In tempi di pandemia anche il pensiero critico deve interrogarsi su come sta cambiando il mondo. Quali categorie politiche, economiche e sociali possono essere utili per analizzare l’impatto del Covid-19 sugli spazi urbani, l’organizzazione del lavoro, le catene globali del valore, il progetto neo-liberale, gli equilibri geopolitici su scala mondiale, le forme di lotta e i soggetti resistenti?
Into the Black Box curerà in questo periodo una lista settimanale di letture utili per interrogarsi attorno a tutti questi nodi.
Qua tutte le reading list.
In times of pandemic, even critical thinking has to question how the world is changing. Which political, economic and social categories can be useful to analyze the impact of Covid-19 on urban spaces, work organization, global value chains, the neo-liberal project, geopolitical balances on a global scale, forms of struggle and resistant subjects?
Into the Black Box will be producing a weekly list of readings during this period, which will be useful to ask questions about all these issues.
Here are all the reading lists.
Politics
Body politics at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic
https://roarmag.org/essays/body-politics-at-the-time-of-the-covid-19-pandemic/
The coronavirus, jumping from person to person, morbidly exposes our own bodies as the cogs in the global capitalist machine. But since we produce it, we can also unmake it.
The Body Politics of Covid-19
https://thedisorderofthings.com/2020/04/06/the-body-politics-of-covid-19/
Bodies are contested sites of global politics. Some of you realised this before I did; some of you might want to know more about body politics; and some of you may not be used to thinking about bodies and ‘embodiment’ (that is, the unending and intensely contested process through which bodies come to be) at all. You might also be wondering if and/or how these things (bodies and embodiment) ‘belong’ within the discipline of International Relations (IR). This post is for you all, and reluctantly yet hopefully ‘uses’ the Covid-19 pandemic and responses to it as a way into and forward for the study of body politics within IR and beyond.
Spazi, potere e diseguaglianza ai tempi del Covid-19
https://www.ilbecco.it/spazi-potere-e-diseguaglianza-ai-tempi-del-covid-19/
Lo spazio, lungi da essere solo un luogo fisico è soprattutto una categoria sociale, con dimensioni funzionali storico-relazionali. L’organizzazione dello spazio e il modo in cui esso viene vissuto rappresentano sistemi di potere, di produzione e stratificazione sociale. Infatti, come ha sottolineato la letteratura delle discipline filosofiche e socio-antropologiche, tra spazio e potere sussiste una strettissima relazione, in quanto lo spazio fisico riflette i rapporti di forza e le disuguaglianze che prendono piede nel tessuto sociale. In particolare, è la volontà di separare lo spazio che ha da sempre definito fisicamente gerarchie, classi, subalternità ma anche sistemi produttivi, stili di vita, nazioni.
The state of biopower in the age of the coronavirus
http://thephilosophicalsalon.com/the-state-of-biopower-in-the-age-of-the-coronavirus/
As all of these measures relate to the state management of a society’s health, they are the province of what philosophers and social theorists term “biopolitics.” Owing its modern origins to the late-career writings of Michel Foucault, biopolitics—styled also as “biopower”—is a theoretical paradigm concerning the modern state, social, and economic overwatch and dominion over a population’s health and vitality. In endeavors to comprehend the contemporary crisis, philosophers like Giorgio Agamben have indicted the state in particular for its “invention of a pandemic” and the supposed totalitarian form and consequences of its response. As a rejoinder, others have mused about the democratic or communist potential of biopolitics that might take the place of governmental action from on high during these society-wide healthcare emergencies.
Fine della democrazia liberale?
http://ilrasoiodioccam-micromega.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2020/04/15/fine-della-democrazia-liberale/
La pandemia da Covid-19 rende necessario avviare una riflessione che non si limiti a tematizzare la compatibilità o il possibile bilanciamento fra ICTs, AI e Big Data da una parte e diritti della persona dall’altra, ma che più radicalmente promuova un complessivo ripensamento di quei diritti e delle intuizioni antropologiche che li sottendono alla luce del nuovo ambiente tecnologico.
Geography
Pandemics have destroyed cities before. Could they do it again?
https://www.fastcompany.com/90490284/pandemics-have-destroyed-cities-before-could-they-do-it-again
Charles Kenny, author of a forthcoming book on pandemics, is cautiously optimistic that cities will prevail in the era of COVID-19. Here, he talks to Richard Florida about how infectious diseases have shaped cities throughout history, how COVID-19 could impact urbanization, and why preparedness is everything.
