For a critique of neoliberal green economy a foucauldian perspective on ecological crisis and biomimicry

Este artículo pretende explorar cómo categorías foucaultianas como la biopolítica y la gubernamentalidad –tanto liberal como neoliberal– pueden arrojar nueva luz sobre las formaciones discursivas que en los últimos años han adquirido importancia, a saber, la economía verde y la biomimética. Mientras que el primero es un intento capitalista de incorporar el límite ambiental como nuevo terreno para la acumulación y la valorización, el último propone la imitación de los sistemas naturales para reducir los impactos ambientales negativos sin sacrificar el crecimiento económico. En suma, el artículo discute y critica las condiciones de posibilidad que permitieron que estas conceptualizaciones emergieran y funcionaran en las sociedades neoliberales contemporáneas.This article aims at exploring how Foucauldian categories such as biopolitics and governmentality – both liberal and neoliberal – can shed new light on discursive formations that have become mainstream in recent years, namely those of green economy and biomimicry. While the former is a capitalist attempt to incorporate the environmental limit as a new terrain for accumulation and valorization, the latter proposes the imitation of natural systems to reduce negative environmental impacts without sacrificing economic growth. Overall, the article discusses and criticizes the conditions of possibility that allowed these conceptualizations to emerge and function in contemporary neoliberal societies

A Secure Infrastructure For System Console and Reset Access

During the last years large farms have been built using commodity hardware. This hardware lacks components for remote and automated administration. Products that can be retrofitted to these systems are either costly or inherently insecure. We present a system based on serial ports and simple machine controlled relays. We report on experience gained by setting up a 50-machine test environment as well as current work in progress in the area.Comment: Conference for Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP2003), March 24-28, 2003, La Jolla, Californi

Biopolitics of Climate Change: Carbon Commodities, Environmental Profanations, and the Lost Innocence of Use-Value

The analytical core of this study is the historical development of the relationship between nature and the capitalist mode of production. In particular, we aim at shedding light on the process through which the “grammar” of ecological crisis (and consequently of its possible solutions) turned into an exclusively economic one. In addressing this issue we discuss the successive problematisations of the environment that took place since the emergence of biopolitical governmentality (late Eighteenth century). Following Foucault\u27s intuition, and supplementing it with aspects of Marxist analysis, we argue for a profound transformation – based on a crucial leap of abstraction – of the notion of nature: from enacting limit to the economic process to fundamental element of market valorisation. Especially, we show how this modification discloses a new way to approach contemporary commodification, organised around the crucial notion of general intellect. Carbon commodities, for instance, should be conceived of as second order abstractions: in them, the differentiation between natural distinctness of use-value and economic equivalence of exchange value tends to blur since a decisive element of their exchange-value resides in the ex ante creation of capital-based use-values. Hence, use-value loses its innocence. The neoliberalisation of nature is analysed – with specific regard to the climate crisis – both from the perspective of its supporters (carbon traders), and from the standpoint of its critics (climate justice activists). Carbon trading – and the dogma upon which it rests – is understood as a material-discursive device through which climate change is seen as a market failure whose only possible solution lies, paradoxically, in further implementing market-based policies. By contrast, climate resistance is the multifarious disarticulation of this dogma. Such a transnational movement is approached through the concept of carbon profanations, which simultaneously possesses a deconstructive component – whose aim is to disarticulate the supports of carbon trading dogma – and a creative element – whose goal is to establish concrete-prefigurative organisational configurations, irreducible to a regime of truth centred around the marketisation of global warming. Finally, an empirical analysis of Durban\u27s COP17 is proposed as a background against which to interpret the transformative potential of climate struggles, with particular focus on the notion of planetary climate as a global common/s

EXPO 2015 as a Laboratory for Neoliberalization. Great Exhibitions, Urban Value Dispossession and New Labor Relations

Great Exhibitions provide analytical lenses whereby capitalist development can be read from material as well as intangible perspectives. Thus, the paper approaches Milan EXPO 2015 through the grid of intelligibility provided by the concept of neoliberalism/neoliberalization, namely as a regulatory experi-ment. EXPO 2015 is first situated against the background of a growing body of literature which interprets mega-events as catalysts of territorial dispossession. Starting from the critical urban theory premise that neoliberalization is necessarily a spatial project, the features of urban space production set in motion by the World Fair are analyzed by paying particular attention to the ways in which social movements framed such transformations and eventually mobilized in reaction to them. Secondly, EXPO 2015 functioned as a laboratory for the implementation of unprecedented labor relations. In particular, the widespread re-course to voluntary or unpaid workforces is in connection with the shift from wage to human capital as the pillar of social mediation between productive subject

