Kredit, dug i novac kao društvene institucije poverenja

While the notions of credit, debt and money are today almost exclusively associated with economic discourse, their semantic fields prove to be significantly wider and more complex. This article seeks to restore the repressed meanings of these three notions. Its aim consists of a deconstruction of the dominant economic narratives on credit, debt, money and trust, that would show that these concepts should be primarily considered as social, rather than solely economic institutions. Therefore, in the introduction we will look at the etymology of the word credit and disclose its semantic proximity with magic as a social practice. Furthermore, the first section will examine the intrinsic relation between debt and credit, departing from Marcel Hénaff’s three types of symbolic debt and exposing how these shape the financial credit in neoliberal capitalism and install the creditor-debtor relation (such as Maurizio Lazzarato describes it) as predominant at all levels of society. The second section shows how relations of credit and debt crystallize in the notion of money: firstly by exposing some major historical and anthropological insights about money; moreover, by considering money from an onto-axiological point of view as the knot in which all social relations of trust culminate; and finally, by relating the three different types of trust in money, proposed by French heterodox economists Michel Aglietta and André Orléan, to the three forms of symbolic debt, thus showing how credit, debt and money are fundamentally anchored in social relations.Dok se danas pojmovi kredit, dug i novac skoro isključivo vezuju za ekonomski diskurs, njihova semantička polja svedoče o njihovoj značajno većoj širini i kompleksnosti. Ovaj članak stremi da ponovo uspostavi potisnuta značenja ova tri pojma. Njegov cilj leži u dekonstrukciji dominantnih ekonomskih narativa o kreditu, dugu, novcu i poverenju, koja bi pokazala da ovi koncepti predstavljaju pre svega društvene, a ne i isključivo ekonomske institucije. Stoga, u uvodu će fokus biti na etimologiji reči kredit i na otkrivanju njegove semantičke bliskosti sa magijom kao društvenom praksom. Nadalje, prvi deo će biti posvećen ispitivanju intristične veze između kredita i duga, polazeći od tri modela simboličkog duga koje predlaže Marsel Enaf (Marcel Hénaff) i pokazujući kako potonji oblikuju finansijski kredit u neoliberalnom kapitalizmu, ali i uspostavljaju odnos između kreditora i dužnika (onako kako ga Mauricio Lazarato (Maurizio Lazzarato) opisuje), kao dominantan na svim društvenim nivoima. Druga sekcija članka pokazuje kako se odnosi između kredita i duga kristalizuju u pojmu novca: isprva izlažući najznačajnije istorijske i antropološke uvide o novcu; potom, razmatrajući novac sa onto-aksiološke tačke gledišta kao čvorište u kom kulminiraju svi društveni odnosi poverenja; i konačno, povezujući tri modela simboličkog duga sa tri različita tipa poverenja u novac koje predlažu francuski heterodoksni ekonomisti Mišel Aljeta (Michel Aglietta) i Andre Orlean (André Orléan), a tako pokazujući na koji način su kredit, dug i novac fundamentalno utemeljeni u društvenim odnosima

The Cinematic Daydream as a Tool of Political Emancipation: Plus-de-Jouir, Aufhebung and the Parallax

In this research, we will start by expo- sing the paradox of ‘surplus enjoyment’ (the Lacanian plus-de-jouir), showing that its parallax structure of lack and excess is also applicable to the pheno- menon of (surplus) repression. Linking his concept with the Hegelian Aufhebung, understood as a ‘failed negation of negation’ or a ‘negation of negation’ as failure, we will focus in detail on the central example illustrating our theoretical positions, which is Iciar Bollain’s film Tambien la Lluvia (Even the Rain). In analyzing its narrative structures that address the neocolonial reality, we will tend to approach indirectly, by reading the medium of cinematic narration, the ‘neocolonial question.

Redefining the Common Causes of Social Struggles: An Examination of the Antinomies of Value, Labor and Subsumption