Cities after coronavirus: how Covid-19 could radically alter urban life
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/26/life-after-coronavirus-pandemic-change-world#maincontent
Pandemics have always shaped cities – and from increased surveillance to ‘de-densification’ to new community activism, Covid-19 is doing it already
La città profilattica (1)
http://www.thomasproject.net/2020/04/15/la-citta-profilattica-1/
Per descrivere la situazione creata dalla pandemia si sono usate in maniera impropria molte metafore belliche, mentre occorrerebbe usare più propriamente la parola catastrofe nel suo significato etimologico che è quello di capovolgimento, rovesciamento. Le nostre cose sono state rivoltate: dall’esaltazione assoluta della mobilità estrema ci siamo ritrovati fermi, dalla celebrazione dei consumi come motore assoluto ci siamo trovati a non potere comprare nulla se non lo stretto indispensabile, dall’edonismo siamo piombati nell’intimismo controllato, da aperti alle relazioni multiple nel mondo ci siamo visti asociali e sigillati nelle case.
Come cambierà completamente lo spazio, il cuore delle relazioni sociali
https://www.che-fare.com/come-cambiera-completamente-lo-spazio-il-cuore-delle-relazioni-sociali/
In questi giorni di isolamento forzato siamo più o meno tutti costretti all’utilizzo di strumenti per le comunicazioni a distanza di gruppo. Che si tratti di didattica online, riunioni di lavoro su skype o zoom, videochiamate, aperitivi telematici. Abbiamo tutti le nostre storielle a riguardo. In questo articolo voglio riflettere, al contrario, su quale sia il valore insostituibile degli incontri di persona, faccia a faccia, non solo per la gestione delle nostre relazioni sociali, amicali, ma dal punto di vista economico. Tali vantaggi sono stati brillantemente sintetizzati da Michael Storper nello schema qui sotto, al quale mi è capitato spesso di pensare in questi giorni.
Is the City Itself the Problem?
https://www.citylab.com/perspective/2020/04/coronavirus-cases-urban-density-suburbs-health-parks-cities/610210/
There’s a long history of blaming urban areas rather than economic factors for physical and moral ills. But density can be an asset for fighting coronavirus.
Post-Pandemic Cities
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/urban-design-must-emphasize-security-and-resilience-by-patricia-viel-2020-04
COVID-19 is forcing cities around the world to face the reality that they’re ill-prepared for emergencies. It’s time to reinvent the modern urban center with an eye toward fully equipped health systems and state-of-the-art digital infrastructure that incorporates unanticipated risks.
Health
La destrucción de la naturaleza que provoca la actividad humana multiplica nuevas enfermedades como la COVID-19
https://www.eldiario.es/sociedad/destruccion-naturaleza-provocada-enfermedades-COVID-19_0_1016299124.html
La deforestación, las extinciones masivas y el comercio ilegal de especies favorece el salto de patógenos, antes contenidos en los ecosistemas, a los humanos: el 75% de las nuevas enfermedades humanas en los últimos 40 años tienen origen animal
The Interwoven Threads of Inequality and Health
https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/the-coronavirus-and-the-interwoven-threads-of-inequality-and-health
According to preliminary data about the coronavirus pandemic, African-Americans are bearing a strikingly disproportionate share of the suffering in the United States. In Illinois, where fourteen per cent of the population is African-American, black Americans represent more than forty per cent of the state’s confirmed coronavirus deaths. Coronavirus fatalities have a similar breakdown in Michigan, and several Southern states show even greater disparities. The possible reasons for these inequities are myriad: African-Americans are less likely than white Americans to have the option of working from home and to receive high-quality medical care, and more likely to have preëxisting medical conditions that lead to worse outcomes from the novel coronavirus. New research links coronavirus deaths to air quality, which is often worse in poor communities and communities of color.
We Can’t Afford Big Pharma’s Greed
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/04/we-cant-afford-big-pharmas-greed
Big Pharma is dependent on public research – but when a crisis like coronavirus comes around, it does everything it can to keep its products for a select few. It’s time to rethink how our medicines are produced.
Cosa sappiamo sulla relazione tra crisi ecologica e coronavirus
https://www.lenius.it/crisi-ecologica-e-coronavirus/?fbclid=IwAR353Y-6P_h2JSQlunkzVuzm9Gx2aND2VoHX2S934d1JCEn5lJiXwtGoat4
Al momento, la scienza mantiene un approccio molto cauto e spiega come non sia dimostrabile una correlazione diretta tra la dispersione di Covid-19 e i cambiamenti climatici. Tuttavia, è stato dimostrato come molte altre zoonosi, ossia infezioni o malattie che possono essere trasmesse direttamente o indirettamente tra gli animali e l’uomo, possano essere influenzate negativamente dalla crisi climatica globale in atto.
The Front Line: Visualizing the Occupations with the Highest COVID-19 Risk
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-front-line-visualizing-the-occupations-with-the-highest-covid-19-risk/
Many individuals have been practicing social distancing by working from home in recent weeks. While this arrangement can be a great way to reduce one’s exposure to COVID-19, it’s a luxury that’s available to just 29% of Americans.The situation for the remaining 71% is uncertain, to say the least. A significant portion of the population has lost their jobs due to business shutdowns and mandated lockdown orders. Others employed in “essential services” have continued working as usual, but may face a higher risk of potential exposure to the virus. To that end, today’s infographic leverages data from the Occupational Information Network to determine which occupations face the highest risk of exposure to COVID-19.
Geopolitics
America and the new geopolitics after coronavirus
https://theintercept.com/2020/04/12/coronavirus-response-geopolitics/
The coronavirus pandemic has forced almost every person on the planet to narrow their focus on how to get by day to day. When the dust finally clears and we emerge from our quarantines, we’re likely to find a world whose horizons have been radically transformed. In many ways, the changes will not be good. The pandemic will likely exacerbate some of the most frightening developments usually associated with systemic crises like climate change: a shrinking global economy, state collapse, forced migration in the developing world, and the rise of authoritarianism at home.
Coronavirus could Mean Economic Disaster for the Global South
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/04/coronavirus-could-mean-economic-disaster-for-the-global-south
Unless debt relief is offered to the countries of the Global South, they will be plunged into economic chaos by the coronavirus crisis – exposing the reality of a world economic system built to suit the West.
Geografía política del coronavirus en América Latina
https://www.celag.org/geografia-politica-de-coronavirus-en-america-latina/
La diversidad política de los países de la región también se ha reflejado en las estrategias desplegadas para paliar las consecuencias del coronavirus.
Covid-19 and economic development in Latin America
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/latamcaribbean/2020/04/16/covid-19-and-economic-development-in-latin-america/
Aside from its massivee implications for public health, the global Covid-19 pandemic will have serious effects on economic development in Latin America. Even before the outbreak of Covid-19, Latin America’s economy was growing at an annual average rate of less than one per cent per year, making it the slowest growing region in the Global South. Already struggling to recover from the end of the commodity boom and the oil price crash, Latin America now faces the prospect of sliding into a deep economic depression.
Logistics
Is Amazon approaching its breaking point in the Covid-19 crisis?
https://qz.com/1834286/is-amazon-approaching-its-breaking-point-in-the-covid-19-crisis/
Ordering groceries from Amazon right now can feel like playing a game of whack-a-mole. Demand is so high among shoppers home-bound in the Covid-19 pandemic that in cities such as New York delivery slots are completely booked at Amazon Fresh and its Whole Foods grocery stores. When slots do pop up they can disappear again in an instant. The situation has prompted comments on Reddit and led a developer to post a tool on Github that automatically refreshes an open browser window in the background every 60 seconds until it finds an open slot. Meanwhile, items in a shopper’s cart can sell out as they wait and be removed without warning.
Un pacco ogni tre minuti, la folle corsa dei corrieri Amazon
https://ilmanifesto.it/un-pacco-ogni-tre-minuti-la-folle-corsa-dei-corrieri-amazon/
Viaggio in un furgone delle consegne che copre la periferia Sud di Roma . Da quando l’Italia è in lockdown il carico di lavoro è aumentato a dismisura e la giornata è diventata più difficile per chi dalla mattina alla sera è in strada: «Se vado troppo piano mi chiama uno dei tre dispatcher (gli addetti al controllo delle rotte) perché l’algoritmo gli segnala che sto correndo troppo poco».
