This article analyses recent social, cultural and political developments in Latin America, with special reference to the `modernity/coloniality' project, as well as offering an alternative sociological interpretation of the contemporary subcontinent. It analyses in particular Walter Mignolo's work as the main expression of that `post/decolonial' project, a general interpretive effort that reflects actual social changes but offers misguided theoretical and political perspectives. The article then proposes a discussion of modernity as a global civilization which is now unfolding its third phase, (...) characterized by greater complexity and pluralism. In addition it argues that modernity should be seen as a two-pronged phenomenon, featuring not only domination but also emancipation. Against the reification of modernity, the article suggests that we see it as woven by multiple and contingent modernizing moves. (shrink)

This book investigates modern global civilization, offering an alternative to post-colonial theories and the "multiple modernities" approach (as well as the civilizational theory linked to it). It argues that modernity has become a global civilization that is heterogeneous and intertwined with other civilizations, and also aims at a renewal of critical theory that is not US-centric and Eurocentric, focusing instead on China, South Asia (India) and Latin America (Brazil). Dealing with the themes of centre-periphery relations, complexity (including culture and religion), (...) democracy and emancipatory possibilities, this book is based on general theoretical ideas such as collective subjectivity, the interplay of memory and creativity, and the concept of "modernizing moves," so as to deal with historical contingency. (shrink)

Offering a contemporary perspective on the theory of modernity that differentiates it from its predecessors, this reconstruction has been expanded to include a fourth instrumental aspect. In addition to the recognition of the three parts of traditional modernity—freedom, equality, and solidarity—that follow the basic ideas of the constitutional revolutions of the 18th century, this updated vision introduces responsibility. Concerning itself with what the sociology of development, risk, and ecological crisis have added to these classical ideas, the addition of the fourth (...) part, responsibility, seeks to recognize the experiences of successive eras, and the 20th century in particular. (shrink)

Culture has been at the core of many recent developments in the social sciences, particularly after the so-called ‘linguistic turn’. This has also been seeping into discussions about the relation between culture and politics. The present paper proposes a specific theoretical approach in this respect. It mobilizes Castoriadis’s concept of the ‘imaginary’, as well as those of ‘collective subjectivity’ and ‘social creativity’. It also makes use of the rich case of ‘populism’, more generally, and Peronism, more specifically, so as to (...) make clear its workings in a sociological strategy that unfolds in both the theoretical and the empirically-oriented domains. The paper offers an alternative to Alexander’s and Laclau’s approaches to culture and politics. (shrink)

Some of the most promising advances in recent social and sociological theory have happened in connection with historical sociology, including the ‘multiple’ or ‘entangled’ modernity as well as the civilizational approaches, despite their several problems. This article critically resumes this debate, proposing specific conceptualizations of civilization and modernity, at the global level, as well as of regions. Multidimensionality and collective subjectivities and modernizing moves cut across the whole text. The discussion starts from a specific analysis of Latin American modernity, including (...) the criticism of some recent interpretations. It then moves into more general conceptual dimensions, taking Latin America in unitary terms and as a unit of analysis, regardless of its relative internal heterogeneity, and placing of the subcontinent within a comparative view of, in particular, a third, contemporary phase of modernity, vis-à-vis China, India, Africa and other civilizational coordinates. (shrink)

Weber's piece on the development of the north-European Western city has not commanded attention in the recent theoretical literature. This article argues that it can however provide fresh insights into some key problems of Weber's diagnosis of modernity and into his general sociological theory, especially as to his theory of action and creativity. A more open-ended conception of modernity can be gained from its analysis, which is more compatible with Weber's own methodological assumptions. A different relationship between freedom and rationality (...) may be derived as a theoretical and political consequence from the discussion of The City. Key Words: collective subjectivity • creativity • freedom • modernity • rationalization • Weber • Western city. (shrink)

Universalism and particularism have become poles of modern social thought and lead to distinct definitions of democracy, citizenship, and social policy. Challenging Habermas and the Habermasians, this article argues that democracy can never be identified with domination. Meanwhile, contesting Chatterjee and Foucault, the author reaffirms citizenship and law in their various forms in relation to both bounded and unbounded serialities as the basis for democracy, beyond and despite governmentality. Latin America, and especially Brazil, with processes that check state domination and (...) have implied democratizing changes, provide the empirical focus for the discussion, albeit mediated by other countries, particularly India. (shrink)

