PROKLA - Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialwissenschaft
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States of Exception: Towards a Sociology of a Societal Condition: The sociology of a social constitution
No full textA state of exception seems to be ubiquitous in our days. However, a distinction should be made between the legal form (state of exception in the first order) and the exceptionality of everyday control techniques (state of exception in the second order). An awareness of these varieties of states of exception allows for an analysis of mutual influences and their respective pA state of exception seems to be ubiquitous in our days. However, a distinction should be made between the legal form (state of exception in the first order) and the exceptionality of everyday control techniques (state of exception in the second order). An awareness of these varieties of states of exception allows for an analysis of mutual influences and their respective
The Platform as Factory: Crowdwork, Digital Taylorism and the Multiplication of Labour.
No full textThe article analyses digital labour on crowdwork platforms as paradigmatic example of an emerging digital Taylorism. The characteristics of this tendency comprise elements of classical Taylorist forms of rationalisation now enabled and reconfigured by digital technology. The algorithmic architecture of digital platforms can include distributed and diverse workers in front of their computers and smartphones into highly standardised labour processes. This allows tapping into new labour resources, both in temporal and spatial dimensions. In this respect crowdwork is finally situated in the context of the multiplication of labour, understood as a heterogenization of the division and composition of labour of which digital labour such as crowdwork is part and parcelThe article analyses digital labour on crowdwork platforms as paradigmatic example of an emerging digital Taylorism. The characteristics of this tendency comprise elements of classical Taylorist forms of rationalisation now enabled and reconfigured by digital technology. The algorithmic architecture of digital platforms can include distributed and diverse workers in front of their computers and smartphones into highly standardised labour processes. This allows tapping into new labour resources, both in temporal and spatial dimensions. In this respect crowdwork is finally situated in the context of the multiplication of labour, understood as a heterogenization of the division and composition of labour of which digital labour such as crowdwork is part and parce
Neoliberal continuity in changing political winds: The power of Chile\u27s owner class over the country\u27s extractivist orientation
No full textThe article focuses on the question why Chile’s extractivist accumulation model is so stable despite ongoing protest, many years of a political left turn in Latin America and wide-ranging ecological damages caused by the extractive industries. It does not only take into account the appropriation of nature but analyses the appropriation of power by a small Chilean class of big company owners. The huge inequality which characterizes Chile’s society also shapes political power. The article distinguishes different power resources of Chile’s big business class and explains how these explain the surprising continuity of Chile’s extractivist economy in a socio-ecological deadlock.The article focuses on the question why Chile’s extractivist accumulation model is so stable despite ongoing protest, many years of a political left turn in Latin America and wide-ranging ecological damages caused by the extractive industries. It does not only take into account the appropriation of nature but analyses the appropriation of power by a small Chilean class of big company owners. The huge inequality which characterizes Chile’s society also shapes political power. The article distinguishes different power resources of Chile’s big business class and explains how these explain the surprising continuity of Chile’s extractivist economy in a socio-ecological deadlock
Total Eclipse of Work? New forms of protest in the gig economy
No full textContemporary capitalism is characterized by the expansion of the digital economy, in which new forms of exploitation and of value creation are taking place. In particular, in the gig economy cheap labour is organized and managed via digital platforms. While new forms of protest are also spreading, there is a lack of research on the ways workers of this sector are organizing in order to face hyper-exploitation and precarity. We analyse the case of the Foodora workers in Turin, who have been organizing protests and a strike in the past months. While Italian unions are slow in facing the challenges brought by the transformation of work since the end of Fordism, these and other precarious workers have been developing innovative forms of protests, including a new form of strike, which is much more autonomous than the Fordist one. We highlight some aspects of the Foodora protest, in particular the re-appropriation of public space and the misuse of the means of production, which are turned into weapons against the employer. Finally, we look closer at the property of algorithms as a key issue for future struggles in the digital economy.Contemporary