1,721,040 research outputs found
The Hidden Abode of Artificial Intelligence Production: Stretching the limits of AI ethics and critique
No full textThe present article aims to discuss the possibility of including the sphere of artificial intelligence production within the domain of artificial intelligence ethics and investigate its moral implications. In the first section, the role of human labour in the artificial intelligence production processes is considered, with particular reference to the distinction between high-skilled and low-skilled jobs, their differential distribution in the production process itself, and the labour conditions of ghost workers, in order to analyse the main ethical issues emerging within the field. In the second section, some aspects of the existing critical literature concerning artificial intelligence and labour are discussed, focusing on Marxist and decolonial scholarship and more precisely on its lack of consideration of the global value chain through which artificial intelligence AI production processes are structured. Finally, the possibility and limits of an ethics of artificial intelligence production are reconsidered by assuming the centrality of workers’ struggles and agency along artificial intelligence's global value chain
Autistici laboriosi, autistici pericolosi. Neurodivergenze mostruose e dove trovarle
No full textThe last years have been characterised by increasingly
systematic attempts to “integrate” autistic people into the labour market
both in the U.S. and Europe. On a more general social level, such attempts
have been preceded and accompanied by a positive reassessment of the
“autistic traits” and by the emerging necessity to discipline the rising
“autistic labour-power” to make it a productive force fully able to fulfil its
role within the capitalist system. In the history of the primitive accumulation
and of the disciplinary institutions between the Eighteenth and Nineteenth
century, it is well-known that analogous phenomena brought to the
construction of a division between “labouring classes” and “dangerous
classes”, opposed along the cleavage between integration and
marginalisation. The present article aims at arguing that analogous processes
are affecting autistic people and autism as a cultural object today: at the
intersection between the heritage of changeling stories, the production of
psychiatric concepts such as “Criminal Autistic Psychopathy” associated
with mass shootings in the U.S., and the attribution of “autistic traits” to
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figures such as Putin and Hitler, beneath the façade of integration the
construction of a monstrous and radically other neurodivergence appears
Dalla menzogna politica al mito politico: per una genealogia coloniale della menzogna moderna a partire da Arendt e Derrida
No full textIn this article, the possibility of building a colonial genealogy for the Arendtian
concept of modern lie is considered. For this purpose, the different forms and figures
of the false proposed by Arendt and Derrida are discussed, with particular reference
to traditional and modern lie, self-deception, counter-truth, ideology and
political myth. Moreover, the hypothesis of a diachronic articulation between political
lie and political myth is proposed under the name of “mythopoeic development
of the political lie”. The hypothesis is then tested trough an examination of two historical
cases: the first case is centred around Hernán Cortés’ political lies and their
aftermath in connection with the myth of the conquest of America, while the second
case concerns Cecil Rhodes’ political lies in relation with the construction of Rhodesia
and the related “white mythologies”
What we have in common: David Graeber and the anthropological critique of philosophy
No full textThe anthropological critique of philosophy has traditionally challenged conjectural histories and simplistic abstractions used by philosophers to define human nature. While this critique often leans toward cultural relativism, this paper argues that David Graeber's work exemplifies a distinctive, anti-relativist version of the anthropological critique. Grounded in ethnographic, historical and archaeological material, Graeber's approach contests Eurocentric assumptions not only about non-European societies but also about Western social institutions themselves. The paper situates Graeber's position within contemporary anthropological debates, contrasting it with prevailing forms of anti-relativism such as cognitive, ecological and ontological perspectives. It then reconstructs Graeber's anthropological critique through key examples from Debt and The Dawn of Everything, including his reinterpretation of freedom inspired by the Indigenous critique of European society. Ultimately, this paper proposes that Graeber's work models a form of concrete universalism that respects cultural differences while offering a plural, historically informed critique of dominant social theories. Unless otherwise indicated, all translations from Italian are mine
A Materialist Conception of Knowledge: The Colonial Roots of Cognitive Capitalism
No full textThis book develops a materialist conception of knowledge by uncovering its entanglement
with the history of colonial capitalism. Against accounts that frame
cognitive capitalism and the knowledge economy as recent developments, it argues
that these formations are rooted in long-standing processes of dispossession,
extraction, and exploitation inaugurated during colonial modernity. Drawing
on postcolonial critique, Marxian categories, and case studies from New Spain,
it reframes concepts such as human capital, intellectual labour, and knowledge
accumulation. The work highlights how colonial power structured hierarchies of
knowledge through race, labour, and difference, and how these structures persist
in contemporary capitalism. Attention is given to struggles over knowledge, from
early colonial encounters to present-day resistance against its commodification.