In the global contemporary political context, diverse social struggles are being alienated from each other to the point that the illusion of capitalism as the only possible socio-economic system is blurring all horizons of social change. In this article, we will aim to redefine the common causes of social struggles, by demonstrating their intersectionality and interdependence. In order to do so, we will engage with a number of concepts from Marx’s philosophy. In the introduction, we will examine the notion of value, claiming that Marx’s value theory is not simply a labor theory of value, but that it rather reflects the parallax structure of production and circulation, crystallized in the ultimate value-form of money. Having obtained these preliminary insights, we will go back to the phenomenon of labor in capitalism, to reinterpret, in the first section of the article, the Marxian distinction between productive and unproductive labor. From this will follow the first concrete examples of the intersectionality of social struggles against the abstraction of capital: namely, showing that gender and racial struggles have certain common causes, rooted in the Gramscian hegemony. In the second section, we will examine the distinction that Marx establishes between the formal and the real subsumption. The latter, we will claim, is decisive for understanding how capital structures the quasi-totality of our social relations. Following an interpretation of Maren Ade’s film Toni Erdmann, we will propose some possible means of intersectional struggle against real subsumption, that will find their theoretical backing in the concept of subversive universals. The concluding remarks will address the nuclear logic of the distribution and accumulation of capital, a symptom that survives throughout history preserved and driven by the omnipresence of ideology, and stress again implicitly the importance of common struggle in the unfreezing of emergence of a new revolutionary subject

The litmus test of pride: analysing the emergence of the Belgrade “Ghost” pride in the context of EU accession

The transformation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights into a “standard for civilisation” has not been without consequences. With LGBT Pride parades becoming a symbol for Europeanness in the European Union (EU) accession process, this article asks how the litmus test character of Belgrade Pride has transformed LGBT politics in Serbia. Empirically, the analysis provides an in-depth analysis of how Serbia’s EU accession process has shaped the politics of Belgrade Pride between 2001 and 2015 and vice versa. It is argued that the international symbolic usage of Pride is no innocent practice as it has foreclosed its local politicality. Indeed, whilst Belgrade Pride became politicised as a litmus test in the EU accession process, domestically it developed into an apolitical ritualised event devoid of LGBT politics

Archeology of trust : prolegomena of a distrustful thought

Tout au long de l’histoire de la philosophie, la notion de confiance apparaîtrégulièrement, cependant la place qu’elle y occupe est quasiment marginale. Méprisée par lesuns, dénigrée par les autres, l’ampleur de l’impact que la confiance exerce sur bon nombre deconcepts canoniques déterminants pour la condition humaine semble avoir échappé auxphilosophes. D’autre part, l’opinion courante n’a pas manqué de s’emparer de la confiance, enfaisant de celle-ci le fondement prétendument inébranlable de toute existence subjective etsociale. C’est donc dans la tension entre les divers discours philosophiques (mais aussipsychanalytiques, linguistiques et économiques) et l’opinion commune que l’objet de notreétude va se déployer. Dans les recherches qui suivent, nous tâcherons de redonner à la confiancela dignité d’un concept, pour pouvoir aussitôt la déconstruire en résistant ainsi à son emprisetotalisante. Pour ce faire, nous allons approcher la confiance d’une manière spéculative, enmenant une archéologie philosophique. On examinera ses archai, qui vont se dévoiler selonune double dialectique. Il s’agira en premier lieu d’un examen de la dialectique interne de laconfiance, animée par les principes de substitutions et de jugements, qui fondent le sujetfiduciaire, et d’une exploration de la notion de valeur constituant le fondement total et fiduciairede la société. La dialectique externe opposera ensuite la confiance à la méfiance, pour démontrerle mauvais infini de leur devenir fiduciaire. Une pensée défiante, instance tout autre, surviendraenfin, pour marquer la suspension d’une progression retombant perpétuellement dans les piègesde la confiance.Although the notion of trust appears regularly throughout the entire history ofphilosophy, the position it occupies in it is marginal. Deplored by some, denigrated by others,the extent of influence that trust imposes on an important number of canonical concepts whichdetermine the human condition has often been overlooked by philosophers. On the other hand,popular current opinion has not missed the chance to grab hold of trust and make it the apparentfoundation of all subjective and social existence. Hence, it is in this tension between diversephilosophical (but also psychanalytical, linguistic and economic) discourses and commonopinion that the object of our study will evolve. In the research that follows, we will try to giveback to trust the status of a concept, just so we can deconstruct it, and by doing so, resist to itstotalizing tendency. In order to do so, we will approach the notion of trust in a speculativemanner, by conducting what is called a philosophical archeology. We should thus examine thearchai of trust, which will reveal themselves in the form of double dialectics. In the first place,an internal dialectic animated by the principles of substitutions and judgements underpinningthe subject will be considered, as well as the principle of value, which is considered the totalfiduciary foundation of society. Secondly, an external dialectic will oppose trust with mistrust,thus demonstrating the bad infinity of their fiduciary becoming. A distrustful thought, anentirely other instance, will eventually arise, to mark the suspension of the progression whichperpetually relapses into the traps of trust

#NousSommes: refondation onto-axiologique de la confiance

Kolekcija Modern French Identities, ed. Jean Kalf