capitalism is characterized by the expansion of the digital economy, in which new forms of exploitation and of value creation are taking place. In particular, in the gig economy cheap labour is organized and managed via digital platforms. While new forms of protest are also spreading, there is a lack of research on the ways workers of this sector are organizing in order to face hyper-exploitation and precarity. We analyse the case of the Foodora workers in Turin, who have been organizing protests and a strike in the past months. While Italian unions are slow in facing the challenges brought by the transformation of work since the end of Fordism, these and other precarious workers have been developing innovative forms of protests, including a new form of strike, which is much more autonomous than the Fordist one. We highlight some aspects of the Foodora protest, in particular the re-appropriation of public space and the misuse of the means of production, which are turned into weapons against the employer. Finally, we look closer at the property of algorithms as a key issue for future struggles in the digital economy
On the Geography of the Society of Downward Mobility: The Rise of the Extreme Right – Comments on Oliver Nachtwey and Didier Eribon
No full textDeparting from a discussion of two books that were popular in the German academic left and beyond in 2016, Oliver Nachtwey’s “Die Abstiegsgesellschaft” [“Society of Downward Mobility”] and Didier Eribon’s “Returning to Reims”, both touching on the topic of how changes in class structure are related to the rise of parties of the extreme right in Germany and France respectively, the paper argues that we need to pay more attention to uneven geographic development within and between cities and regions. Following Lefebvre, Harvey and Massey, it insists that it is in everyday life that subjectification and the constitution of classes and other social groups occur, and that the multiple ways in which everyday life is structured and differentiated spatially can play a crucial role in how global political-economic processes are perceived and translated into political positions. It urges radicals who want to understand the ascent of the extreme right to have a closer look at the systematic geography of the society of downward mobility.Departing from a discussion of two books that were popular in the German academic left and beyond in 2016, Oliver Nachtwey’s “Die Abstiegsgesellschaft” [“Society of Downward Mobility”] and Didier Eribon’s “Returning to Reims”, both touching on the topic of how changes in class structure are related to the rise of parties of the extreme right in Germany and France respectively, the paper argues that we need to pay more attention to uneven geographic development within and between cities and regions. Following Lefebvre, Harvey and Massey, it insists that it is in everyday life that subjectification and the constitution of classes and other social groups occur, and that the multiple ways in which everyday life is structured and differentiated spatially can play a crucial role in how global political-economic processes are perceived and translated into political positions. It urges radicals who want to understand the ascent of the extreme right to have a closer look at the systematic geography of the society of downward mobility
Right-wing populism as crisis in progress: Notes on the rise of AfD and FPÖ
No full textThe article discusses the rise of right-wing populism in Europe in the context of neoliberal capitalism’s „crisis of hegemony“. The cases of the Austrian FPÖ and Germany’s AfD are analyzed as instances of an „autoritarian populism“, intervening into this crisis and offering subjective modes of engagement with it. Three dimensions of the crisis of hegemony are considered in particular: A crisis of political representation, a crisis of the public sphere, and an economic crisis.The article discusses the rise of right-wing populism in Europe in the context of neoliberal capitalism’s „crisis of hegemony“. The cases of the Austrian FPÖ and Germany’s AfD are analyzed as instances of an „autoritarian populism“, intervening into this crisis and offering subjective modes of engagement with it. Three dimensions of the crisis of hegemony are considered in particular: A crisis of political representation, a crisis of the public sphere, and an economic crisis
The “extraordinary” strike year 2015: Reasons, results, perspectives
No full textThe paper discusses causes, contexts and consequences of the exceptional high level of strikes sweeping Germany in the year 2015. It gives a detailed overview of the three biggest strike movements (nursery teachers, postal strike and metal industry warning strikes) and sums up the vast number of smaller strikes. The new intensity of conflict is interpreted in a double way: On the one hand it is the consequence of a long lasting union weakness in the past resulting in erosion and fragmentation of collective bargaining. On the other hand it shows that there is a current fight going on to end union defensive. New conflicts at new economic places are breaking off and they are often led by employees who have no long union and strike experience. The feminization and tertiarization of strikes involve for the unions the necessity to refine ‘old’ fordist strike strategies