The following text is an excerpt from The
the melancholic impotence of American President Obama. He
has demonstrated an incapability to free himself and the whole
Nation from the financial automatism those powers have imposed by the domain of big banks and of Neoliberal rules, despite
the enormous failures of big banks and Neoliberal policy.
Human Condition, published in 1958 by
University Chicago Press and conside-
In the same way that democracy no longer corresponds to
present conditions, the notion “right salary” (meritocratic, etc.)
does not correspond to anything else. In this sense, there is no
way of evaluating physical work in its general sense, and specifically, there is no way to evaluate the value of cognitive labour
force. The only way to define an adequate salary is based on the
recognition of individual human needs, independent from their
competences and their productivity.
red one of the central theoretical works
of the philosopher and political theorist
Hannah Arendt. In her study of the state of modern humanity, Hannah Arendt
To be free from these kinds of illusions would mean stopping to
think that we can increase or change the existing society; on the
contrary, we need to create the condition to get out from such
a system; to create structures of production, distribution and
education that are external to the logic of capitalism.
considers humankind from the perspective of the actions of which it is capable.
This is the sense and meaning of the present understanding of
the word “Autonomy.” The cognitive labour force, the so called
cognitivat, is currently in the best position to realize an autonomous project, meant as a project of self-design of independent
worlds with seismographic character - to once again, change
the rules of the game.
The problems Arendt identified then—
diminishing human agency and political
freedom, the paradox that as human powers increase through technological and
humanistic inquiry, we are less equipped
to control the consequences of our ac-
Franco Berardi, aka Bifo, founder of the famous “Radio Alice” in Bologna and an
important figure of the Italian Autonomia Movement, is a writer, media theorist, and
media activist. He currently teaches Social History of the Media at the Accademia di
Brera, Milan. He is author of The soul at work. From Alienation to Autonomy, published by semiotext, 2010.
tions—continue to confront us today.
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The Ambiguity of Participating the
Social City
Margit Mayer
The article analyzes the design and implementation of the
German Social City programme as well as the effect of
recent welfare and labour market reforms in terms of the
role their activation and participation strategies play in
combating social exclusion. The emphasis on concepts
of “active citizenship” and “empowerment” of these reforms and, at the same time, the pressure of the Neoliberal economic system in the analysis of Mayer reveals
conceptual and practical ambiguities. What do “activating
neighbourhood” and “empowerment” mean in the Neoliberal Cities? In this context of the transformation of social
policies, non-profits and local groups have been deeply
affected by the inclusiveness of the market, their power
reduced and forced towards the implementation of a
low-wage labour force. However, as the author suggests,
such entities should be able to open up certain spaces
and continue to have the potential of defending and exploring alternative models of working and living.
The Emergence of Activating Policies in the German Context
In the late 1990s, when unemployment first went above the 4
million threshold and became the campaign issue of the 1998
election, the German Social Democrats devised the concept
of the “activating state” thereby reformulating traditional socialdemocratic thinking. According to this concept, the state is
supposed to promote and enable the activities of its citizens
rather than merely hand out benefits and thereby enforce the
“passivity” of citizens. As similar reorientations in North American
or British policy, the “Third Way” strategy of activating citizens
resonates with conservative calls for more self-responsibility of
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