Fantástico y grotesco en los Cuentos del exilio de Antonio Di Benedetto

En las narraciones que pertenecen a Cuentos del exilio (1983), el alejamiento forzado que el exilio implica, la necesidad íntima de creer en la posibilidad de volver a vivir en otro lugar y en otro tiempo, el dolor de la distancia y el recuerdo de las violencias sufridas durante los 17 meses de detención engendran, de parte de Antonio Di Benedetto, una escritura híbrida en la que ironía, grotesco y metaliteratura se entrelazan para generar una ficción que revela una competición secreta: por un lado, la posibilidad, a través del lenguaje, de subvertir la concepción del mundo y construir un antisistema que contradiga la tradicional linealidad del tiempo; por el otro la ineficacia de los mismos instrumentos en relación a la condición existencial del hombre.In the stories that make up the collection Cuentos del Exilio (1983), the forces of separation that are implied in exile, the need to believe in the possibility of returning to live in another place and time, the pain of distance and the memories of violence suffered during 17 months of detention, produce, in Antonio Di Benedetto, a hybrid writing in which irony, grotesque and metaliterature are intertwined to generate a fiction that reveals a secret thought: On one hand, the possibility through language to subvert the conception of the world and build an anti-system that contradicts the traditional linearity of time; on the other, the ineffectiveness of the same instruments in relation to the existential condition of man. &nbsp

Lien valeur-nature dans la pensée d'André Gorz

Introduction Mon intérêt pour la pensée de Gorz a toujours été ‘instrumental’ plutôt qu’’interprétatif’ : dans le livre que j’ai récemment publié en italien (Leonardi, 2017a) il n’y a aucune reconstruction systématique de sa trajectoire socio-philosophique – la biographie de Willy Gianinazzi (2016) et la recherche de Françoise Gollain (2018) satisfont pleinement la nécessité d’un cadre exégétique solide. Ma tentative est plutôt d’utiliser l’œuvre de Gorz comme guide conceptuel pour réfléchir ..

Back to the land: which return? To what land?

Al tempo della crisi conclamata della forma-metropoli e del circuito di valorizzazione post-fordista ad essa correlato, parlare di un ritorno alla terra rischia di evocare, più che un necessario sforzo di comprensione ed immaginazione politica, le secche pratiche e teoriche di un consolatorio lamento. Contro questa impostazione, mostreremo attraverso un’analisi dei processi di finanziarizzazione dell’agricoltura come l’idea stessa di una ruralità pre-capitalistica ed incontaminata ponga alcuni problemi rilevanti. Infine, cercheremo di declinare il tema del ritorno alla terra in modo affermativo, lungo le recenti riflessioni sulla produzione del comune.We are living a time of crisis for both the metropolis form and the post-fordist circuit of valorisation based on it. In this context, talking about a return to the land risks evoking the practical and theoretical quicksand of a consolatory lamentation rather than a necessary effort of heuristic understanding and political imagination. Against this possibility, through an analysis of the progressive financialization of agriculture, we will show how the idea of a pure and pre-capitalistic rurality is problematic. Finally, we will develop the “back to the land” issue affirmatively, by connecting it to recent studies concerning the production of the common/s

Operaísmo y ecología-mundo. Por una teoría política de la crisis ecológica

Este artículo pretende articular un encuentro entre el operaísmo y la ecología-mundo, es decir, un encuentro entre dos paradigmas teóricos cada vez más objeto de debate a nivel global, pero que, hasta el momento, no han sido analizados en estrecha relación. El operaísmo es una corriente del marxismo heterodoxo caracterizada por centrarse en la ambivalencia de la condición de la clase obrera (fuerza de trabajo/trabajo abstracto dentro del capital, clase obrera/trabajo vivo contra el capital) y la noción de la composición de clases sociales. La ecología-mundo puede definirse como un diálogo internacional que desarrolla el análisis del sistema-mundo desde una perspectiva ambiental: el capitalismo, por lo tanto, no tiene un régimen ecológico, sino que es un régimen ecológico, es decir, constituye un modo especifico de organizar la naturaleza. El objetivo de este artículo es demostrar que, a pesar de que las dos perspectivas se relacionan con la cuestión de la crisis (ecológica) de forma muy distinta, ellas pueden integrarse eficazmente si son yuxtapuestas a otro nivel: el del análisis histórico-político de la cuestión medioambiental. En su origen, ambos planteamientos revisan la teoría de la crisis de Marx, pero no eluden la polarización que caracteriza su evolución: mientras que el operaísmo tiende a reafirmar la tradición que considera la crisis como un momento de desarrollo, la ecología-mundo desarrolla la teoría de la brecha metabólica de un modo bastante inaudito. La convergencia entre estos dos paradigmas —lo que, en realidad, constituye un exigente intercambio teórico y que, por lo tanto, requiere una intensa reflexión por parte de ambas posiciones— puede producirse a través de una relectura del proceso histórico de la politización de la ecología. Aunque se suele situarlo entre mediados de los años setenta y la siguiente década —tras el gran ciclo de conflictos fordistas—, en los últimos años se está comprobando una hipótesis distinta: esta politización no sólo ocurrió una década antes, pero también, y, sobre todo, sucedió debido a, y no a pesar de, las luchas del movimiento obrero (en estrecha relación con el surgimiento del feminismo revolucionario). En ese contexto, la economía verde neoliberal —es decir, el intento capitalista de internalizar el límite ecológico, transformándolo de un obstáculo a la valorización a una estrategia innovadora de acumulación— asume simultáneamente la forma de desarrollo (en línea con la hipótesis postulada por el operaísmo) y la de antidesarrollo (en línea con la hipótesis defendida por la ecología-mundo). De esta “convergencia” plausible podría emerger entonces una interpretación política de la crisis ecológica contemporánea capaz de cuestionar la relación entre el capitalismo y la naturaleza, al evitar tanto el catastrofismo como la afinidad electiva entre la lógica del beneficio y la lógica de la protección medioambiental