and to deal with new subjects, maybe in a more democratic way than before.The paper discusses causes, contexts and consequences of the exceptional high level of strikes sweeping Germany in the year 2015. It gives a detailed overview of the three biggest strike movements (nursery teachers, postal strike and metal industry warning strikes) and sums up the vast number of smaller strikes. The new intensity of conflict is interpreted in a double way: On the one hand it is the consequence of a long lasting union weakness in the past resulting in erosion and fragmentation of collective bargaining. On the other hand it shows that there is a current fight going on to end union defensive. New conflicts at new economic places are breaking off and they are often led by employees who have no long union and strike experience. The feminization and tertiarization of strikes involve for the unions the necessity to refine ‘old’ fordist strike strategies and to deal with new subjects, maybe in a more democratic way than before
Critique as Ideology: On the Self-Reflection and Institutional Role of the Academic Left
No full textThis contribution discusses recent debates on the adequate form of ‘critique’ with a meta-critical intention. Since the partisans of academic critique typically fail to account for the effects of their own institutional embeddedness, their methodological reflections neutralize oppositional demands and turn political struggle into a scholastic exercise. In an extension of this analysis, the article aims to show how the academic class over-estimates its potential for bringing about liberating political change, how it falsely generalizes its own conditions of existence, and how it really contributes to the justification of capitalist power structures. The suspicion that recent populist attacks on the ‘elite’ have a fundament in progressive-liberal coalitions thus finds support in the practice of progressive discourse. This contribution discusses recent debates on the adequate form of ‘critique’ with a meta-critical intention. Since the partisans of academic critique typically fail to account for the effects of their own institutional embeddedness, their methodological reflections neutralize oppositional demands and turn political struggle into a scholastic exercise. In an extension of this analysis, the article aims to show how the academic class over-estimates its potential for bringing about liberating political change, how it falsely generalizes its own conditions of existence, and how it really contributes to the justification of capitalist power structures. The suspicion that recent populist attacks on the ‘elite’ have a fundament in progressive-liberal coalitions thus finds support in the practice of progressive discourse.  
The problems of class analysis
No full textIn analyzing the signs of the times in advanced democratic capitalism, it is pressing for a Marxist left to take into account the motivational structures of the dominated classes. Marxists tend to attribute the current rise of nationalist and authoritarian thinking and the recurrent dominance of protectionist and exclusionary practices to internal struggles in the ruling classes, leading to a split-off of the most reactionary class fractions who in turn successfully address the populace with a racist and pseudo-social semantic and programmatic. But what if such a programmatic is not only a class strategy “from above” and not external to the “actual” social imaginary of the dominated classes? What if at least major parts of the dominated in the rich capitalist societies of Europe and North America may be said to have an (“objective”) interest in sticking to what is given and to opt against solidarity – because they know or at least suspect that, at the end of the day, they profit from the structures of inequality that over decades have been established in global capitalism? What if we admit that, today, the proletarians have more to lose than only their chains? To be sure, class analysis (and, as it were, class struggle) becomes a much harder business then.In analyzing the signs of the times in advanced democratic capitalism, it is pressing for a Marxist left to take into account the motivational structures of the dominated classes. Marxists tend to attribute the current rise of nationalist and authoritarian thinking and the recurrent dominance of protectionist and exclusionary practices to internal struggles in the ruling classes, leading to a split-off of the most reactionary class fractions who in turn successfully address the populace with a racist and pseudo-social semantic and programmatic. But what if such a programmatic is not only a class strategy “from above” and not external to the “actual” social imaginary of the dominated classes? What if at least major parts of the dominated in the rich capitalist societies of Europe and North America may be said to have an (“objective”) interest in sticking to what is given and to opt against solidarity – because they know or at least suspect that, at the end of the day, they profit from the structures of inequality that over decades have been established in global capitalism? What if we admit that, today, the proletarians have more to lose than only their chains? To be sure, class analysis (and, as it were, class struggle) becomes a much harder business then