Five Theses on the Common
PDF (Język Polski)

Keywords

Common
Class Composition
Cognitive Capitalism
Financialization
Operaismo

How to Cite

Roggero, G. (2011). Five Theses on the Common. Praktyka Teoretyczna, 4, 69–83. https://doi.org/10.14746/prt.2011.4.5

Abstract

I present five theses on the common within the context of the transformations of capitalist social relations as well as their contemporary global crisis. My framework involves ‘‘cognitive capitalism,’’ new processes of class composition, and the production of living knowledge and subjectivity. The commons is often discussed today in reference to the privatization
and commodification of ‘‘common goods.’’ This suggests a naturalistic and conservative image of the common, unhooked from the relations of production. I distinguish between commons and the common: the first model is related to Karl Polanyi, the second to Karl Marx. As elaborated in the postoperaista debate, the common assumes an antagonistic double status: it is both
the plane of the autonomy of living labor and it is subjected to capitalist ‘‘capture.’’ Consequently, what is at stake is not the conservation of ‘‘commons,’’ but rather the production of the common and its organization into new institutions that would take us beyond the exhausted dialectic between public and private.

https://doi.org/10.14746/prt.2011.4.5
PDF (Język Polski)