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معزوفة مقلقلة: السيمورأسمالية وأمراض جيل ما بعد - ألفا
سلسلةٌ لانهائية من التشعّبات: هكذا يمكننا أن نروي حكايةَ حياتنا، وغرامياتنا، لكن كذلك تاريخَ التمردات، والهزائم، واستعادات النظام. في أية لحظةٍ معطاةٍ تنفتح أمامنا مساراتٌ، ويواجهنا باستمرار بديل الذهاب إلى هنا أو الذهاب إلى هناك. عندئذ نقرّر، ننتزعُ أنفسنا من منظومةٍ من الإمكانات اللانهائية ونختارُ مسارا منفردا. لكن هل نختارُ حقا؟ هل هي مسألة اختيار، حين نذهب إلى هنا بدل هناك؟ هل هو اختيارٌ حقا، حين تذهب الجماهيرُ إلى مراكز التسوُّق، حين تتحوّل الثوراتُ إلى مذابح، حين تخوض الأممُ الحرب؟ لسنا نحن من نقرِّر بل التسلسلات: آلات تحرير الرغبات وآليّات السيطرة على المخيلة. التشعب الجوهري هو دائما هذا: بين آلات تحرير الرغبة وبين آليات السيطرة على المخيَّلة. في عصرنا، عصر التحول الرقمي، تتولّى الآليات ــ الذاتية التقنية السيطرة على النفس الإجتماعية.
فرانكو "بيفو" بيراردي هو كاتب معاصر، ومنظِّر وناشط لوسائل الإتصال. أسس صحيفة أ/ترافرسو (1975 ـ 1981) وشكل جزءاً من طاقم راديو أليس، أول محطة إذاعة مقرصنة حرة في إيطاليا (1976 ــ 1978). مؤلف كتب عديدة، من بينها سايبربانك، الفهد والريزومة، سياسات التحول، الفلسفة والسياسة في فجر الحداثة، ومصنع التعاسة. يدرِّس التاريخ الاجتماعي للاتصالات في أكاديميا دي بيللى آرتي في ميلانو.
فرانكو "بيفو" بيراردي هو كاتب معاصر، ومنظِّر وناشط لوسائل الإتصال. أسس صحيفة أ/ترافرسو (1975 ـ 1981) وشكل جزءاً من طاقم راديو أليس، أول محطة إذاعة مقرصنة حرة في إيطاليا (1976 ــ 1978). مؤلف كتب عديدة، من بينها سايبربانك، الفهد والريزومة، سياسات التحول، الفلسفة والسياسة في فجر الحداثة، ومصنع التعاسة. يدرِّس التاريخ الاجتماعي للاتصالات في أكاديميا دي بيللى آرتي في ميلانو.
228 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
13 people are currently reading
526 people want to read
About the author
Franco "Bifo" Berardi
128 books457 followersFranco "Bifo" Berardi (born 2 November 1948 in Bologna, Italy) is an Italian Marxist theorist and activist in the autonomist tradition, whose work mainly focuses on the role of the media and information technology within post-industrial capitalism. Berardi has written over two dozen published books, as well as a more extensive number of essays and speeches.
Unlike orthodox Marxists, Berardi's autonomist theories draw on psychoanalysis, schizoanalysis and communication theory to show how subjectivity and desire are bound up with the functioning of the capitalism system, rather than portraying events such as the financial crisis of 2008 merely as an example of the inherently contradictory logic of capitalist accumulation. Thus, he argues against privileging labour in critique and says that "the solution to the economic difficulty of the situation cannot be solved with economic means: the solution is not economic." Human emotions and embodied communication becomes increasingly central to the production and consumption patterns that sustain capital flows in post-industrial society, and as such Berardi uses the concepts of "cognitariat" and "info labour" to analyze this psycho-social process. Among Berardi's other concerns are cultural representations and expectations about the future — from proto-Fascist Futurism to post-modern cyberpunk (1993). This represents a greater concern with ideas and cultural expectations than the determinist-materialist expression of a Marxism which is often confined to purely economic or systemic analysis.
(via Wikipedia)
Unlike orthodox Marxists, Berardi's autonomist theories draw on psychoanalysis, schizoanalysis and communication theory to show how subjectivity and desire are bound up with the functioning of the capitalism system, rather than portraying events such as the financial crisis of 2008 merely as an example of the inherently contradictory logic of capitalist accumulation. Thus, he argues against privileging labour in critique and says that "the solution to the economic difficulty of the situation cannot be solved with economic means: the solution is not economic." Human emotions and embodied communication becomes increasingly central to the production and consumption patterns that sustain capital flows in post-industrial society, and as such Berardi uses the concepts of "cognitariat" and "info labour" to analyze this psycho-social process. Among Berardi's other concerns are cultural representations and expectations about the future — from proto-Fascist Futurism to post-modern cyberpunk (1993). This represents a greater concern with ideas and cultural expectations than the determinist-materialist expression of a Marxism which is often confined to purely economic or systemic analysis.
(via Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 24, 2010
This book is great fun; a genuinely enjoyable work of theory. Bifo has a certain reputation as the wild man of post-Workerist (aka Italian autonomist) theory - he was the real activist, spending years doing pirate radio, but he's also extremely bipolar, given to wild bouts of enthusiasm and troughs of utter despair - but somehow, often overlapping in his own unique signature way, whereby he can announce that revolutionary hope is dead, that the only possible remaining radical gesture is self-mutilation, but do so in such a cheerful, playful, charming fashion that one can't help but feel invigorated by the experience anyway. (Plus he cured me of a terrible stomach ailment in Japan so I will always appreciate him for this, but that's another story.) One might say: he's the only person I've ever met that can be both manic and depressive at the same time.
