linked credit card practices and web browsing preferences. This is not the economy of the 1960s or even the 1980s – but then in the midst of the developing banking and financial crises of 2008-11 (and continuing) we don’t really need to be told that…… which is precisely the problem with this book.

With the on-going brink-teetering of finance capital since 2008, the shameless destruction of national economies – Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Italy – of rapacious profit seeking and damn the consequences finance industries we don’t really need to be told that everything is different and needs a new form of politics. This is not to be unkind to Marazzi – he wrote this book in 1994 and it has taken 17 years to get it translated into English: I’m sure if I read it in 2007 or even early 2008 as finance capital was beginning to show its weaknesses I would have been much more impressed than I am – but since then there has been such an outpouring of new forms of political organising (I write this as Wall St remains occupied, and occupations grow in number, and the Anglican Church is under increasing pressure to side with protestors in the grounds of London’s St Paul’s Cathedral).

The cultures and politics of what Marazzi and others call communicative capitalism (see Jodi Dean’s Democracy and Other Neo-Liberal Fantasies and Blog Theory explore similar ideas) but Marazzi avoids Dean’s lapses into Žižekian influenced Lacanian approaches (and all power to him for that). Marazzi builds a tentative model of citizenship (which is problematic – see Boltanski & Chiapello’s The New Spirit of Capitalism) but also makes a powerful case for developing a civil society politics that rejects consumerism as the basis for citizenship, and for a politics that builds struggles that move beyond the state and its territorial limits – and it all turns on the new place of communication as a form of productive activity.

Scarily impressive – and something I’ll come back to.

[Arsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the foundational works of Post-Fordist thought; this book by the Italian Political Economist Christian Marazzi seeks to analyze the changes in the mode of production which we have experienced in out lifetime which are today upending the nature of work as we knew it. Analyzing the tectonic shifts in assembly lines, beginning with Toyota’s manufacturing plants in Japan which stripped away the amassing of stocks hence minimizing storage overhead which become liabilities , Marazzi introduces us to what becomes the paradigmatic production model at the turn of the millennium.

Charachteristic of this emerging historical formation is an upending of what we call Fordism. The process of production which began with the introduction of conveyor belts in assembly lines in the first Ford motorcar factories at the turn of the twentieth century. What this enabled was the specialization of the role of the worker at the factory to a particular function in the assembly line. A factory which required no (minimal) communication for production. With the decentralization of factories however and the coordination between multiple assembly relays for the production of a single product - there is hardly any work today which does not require communication.

Furthermore, within the Indian context - the sectors which are drawing the most labour power i.e have the financial backing and an expanding market to back it, are tourism and the IT sector. Here, we are witnessing the professionalization of ‘hospitality’ and ‘troubleshooting’. Strongly indicative of the ‘skills’ which are deemed marketable to today’s workplace.

[Slow Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! Misleading title since this is basically an economic treatise for the most part, but I read it all in one day. Foundational text for understanding global economies 1990-onwards

[shamaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sis absolutely snatched my wig with those last ten pages. Totally historically vindicated tbh. Learn how to speak around post fordist structures

[dv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marazzi spazia da un argomento all'altro (linguaggio, condizione femminile, tecnologie) con leggerezza e costruendo connessioni che poi acquistano senso, lasciando al lettore accorto riempire i "salti". Saggio denso, che apre diverse prospettive di approfondimento e mostra meritatamente perché Marazzi è stato considerato un riferimento da autori come Mark Fisher.

[Leonardo]

Para una excelente crítica de esta división de Habermas, ver Christian Marazzi, Il posto dei calzini: la svolta lingüística dell´economia e i suoi effetti nella política (Bellinzona, Switzerland: Casagrande, 1995), pp. 29-34.

Imperio Pág.219


Acerca de la importancia de la lingüística en la economía contemporánea.

Imperio Pág.272

[Devon · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Carlo Mayer]

In lettura dal Oct 6, 2011