Maurizio Lazzarato – författare

The Italian philosopher Maurizio Lazzarato has earned international acclaim for his analysis of contemporary capitalism, in particular his influential concept of immaterial labor and his perceptive writings on debt. In Videophilosophy, he reveals the underpinnings of contemporary subjectivity in the aesthetics and politics of mass media. First written in French and published in Italian and later revised but never published in full, this book discloses the conceptual groundwork of Lazzarato’s thought as a whole for a time when his writings have become increasingly influential.Drawing on Bergson, Nietzsche, Benjamin, Deleuze and Guattari, and the film theory and practice of Dziga Vertov, Lazzarato constructs a new philosophy of media that ties political economy to the politics of aesthetics. Through his concept of “machines that crystallize time,” he argues that the proliferation of digital technologies over the past half-century marks the transition to a new mode of capitalist production characterized by unprecedented forms of subjection. This new era of the commodification of the self, Lazzarato declares, demands novel types of political action that challenge the commercialization and exploitation of time. This crucial text by an essential contemporary thinker offers vital new perspectives on aesthetics, politics, and media and critical theory.

The Italian philosopher Maurizio Lazzarato has earned international acclaim for his analysis of contemporary capitalism, in particular his influential concept of immaterial labor and his perceptive writings on debt. In Videophilosophy, he reveals the underpinnings of contemporary subjectivity in the aesthetics and politics of mass media. First written in French and published in Italian and later revised but never published in full, this book discloses the conceptual groundwork of Lazzarato’s thought as a whole for a time when his writings have become increasingly influential.Drawing on Bergson, Nietzsche, Benjamin, Deleuze and Guattari, and the film theory and practice of Dziga Vertov, Lazzarato constructs a new philosophy of media that ties political economy to the politics of aesthetics. Through his concept of “machines that crystallize time,” he argues that the proliferation of digital technologies over the past half-century marks the transition to a new mode of capitalist production characterized by unprecedented forms of subjection. This new era of the commodification of the self, Lazzarato declares, demands novel types of political action that challenge the commercialization and exploitation of time. This crucial text by an essential contemporary thinker offers vital new perspectives on aesthetics, politics, and media and critical theory.

Framed by brilliant readings of Gilles Deleuze and FÉlix Guattari, Gabriel Tarde, and Mikhail Bakhtin, Maurizio Lazzarato’s Revolutions of Capitalism charts a new theory of contemporary capitalism and the politics against it. Originally published in French in 2004, this newly translated work sees capitalism as driven, not only by labor or value, but by the capture of cooperation and by the taming of possibles. Lazzarato theorizes how contemporary capitalism depends on noo-politics, or the “action of brains at a distance on other brains,” which seeks to control memory and attention and to trap the proliferation of possibles. Against this, Lazzarato reveals how current social movements attack established institutions and their vision of a single possible world to liberate the creation and actualization of a multiplicity of possible worlds.

Framed by brilliant readings of Gilles Deleuze and FÉlix Guattari, Gabriel Tarde, and Mikhail Bakhtin, Maurizio Lazzarato’s Revolutions of Capitalism charts a new theory of contemporary capitalism and the politics against it. Originally published in French in 2004, this newly translated work sees capitalism as driven, not only by labor or value, but by the capture of cooperation and by the taming of possibles. Lazzarato theorizes how contemporary capitalism depends on noo-politics, or the “action of brains at a distance on other brains,” which seeks to control memory and attention and to trap the proliferation of possibles. Against this, Lazzarato reveals how current social movements attack established institutions and their vision of a single possible world to liberate the creation and actualization of a multiplicity of possible worlds.

Maurizio Lazzarato's War and Money explores the connections between capitalist expansion, international economic conflict, and war, via an analysis of the imperialism of the American dollar. He examines why contemporary left-wing theorists such as Michel Foucault and Antonio Negri have failed to recognize war as a fundamental aspect of capitalism. Renewed readings of Marx, Lenin, and Rosa Luxemburg argue for class struggle against capitalist war as a fundamental aspect of leftist theory.