The limitation - for me, anyway, but it's my review, so that's what's relevant - is that he does accept, and start from, what might be called the canonical, Negrist wing of post-Workerism - the "law of value no longer exists" pomo branch, which I find problematic in a lot of ways. I much prefer the alternative tradition represented by say, Massimo de Angelis or the Midnight Notes Collective. Still, Bifo's not especially attached to most of these assumptions, they're just assumed by the tradition he's coming out of. What he does do is something the others of that tradition almost never do, which is, look at what all this means for real people's lives, work, and existence. For most continental theorists, it's all supposedly about that, but you never quite get to the object - as in Maurizio Lazzarato's famous essay on immaterial labor where he starts by saying that a "vast and growing body of empirical research" carried out by him and his colleagues has shown how different new forms of labor are than ever before, and then never cites any of it or even drops the tiniest hint as to what sorts of jobs the research addresses or what it specifically uncovered, but just goes on to make airy generalizations couched in terms of pure abstraction. Bifo is very different. He talks about real problems, real issues, real struggles, and while a lot of his analyses are zany in their over-enthusiasm (under Bush, the capitalists lost power and were replaced by a new ruling class of warriors and neoliberal technicians...) and he endorses some of the sillier excesses of the Negrian political analysis (computer geeks will be the next wave of revolution) he nonetheless manages to come up with profound, exciting, and, indeed, hopeful analyses again and again and again. There's always something surprising here. And in a way it doesn't matter whether many of these arguments are right or wrong; or even if they're often annoying, because they're almost always annoying in a good way; they cause you to think and see the world in a new way; they are endlessly provocative and engaging.
The limitation - for me, anyway, but it's my review, so that's what's relevant - is that he does accept, and start from, what might be called the canonical, Negrist wing of post-Workerism - the "law of value no longer exists" pomo branch, which I find problematic in a lot of ways. I much prefer the alternative tradition represented by say, Massimo de Angelis or the Midnight Notes Collective. Still, Bifo's not especially attached to most of these assumptions, they're just assumed by the tradition he's coming out of. What he does do is something the others of that tradition almost never do, which is, look at what all this means for real people's lives, work, and existence. For most continental theorists, it's all supposedly about that, but you never quite get to the object - as in Maurizio Lazzarato's famous essay on immaterial labor where he starts by saying that a "vast and growing body of empirical research" carried out by him and his colleagues has shown how different new forms of labor are than ever before, and then never cites any of it or even drops the tiniest hint as to what sorts of jobs the research addresses or what it specifically uncovered, but just goes on to make airy generalizations couched in terms of pure abstraction. Bifo is very different. He talks about real problems, real issues, real struggles, and while a lot of his analyses are zany in their over-enthusiasm (under Bush, the capitalists lost power and were replaced by a new ruling class of warriors and neoliberal technicians...) and he endorses some of the sillier excesses of the Negrian political analysis (computer geeks will be the next wave of revolution) he nonetheless manages to come up with profound, exciting, and, indeed, hopeful analyses again and again and again. There's always something surprising here. And in a way it doesn't matter whether many of these arguments are right or wrong; or even if they're often annoying, because they're almost always annoying in a good way; they cause you to think and see the world in a new way; they are endlessly provocative and engaging.
July 31, 2023
عظمة. والترجمة ممتازة، بس بحاجة شوية تدقيق لغوي مش مفاهيمي.
November 3, 2019
somewhere, i was on the verge of crying, "excitation without release," talk of online town about sexual harassment cases and talak and two-cents from afar, got me excited to read fishe'r ghosts of my life, a lovely lovely, challenging (even though at times, downcasting) piece to read
https://ivanemilabayne.wordpress.com/...
https://ivanemilabayne.wordpress.com/...
February 17, 2020
The sad proof that Italy remains faithful to the Medieval tradition and in politics or academia you don't have be be smart or even competent in the said field, only in kissing behind, blind obedience and if there is money involved, kicking a cut to your beloved godfather.
July 31, 2022
¿Cognitariado? more like ✨cognitarado✨
La verdad uno fácilmente puede caer en la desolación al saber que formar movimientos de resistencia en función de las estructuras actuales nos va a llevar dos o tres vidas más.
La verdad uno fácilmente puede caer en la desolación al saber que formar movimientos de resistencia en función de las estructuras actuales nos va a llevar dos o tres vidas más.
November 29, 2025
I had the rare pleasure of translating some of this, and first editing the whole manuscript. To be honest I have very little recollection of it, but don't recall being overwhelmed. The cover is simply awful - sorry, Stevphen.
November 24, 2017
A veces un poco pesado, pero sin duda una interesante explicación del impacto que tiene en la sociedad un cambio de código lingüístico.
April 22, 2023
This is a great starting point for people who want to know more about Berardi's thoughts, and intellectual project.
February 2, 2025
bought this in my first year of art school, and i still look at my notes from it
May 18, 2025
Read:
- Various excerpts
- Various excerpts
May 11, 2013
Much weaker in comparison to his most engaging book *The Soul at Work*.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews