Radical Thought in Italy: A Potential Politics (Theory Out Of Bounds)

Over the past several decades, Italian revolutionary politics have offered a model for new forms of political thinking. Radical Thought in Italy continues that tradition by providing an original view of the potential for a radical democratic politics today that speaks not only to the Italian situation but also to a broadly international context. First, the essays settle accounts with the culture of cynicism, opportunism and fear that has come to permeate the Left. They then proceed to analyze the new difficulties and possibilities opened by current economic conditions and the crisis of the welfare state. Finally, the authors propose a series of new concepts that are helpful in rethinking revolution for our times. Contributors include Giorgio Agamben, Massimo De Carolis, Alisa Del Re, Augusto Illuminati, Maurizio Lazzarato, Antonio Negri, Franco Piperno, Marco Revelli, Rossana Rossanda, Carlo Vercellone and Adelino Zanini. Over the past several decades, Italian revolutionary politics has offered a model for new forms of political thinking. Radical Thought in Italy continues that tradition by providing an original view of the potential for a radical democratic politics today that speaks not only to the Italian situation but also to a broadly international context. First, the essays settle accounts with the culture of cynicism, opportunism, and fear that has come to permeate the Left. They then proceed to analyze the new difficulties and possibilities opened by current economic conditions and the crisis of the welfare state. Finally, the authors propose a series of new concepts that are helpful in rethinking revolution for our times. Contributors: Giorgio Agamben, U of Verona and Collge Internationale de Philosophie, Paris; Massimo De Carolis, U of Salerno; Alisa Del Re, U of Padua; Augusto Illuminati, U of Urbino; Maurizio Lazzarato; Antonio Negri, U of Paris VIII; Franco Piperno, U of Calabria; Marco Revelli, U of Turin; Rossana Rossanda; Carlo Vercellone; Adelino Zanini. Paolo Virno is the author of several books, including the recently translated A Grammar of the Multitude. Michael Hardt is professor of literature and romance studies at Duke University. Contents 6 Chapter 1. Introduction: Laboratory Italy 10 Part I: Antidotes to Cynicism and Fear 20 Chapter 2. The Ambivalence of Disenchantment 22 Chapter 3. Toward a Phenomenology of Opportunism 46 Chapter 4. Weak Thought between Being and Difference 62 Chapter 5. Two Hundred Questions for Anyone Who Wants to Be Communist in the 1990s 70 Part II: Working in Post-Fordism 88 Chapter 6. The Anomaly and Exemplariness of the Italian Welfare State 90 Chapter 7. Women and Welfare: Where Is Jocasta? 108 Chapter 8. Worker Identity in the Factory Desert 124 Chapter 9. Technological Innovation and Sentimental Education 132 Chapter 10. Immaterial Labor 142 Part III: Concepts for a Potential Politics 158 Chapter 11. Form-of-Life 160 Chapter 12. Beyond Human Rights 168 Chapter 13. Unrepresentable Citizenship 176 Chapter 14. Virtuosity and Revolution: The Political Theory of Exodus 198 Chapter 15. Constituent Republic 222 Appendix: A Future History 232 Chapter 16. Do You Remember Revolution? 234 Chapter 17. Do You Remember Counterrevolution? 250 Glossary of Concepts 270 Contributors 274 Index 278 A 278 B 278 C 278 D 278 E 279 F 279 G 279 H 279 I 279 J 279 K 279 L 279 M 279 N 279 O 279 P 279 R 280 S 280 T 280 V 280 W 280 Y 280 Radical Thought in Italy provides an original view of the potential for a radical democratic politics today that speaks not only to the Italian situation but also to a broadly international context.