Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 02:33:58 -0700
Subject: Re: AUT: RE: Luc Boltanski
From: Sebastian Budgen <sebastian-AT-amadeobordiga.u-net.com>


 a) the redescription of capitalism as a network (is this
> not Luhmann and systems theory?)

also not a million miles from the conception in Manuel Castells's latest
opus (see, for example, the review by Noel Castree in Historical Materialism
7). Boltanski and Chiapello see the movements of resistance also taking on a
'reticular' (network shaped) quality as homologues of the new forms of
capitalism (they refer particularly to the social movements of the
unemployed, the autonomous unions and so forth that have marked the French
political scene since the mid-1990s). Presumably, they would see the
anti-capitalist movement as also fitting this pattern.

and b) the construction of a critical
> duality between social and artistic critique (which seems a little
> flakey).

The French Marxist philosopher Daniel Bensaid has particularly attacked this
dichotomous approach (refs if people want them), which almost functions as a
functional equivalent of the division between students (artistic,
libertarian critique) and workers (social critique).

> What seems of most interest--and the point at which my pal originally
> suggested I look into Boltanski--is the following:
> 
>> It also shows how the new discourse has internalized the libertary
>> "auto-management" demands from 1968 left criticism
> 
> This sounds like the Virno/Negri argument about the role of "68" in
> provoking what Negri now calls Empire.

Also very close to Régis Debray's notorious attack (on the occasion of the
decennial celebrations of the May events) on the anti-hierarchical gauchisme
of 68 being the progenitor of neoliberalism in the 1980s.

> 
> Any thoughts on this part of the argument?
> 
> (I'm also, incidentally, interested in the possible bridge between
> Bourdieu and autonomia, but that may be my own hang-up...)

How would that work?

BTW, Boltanski is no longer considered a Bourdeusian and, indeed, has a
number of waspish things to say about Bourdieu in the book.



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