In this week’s episode, John, Emily, and special guest Sumru Atuk get into the nitty gritty of Maurizio Lazzarato’s Signs and Machines: Capitalism and the Production of Subjectivity. We unpack and question his contribution to conversations about subjectivity, in addition to his characterization of neoliberalism. Totally unsurprisingly, we ask questions such as: what’s up with not talk about or citing any ladies? What does his work miss? How would Lazzarato deal with tech start-up and the resurgence of local craftsmanship? What actually is the crisis of capitalism? Is this capitalist subjectivity all encompassing? And can’t forget the ever-suspenseful underlying question – do we agree with these arguments!? Spoiler, this one has a surprise ending!
Also in this week’s episode is an amazing My Tumblr Friend From Canada segment, featuring extended early aughts pop culture analysis, and a One of Several Wolves discussion touching on (you guessed it) some more life transitions, this time in relation to a post-apocalypse tree house. Thank you to Sumru for joining us for this lively discussion!
Thanks to Sid Issar for suggesting this text. Requests for texts for us to discuss? Dreams for us to interpret? Advice questions for us to answer? Email us at alwaysalreadypodcast AT gmail DOT com. Follow us on twitter. Subscribe on iTunes. Like our Facebook page. Get the mp3 of the episode here. RSS feed here. This episode’s music by Rocco & Lizzie and by B.
Links!
- Lazzarato’s page at Semiotext(e)
- Signs and Machines at MIT Press
- Review of Signs and Machines by Michael Maidan at Marx & Philosophy Review of Books
- 2008 interview with Lazzarato, Erin Manning, and Brian Massumi in INFLeXions
- Douglas Lain and Daniel Coffeen discuss Lazzarato’s The Making of Indebted Man on the Diet Soap Podcast
- Lazzarato’s talk at the General Organology: The Co-individuation of Minds, Bodies, Social Organisations and Technè conference at the University of Kent
29.10.2012 Ljubljana, Slovenija. Maurizio Lazzarato, italijanski sociolog in filozof.FOTO: JURE ERZEN/Delo
Always Already Podcast 
Q: Around 1:18:55 of this episode you all mention the sharing economy and an article that Joshua ___???___ is writing about Yelp, Rate My Professor, discipline, labor, etc. I would love to read this article or anything else that considers the kinds of subjectivities produced by the sharing economy / freelance economy / on-demand economy, particularly if they frame things in ways that address some of the critiques expressed by all of you re: laundry list of things that Lazzarato’s “neat” theory seems to ignore. Any recommendations, links, people I should read? Endless thanks!
Send us an email and we will put you in touch with Joshua!