What is the role of critical theory today and who is it for? What kind of maps can theory provide in the context of entrenched capitalist crisis? These are some of the questions posed by this Theory in Crisis seminar series.   

Based on Sandro Mezzadra's research with Brett Neilson, the talk will address the current pandemic conjuncture from the angle of a critical analysis of contemporary capitalism. 

Reflecting on continuities in the development of capitalism as well as underscoring accelerations and discontinuities, Sandro Mezzadra will focus in particular on logistics, mobility management, and digital platforms. He will then delve into the concept of “essential workers” to stress the relevance of circulation and reproduction in the workings of capitalism today. A reflection on the implications of this for social struggles and for a new politics of liberation will close the talk. 

Speaker  

Sandro Mezzadra is Professor of Political theory at the University of Bologna (Department of Arts) and is adjunct research fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society of Western Sydney University. He has been visiting professor and research fellow in several international universities.  

In the last decade his work has particularly centred on the relations between globalization, migration and political processes, on contemporary capitalism, as well as on postcolonial theory and criticism. He is an active participant in the ‘post-workerist’ debates and one of the founders of the website Euronomade. 

His books in English include In the Marxian Workshops: Producing Subjects (London, Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).  With Brett Neilson he is the author of Border as Method, or, the Multiplication of Labor (Duke University Press, 2013) and The Politics of Operations. Excavating Contemporary Capitalism (Duke University Press, 2019).  

He is currently coordinating the Horizon 2020 project PLUS (“Platforms, Labor, Urban Spaces”).