This book offers an original contribution to the critique of political economy, proposing
a historically grounded account of knowledge as a site of both exploitation
and struggle
Portando Latour all’estremo: l’Occidente come «più di una cultura» e le origini coloniali della modernità come progetto
No full textL’articolo mira ad analizzare il rapporto fra la modernità come progetto, la
scienza e l’Occidente attraverso una riconsiderazione della critica della modernità di
Bruno Latour. In particolare, si sostiene che quest’ultima, così come altre teorie critiche,
riproduce involontariamente le tesi eccezionaliste relative all’Occidente. Considerando
casi tratti dalla storia coloniale della conoscenza e il ruolo degli intellettuali indigeni in
essa, l’articolo riafferma il carattere globale della scienza moderna, indagando come
questo sia stato misconosciuto attraverso le relazioni coloniali di potere e come questo
abbia generato l’autorappresentazione dell’Occidente come «non meramente una
cultura». Infine, l’articolo propone un’origine coloniale per la modernità come progetto,
leggendola come logica culturale dell’impresa coloniale stessa.The article aims at analysing the relationship between modernity as a project,
science, and the West through a reassessment of Latour’s critique of modernity. In
particular, it is argued that this latter, as well as other critical theories, inadvertently
reproduces Western exceptionalist theses. Considering cases taken from the colonial
history of knowledge and the role of Indigenous intellectuals in it, the article restates the
global character of modern science, investigating how it has been misrecognised through
colonial relations of power and how this has generated the self-representation of the
West as «not merely a culture». Finally, it proposes a colonial origin for modernity as a
project, reading it as the cultural logic of the colonial enterprise itself
René Girard, Settler Colonialism and the Mimetic Theory. Crisis of Distinctions, Racism, and White Supremacy between Rhodesia and the Global Present
No full textQuesto articolo esplora l’intersezione tra la “razza”, il colonialismo
e la teoria mimetica di René Girard. Sebbene Girard si sia occupato
marginalmente di questi temi, seguendo l’analisi di Julia Robinson Moore dei
conflitti mimetici e della violenza razziale nel Sud degli Stati Uniti, si sostiene
che la teoria mimetica potrebbe offrire utili prospettive anche sui fenomeni
del colonialismo di insediamento, della costruzione sociale della differenza
razziale e della costituzione della soggettività dei coloni. Si analizzano inoltre
le moderne teorie del complotto sulla “sostituzione etnica” come il risultato
della paura di un rovesciamento mimetico dei rapporti di potere coloniali e
delle gerarchie razziali. L’ipotesi viene messa alla prova attraverso il caso di
studio della società coloniale rhodesiana, analizzata come un sistema di differenze
che costituisce un vero e proprio ordine sacrificale, mentre la soggettività
dei coloni come basata su due desideri mimetici distinti: verso la terra
colonizzata, attraverso la mediazione misconosciuta degli indigeni, e verso la
“bianchezza”, con la mediazione della metropoli imperiale. Vengono inoltre
messi in luce il misconoscimento della violenza coloniale e l’uso come capri
espiatori delle persone razzializzate come strategie per risolvere le tensioni
tra bianchi e allontanare lo spettro della “vendetta” dei colonizzati. Infine, i
meccanismi della mitopoiesi coloniale vengono a loro volta analizzati alla luce
della teoria mimetica.This paper explores the intersection of race, colonialism, and
René Girard’s mimetic theory. While Girard’s work has marginally addressed
colonialism and race, following Julia Robinson Moore’s analysis concerning
mimetic conflicts and racial violence in the U.S. South, this study argues that
the mimetic theory could also provide valuable insights into the phenomena
of settler colonialism, the social construction of racial difference, and the constitution
of settlers’ subjectivity. It furthermore argues that modern conspiracy
theories of the ethnic substitution can be understood as the result of the fear of a mimetic reversal of colonial power relations and racial hierarchies.
The hypothesis is then substantiated through a case study analysis of Rhodesian
colonial history. Rhodesian colonial society is thus analysed as a system
of distinctions, constituting a full-fledged sacrificial order whereas the very
subjectivity of the settlers is built upon two distinct mimetic desires: towards
the colonised land, through the misrecognised mediation of Indigenous people,
and towards whiteness conceived as synonymic with civilisation, with the
mediation of the imperial metropolis. The misrecognition of colonial violence
and the scapegoating of racialised people are highlighted as strategies to address
tensions among white people and to ward off the spectre of the “vengeance”
of the colonised. Finally, mechanisms of colonial mythopoeia are also
analysed in light of the mimetic theory
Democratic Confederalism and the Theory of History: Historical Ontologies of Political Alternative in Bookchin, Öcalan, and Graeber
Full text linkThis paper aims to discuss the "historical ontology of political alternative" emerging from the work of Abdullah Öcalan by comparing it to the ones of two other authors: Murray Bookchin, who has notoriously influenced his thought, and David Graeber, whose interest for the Kurdish movement and the thought of Öcalan has been significantly overlooked so far. The analysis delves into how the three authors frame the conditions of possibility for the historical emergence of radical political alternatives. Special attention is given to the contrasts between Bookchin and Öcalan in this respect, with special attention to the couple continuity/discontinuity and archaic/modern, to their distinctive views of dialectics and of the articulation between the dialectical poles, and to the roles of consciousness and knowledge in their political and historical reflections. Additionally, it investigates the theoretical and political convergence between Öcalan and Graeber, focusing on the notions, respectively, of democratic civilisation and baseline communism
Sludge line automation in real waste water treatment plants. experimentation and optimization of control logic
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