Society
La pandemia y el regreso a la sociedad disciplinaria
https://www.lavanguardia.com/internacional/20200403/48287439354/la-pandemia-y-el-regreso-a-la-sociedad-disciplinaria.html
La pandemia está poniendo en peligro el liberalismo occidental. Estamos viendo que es difícil compatibilizar el liberalismo con la pandemia. ¿Está Occidente ante una amenaza de un regreso a la sociedad disciplinaria? En los aeropuertos, por el peligro del terrorismo nos sometemos ya sin rechistar a unas medidas de seguridad que parecen absurdas y que no pocas veces resultan humillantes. Cada uno de nosotros es un potencial terrorista. El virus representa otro tipo de terrorismo incomparablemente más peligroso que viene del aire y que se ha propagado por el mundo entero. Es invisible y omnipresente y mata a mucha más gente que el terrorismo. ¿Será capaz el virus de transformar permanentemente la sociedad liberal occidental en una sociedad disciplinaria, en la que todos sin excepción somos tratados como potenciales portadores del virus?
Foucault y sus sombras (I)
https://www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/20200407/48364664794/foucault-y-sus-sombras-i.html
Sin exagerar mucho ni ponerse demasiado literal, actualmente se podría decir de Michel Foucault lo que Nicolás de Cusa decía de Dios: que se le puede encontrar en todas partes y en ninguna. Resulta difícil, por ejemplo, encontrar algún intelectual de guardia que, al hacer su diagnóstico sobre la crisis del coronavirus, no se refiera, citando o sin citar su nombre, al concepto de sociedad disciplinaria que Foucault puso en circulación en Vigilar o castigar (1975), una de sus obras más influyentes. Pero cada uno lo maneja a su manera y no podría decirse que en alguno de los avatares de este concepto se encarna realmente la palabra foucaultiana.
Foucault y sus sombras (II)
https://www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/20200414/48484769543/foucault-y-sus-sombras-ii.html
Como veíamos en la columna anterior, en el artículo La pandemia y el retorno a la sociedad disciplinaria , Byung-Chul Han prefiere, a diferencia de lo que le era característico, describir las sociedades occidentales presentes no como sociedades neoliberales sino como sociedades liberales y de este modo difumina la distinción entre liberalismo y neoliberalismo. Con esta maniobra, empuja sutilmente a los lectores a contemplar el retorno a la sociedad disciplinaria de que habla desde una perspectiva que favorece un curioso efecto óptico que invita a interpretarlo como un tipo de desplazamiento hacia una sociedad no liberal. La curiosidad de este efecto óptico radica en el desplazamiento que comporta respecto al punto de partida foucaultiano del que parte, porque, para Foucault, de acuerdo con lo que afirma en las lecciones de 1978-9 sobre El nacimiento de la biopolítica , el panóptico de Bentham que proponía como paradigma de la sociedad disciplinaria era la fórmula misma del gobierno liberal.
On the Securitization of COVID-19
https://pandemipolitics.net/security/baele/
As the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates its propagation across the world, extraordinary measures are being taken by every single government: drastic confinement is ordered, massive liquidities are injected in national economies, the army is deployed in the streets, borders are closed, and the State pays private sector salaries. These are unprecedented developments for peace time. I do not call into question the effectiveness of these measures to tackle the epidemic; rather, I build on Pandemipolitics’ first post (Heathershaw) to further unpack the process by which they have been presented as necessary by governments, and widely accepted as such by populations. Specifically, I understand this as a clear case of securitization, which I suggest allows us to highlight some of the less obvious socio-political implications the pandemic will have on the longer run.
La società del virus tra Stato di polizia e isteria della sopravvivenza
https://www.avvenire.it/agora/pagine/byung-chul-han-filosofo-coronavirus-cina-corea-stato-di-polizia
In Asia e soprattutto in Cina la lotta al Covid-19 passa per il controllo totale dei singoli attraverso il digitale. Una biopolitica digitale che va di pari passo con una psicopolitica digitale
This isn’t the first global pandemic, and it won’t be the last. Here’s what we’ve learned from 4 others throughout history
https://theconversation.com/this-isnt-the-first-global-pandemic-and-it-wont-be-the-last-heres-what-weve-learned-from-4-others-throughout-history-136231
The course of human history has been shaped by infectious diseases, and the current crisis certainly won’t be the last time. However, we can capitalise on the knowledge gained from past experiences, and reflect on how we’re better off this time around.
