Radical thought in Italy : a potential politics

280 Pages·1996·13.517 MB·English

by  Hardt, Michael, Virno, Paolo

Radical Thought in Italy
Sandra Buckley
Michael Hardt
Brian Massumi
THEory OUT OF B O U N DS
...UNCONTAINED
BY
THE
DISCIPLINES,
INSUBORDINATE
PRACTICES OF RESISTANCE
...Inventing,
excessively,
in the between...
7 Radical Thought in Italy:
A Potential Politics Paolo Virno and Michael Hardt, editors
6 Capital Times:
Tales from the Conquest of Time Éric Alliez PROCESSES
5 The Year of Passages Réda Bensmaia
4 Labor of Dionysus:
A Critique of the State-Form Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri
OF
3 Bad Aboriginal Art: Tradition,
Media, and Technological Horizons EricMkhaels
2 The Cinematic Body Steven Shaviro
1 The Coming Community Giorgio Agamben HYBRIDIZATION
Radical Thought in Italy
A Potential Politics
Paolo Virno and Michael Hardt, editors
Maurizia Boscagli, Cesare Casarino, Paul Colilli,
Ed Emory, Michael Hardt, and Michael Turits, translators
Theory out of Bounds Volume 7
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis • London
Copyright 1996 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted,
in any form or by any means,
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Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Radical thought in Italy : a potential politics / Paolo Virno and
Michael Hardt, editors.
p. cm. — (Theory out of bounds ; v. 7)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-4924-2
ISBN-10: 0-8166-4924-3
1. Radicalism—Italy. 2. Italy—Politics and government—1945-
I. Virno, Paolo, 1952- . II. Hardt, Michael. III Series.
HN490.R3R33 1996
303.48'4—dc20
96-11842
The University of Minnesota
is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Contents
chapter 1. Introduction: Laboratory Italy Michael Hardt 1
Part I: Antidotes to Cynicism and Fear
chapter 2. The Ambivalence of
Disenchantment Paolo Virno 13
chapter 3. Toward a Phenomenology of
Opportunism Massimo De Carolis 37
chapter 4. Weak Thought between Being and
Difference Adelino Zanini 53
Chapter 5. Two Hundred Questions for Anyone Who Wants to
Be Communist in the 1990s Rossana Rossanda 61
Part II: Working in Post-Fordism
chapter 6. The Anomaly and Exemplariness of the Italian
Welfare State Carlo Vercellom 81
chapter 7. Women and Welfare: Where Is
Jocasta? Alisa Del Re 99
Chapter 8. Worker Identity in the Factory
Desert Marco Revelli 115
chapter 9. Technological Innovation and Sentimental
Education Franco Piperno 123
Chapter 10. Immaterial Labor Maurizio Lazzarato 133
Part III: Concepts for a Potential Politics
Chapter 11. Form-of-Life Giorgio Agamben 151
Chapter 12. Beyond Human Rights Giorgio Agamben 159
chapter 13. Unrepresentable Citizenship Augusto Illuminati 167
chapter 14. Virtuosity and Revolution: The Political Theory of
Exodus Paolo Virno 189
Chapter 15. Constituent Republic Antonio Negri 213
Appendix: A Future History
chapter 16. Do You Remember Revolution? Lucio Castellano, Arrigo
Cavallina, Giustino Cortiana, Mario Dalmaviva, Luciano Ferrari Bravo,
Chicco Funaro, Antonio Negri, Paolo Pozzi, Franco Tommei, Emilio Vesce,
and Paolo Virno 225
chapter 17. Do You Remember
Counterrevolution? Paolo Virno 241
Glossary of Concepts 261
Contributors 263
Index 267

o N E
Introduction; Laboratory Italy
Michael Hardt
In Marx's time revolutionary thought seemed to rely on three axes: German phi-
losophy, English economics, and French politics. In our time the axes have shifted
so that, if we remain within the same Euro-American framework, revolutionary
thinking might be said to draw on French philosophy, U.S. economics, and Italian
politics. This is not to say that Italian revolutionary movements have met only with
great successes in recent decades; in fact, their defeats have been almost as spectacu-
lar as those suffered by the French proletariat in the nineteenth century. I take
Italian revolutionary politics as model, rather, because it has constituted a kind of
laboratory for experimentation in new forms of political thinking that help us con-
ceive a revolutionary practice in our times.
This volume is not intended primarily, then, as a history of the
recent political movements or an explanation of the current crises of the Italian politi-
cal system. The primary focus is rather to present a contemporary Italian mode of
thinking revolutionary politics. The difference of Italian thought, however, cannot
be grasped without some understanding of the difference marked by the history of
Italian social and political movements. The theorizing, in fact, has ridden the wave
of the movements over the past thirty years and emerged as part of a collective prac-
tice. The writings have always had a real political immediacy, giving the impression
of being composed in stolen moments late at night, interpreting one day's political