Rethinking Subjectivation- Goldsmiths London

Italian Autonomia philosopher Franco Berardi 'Bifo' will be at Goldsmiths University to present his latest book 'The Soul at Work, from
Alienation to Autonomy' published in English by Semiotext(e).

A talk hosted by Goldsmiths Department of Art, Department of Sociology and Micropolitics Research Group.

About the book:

Capital has managed to overcome the dualism of body and soul by establishing a
workforce in which everything we mean by the Soul—language, creativity,
affects—is mobilized for its own benefit. Industrial production put to
work bodies, muscles, and arms. Now, in the sphere of digital
technology and cyberculture, exploitation involves the mind, language,
and emotions in order to generate value—while our bodies disappear in
front of our computer screens.

In this, his newest book, Franco "Bifo" Berardi—key member of the Italian Autonomist movement and a
close associate of Félix Guattari—addresses these new forms of
estrangement. In the philosophical landscape of the 1960s and 1970s,
the Hegelian concept of alienation was used to define the harnessing of
subjectivity. The estrangement of workers from their labor, the feeling
of alienation they experienced, and their refusal to submit to it
became the bases for a human community that remained autonomous from
capital. But today a new condition of alienation has taken root in
which workers commonly and voluntarily work overtime, the population is
tethered to cell phones and Blackberries, debt has become a postmodern
form of slavery, and antidepressants are commonly used to meet the
unending pressure of production. As a result, the conditions for
community have run aground and new philosophical categories are needed.
The Soul at Work is a clarion call for a new collective effort to
reclaim happiness.

The Soul at Work is Bifo's long overdue introduction to English-speaking readers.

(for more info, please see http://www.metamute.org/en/content/interminable_autonomy_bifo_s_sym...)