Cosa ne sarà della gentrificazione nel post Covid?
https://zero.eu/it/persone/giovanni-semi/?fbclid=IwAR2l8OFg6RUB60uV1rALk2XGvcvtDcAZzNlG5449f8Mq1aBUqScJ_KHtUdo
Parliamo, quindi di gentrificazione, per riferirci a quel modello di sviluppo delle città che si impone in determinate aree urbane attraverso progetti di riqualificazione, marketing turistico, pratiche culturali e di consumo che si traducono in investimenti immobiliari e/o commerciali e, infine, nella mutazione della natura sociale di quelle aree. Per comprendere quali saranno gli effetti del Coronavirus sulla gentrificazione, abbiamo raggiunto al telefono Giovanni Semi, che è anche docente di Sociologia delle culture urbane all’Università di Torino e autore di Casa dolce casa? Italia, un paese di proprietari (Il Mulino, 2020) insieme a Manuela Olagnero e Marianna Filandri.
Neoliberism
Covid-19 y la superación imaginaria del neoliberalismo
https://www.elsaltodiario.com/vientosur/covid-19-y-la-superacion-imaginaria-del-neoliberalismo
Ante la situación de excepcionalidad que vivimos durante estas semanas debido a la pandemia de la COVID-19, algunos sectores de la izquierda política han sacado a relucir un cierto “optimismo de la voluntad” según el cual nos encontraríamos a las puertas del fin del neoliberalismo. No está en nuestro ánimo alimentar pasiones tristes ante el reto político que estamos encarando, pero sí que consideramos que —parafraseando la expresión de Antonio Gramsci— conviene que contrapesemos ese “optimismo de la voluntad” con un cierto “pesimismo del intelecto”, que nos permita enfocar el futuro inmediato desde el realismo analítico y la radicalidad política.
Coronavirus, crisis and the end of neoliberalism
http://ppesydney.net/coronavirus-crisis-and-the-end-of-neoliberalism/
News about the economy is alarming almost everywhere: the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the sharpest and deepest economic contraction in the history of capitalism. To paraphrase The Communist Manifesto, all that was solid has melted into air: ‘globalisation’ has gone into reverse; long supply chains, that were previously the only ‘rational’ way to organise production, have collapsed and hard borders are back; trade has declined drastically, and international travel has been severely constrained. In a matter of days, tens of millions of workers became unemployed, and millions of businesses lost their employees, customers, suppliers and credit lines. Several economies expect contractions of GDP to be measured in double digits, and a long line of sectors beg governments for a bailout. In the UK alone, banks, railways, airlines, airports, the tourism sector, charities, the entertainment sector and universities are on the verge of bankruptcy, not to speak of the displaced workers and the (nominally) self-employed, who lost everything because of an economic shock that has not yet even been felt in full.
La crisis global vista por Naomi Klein y Angela Davis
https://www.pikaramagazine.com/2020/04/la-crisis-vista-por-klein-y-davis/
Angela Davis y Naomi Klein participan en una charla organizada por ‘The Rising Majority’, una coalición antirracista y anticapitalista de organizaciones y movimientos, para evaluar colectivamente este momento y buscar soluciones concretas para esta crisis sin precedentes
La causa assente: tempo e lavoro all’epoca del coronavirus
http://ilrasoiodioccam-micromega.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2020/04/06/la-causa-assente-tempo-e-lavoro-all%e2%80%99epoca-del-coronavirus/
Nell’accelerare il processo implosivo del capitalismo globale, Covid-19 ci permette di toccare con mano il vuoto attorno a cui pulsa l’ormai sterile dialettica del capitale. Silenzioso e invisibile, il virus che oggi paralizza le nostre società contiene un piccolo frammento utopico proprio nell’incarnare il ‘grado zero’ della nostra condizione. A margine di sempre più improbabili resurrezioni neo-keynesiane o (peggio) neoliberiste, si avvicina una resa dei conti che converrebbe affrontare con spirito autenticamente critico piuttosto che (fingere di) ignorare.
Labour
Essential workers of the world unite!
https://roarmag.org/essays/essential-workers-of-the-world-unite/
The “heroes” who sustain our lives during this crisis, are barely able to sustain theirs. A heterogeneous working class movement of frontline workers can change this.
Whole Foods staff protest against conditions as coronavirus cases rise
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/15/whole-food-protests-coronavirus-working-conditions-sickout?CMP=share_btn_tw
Whole Foods workers across the US are planning to hold another sickout protest on 1 May, as the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus infections at the supermarket chain continues to rise and workers charge the Amazon-owned company is doing too little to help them.
Coronavirus Could Lead to the Next Wave of Automation
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/04/coronavirus-could-lead-to-the-next-wave-of-automation
A recent survey of global executives found that more than a third were investing in automation in response to the coronavirus. If workers are going to weather this economic shock, they’ll need to get organised.