Giustizia climatica e transizione energetica

Giustizia climatica e transizione energetic

Nombrar lo inexistente: los ‘objetos ausentes’ de Carlos Liscano

Las obras de Carlos Liscano, detenido en la cárcel Libertad, durante la dictadura militar en Uruguay (1972-1985), parecen restituir la vibrante tensión de un discurso antagónico que juega su partido decisivo en contra del poder, de la institución carcelaria y de las ideologías que la estructuran. Elementos imprescindibles de un recorrido tal son los ‘objetos ausentes’ que, como pases entre una dimensión y la otra de la escritura - la del testimonio directo y la de mayor complejidad literaria – constituyen puntos de acceso a todo su imaginario poético. En este trabajo analizaremos la función de estos dispositivos mínimos – pero fundamentales en la escritura de Liscano– sobre todo en Lector Salteado (Vida del cuervo blanco, 2015), texto en el cual es posible observar ese proceso de ‘memoria, resistencia y creación’, que permite al hombre seguir existiendo en condiciones de profundo sufrimiento y privación. Objetos simples, entonces, que en las existencias normales casi desaparecen, se vuelven, en la cárcel, metáfora de una resistencia profunda. Su existencia por medio del lenguaje capaz de evocarlos, su poder ser in absentia, determina un ejercicio constante que permite al detenido el único posible camino de salvación. La oralidad y la escritura que evocan determinadas ausencias se imponen como instrumentos de la mente que no puede aceptar la falta de referentes reales y que construye un microcosmo de signos, a menudo compartido con otros prisioneros, pero también destinado al discurso obsesivo de una individualidad aislada y frágil: al laboratorio secreto de un escritor que se está formando, al complejo proceso de lectura, escritura, transcripción y reescritura que Liscano lleva adelante.The works of Carlos Liscano, detained in Libertad prison during the military dictatorship in Uruguay (1972-1985), seem to return the vibrant tension of an antagonistic discourse that plays its decisive game against power, the prison institution and the ideologies that structure it. Essential elements of such a process are the ‘absent objects’ that, as passages between one dimension and the other of writing - that of direct testimony and that of greater literary complexity - constitute access points to all of his poetic imagery. In this essay we will analyse the function of these minimal devices - but fundamental in Liscano's writing - especially in Lector Salteado (Vida del cuervo blanco, 2015), text in which it is possible to observe this process of 'memory, resistance and creation', which allows man continues to exist in conditions of deep suffering and deprivation. Simple objects, then, that in common life almost disappear, become, in prison, a metaphor of deep resistance. Their existence through language capable of evoking them, their possibility to be in absentia, determines a constant exercise that allows the detainee the only imaginable way of salvation. Orality and writing that evoke certain absences are imposed as instruments of the mind that cannot accept the lack of real referents and that builds a microcosm of signs, often shared with other prisoners, but also destined to the obsessive discourse of an isolated and fragile individuality: to the secret laboratory of a writer who is being trained, to the complex process of reading, writing, transcribing and rewriting that Liscano carries out.The works of Carlos Liscano, detained in Libertad prison during the military dictatorship in Uruguay (1972-1985), seem to return the vibrant tension of an antagonistic discourse that plays its decisive game against power, the prison institution and the ideologies that structure it. Essential elements of such a process are the ‘absent objects’ that, as passages between one dimension and the other of writing - that of direct testimony and that of greater literary complexity - constitute access points to all of his poetic imagery. In this essay we will analyse the function of these minimal devices - but fundamental in Liscano's writing - especially in Lector Salteado (Vida del cuervo blanco, 2015), text in which it is possible to observe this process of 'memory, resistance and creation', which allows man continues to exist in conditions of deep suffering and deprivation. Simple objects, then, that in common life almost disappear, become, in prison, a metaphor of deep resistance. Their existence through language capable of evoking them, their possibility to be in absentia, determines a constant exercise that allows the detainee the only imaginable way of salvation. Orality and writing that evoke certain absences are imposed as instruments of the mind that cannot accept the lack of real referents and that builds a microcosm of signs, often shared with other prisoners, but also destined to the obsessive discourse of an isolated and fragile individuality: to the secret laboratory of a writer who is being trained, to the complex process of reading, writing, transcribing and rewriting that Liscano carries out