This article develops an argument about what it defines as the ‘third phase of modernity’ and tackles, in a comparative manner, the cases of Latin America (especially Brazil), South Asia (especially India) and China. It tries to identify specific modernizing moves which imply individualizing comparisons as well as encompassing comparisons in relation to these areas and countries. It builds its argument from a few theoretical assumptions and moves in an inductive manner in order to dislocate the discussion of modernity from (...) its strong referents in the West and the conceptual definitions that stem from this. The article tries also to connect the discussion of modernity to debates about development. It proposes a multidimensional approach and analyzes the main dimensions of contemporary modernity and modernizing moves in those regions and countries. (shrink)

This article considers whether there exists today a movement of similar strength to the synthetic 'new theoretical movement' of the mid-1980s. The author argues that one main trend in sociological theory today is the notion of creativity and efforts to understand it conceptually. The contemporary growth of contingency, it is claimed, is closely related to this creative perspective. After examining Parsons's notion of 'double contingency', the article suggests that neither rationality nor normativity alone is able to dampen recognition of the (...) vicissitudes attached to both personal destinies and social evolution. The author analyses the axis of structure and action, theories of history and evolution, together with the relationship between modernity and reflexivity, in order to substantiate the claim that creativity constitutes a trend today. This trend is then related to another, the cognitive approach, and the author proposes some ideas to bring them closer. Finally, a hypothesis to explain the current stress on creativity is suggested. (shrink)

Inicialmente restrita aos muros escolares, a violência entre alunos passou a se manifestar também de forma online, por meio de redes sociais, estabelecendo a expressão cyberbullying. Sob esta perspectiva, há um consenso na literatura da área, de que cabe à escola se posicionar e assumir o compromisso de inibir estas práticas e estimular o convívio pacífico entre os alunos, dentro e fora da escola. Apesar da relevância da questão, a temática do cyberbullying ainda é pouco estudada de forma empírica. Observa-se (...) uma lacuna de informações no que se refere aos atores que podem atuar como agentes de prevenção e controle a este tipo de violência, os professores. Este estudo tem como objetivo analisar a influência da preocupação dos professores no envolvimento da escola frente às práticas de cyberbullying. Para isso, foi realizada uma pesquisa junto a 112 professores de ensino fundamental e médio de escolas públicas e privadas do município de Blumenau/SC. Os dados foram analisados por meio de análise fatorial exploratória e equações estruturais. Os resultados indicaram que os professores demonstram maior preocupação quando percebem que o problema do cyberbullying é real e afeta os alunos. Quanto ao envolvimento da escola, verificou-se a necessidade de se estabelecer parcerias entre as instituições de ensino e a comunidade, promover assembleias alusivas ao tema nas escolas e fornecer aconselhamento aos jovens no próprio ambiente escolar. Por fim, observou-se que a preocupação dos professores com as práticas de cyberbullying influencia a sua crença de que o envolvimento da escola é importante, despertando a necessidade de posturas mais proativas para o combate a este malefício. Palavras-chave: Cyberbullying. Escola. Professores. (shrink)

This article discusses the concepts of collective subjectivity and collective causality as an alternative to methodological individualism, structuralism and functionalism. It resumes Aristotelian issues in a realist framework and applies, by way of example, its main concepts to criticize and suggest a distinct view of capabilities"" and ""freedom"" in connection with collective subjectivity.".

Introduction -- Vicissitudes and possibilities of critical theory today -- Global modernity : levels of analysis and conceptual strategies -- Existential social questions, developmental trends and modernity -- History, sociology and modernity -- Realism, trend-concepts and the modern state -- Family, modernization and sociological theory -- The basic forms of social interaction -- The imaginary and politics in modernity: the trajectory -- Critical social theory and developmental trends, emancipation -- References -- Index.

ABSTRACTThis paper discusses Jacobinism and the French/Haitian revolution in its unity and diversity. It shows that the main imaginary and institutional elements of modernity – including further an...

Há duzentos anos (1823) triunfou a contrarrevolução da _Vila-Francada_, pondo fim à primeira experiência constitucional moderna em Portugal. De imediato, D. João VI determinou a revogação da Constituição de 1822, assim como das reformas adotadas para apagar a memória do regime constitucional anterior. Em simultâneo, a partir de uma iniciativa espontânea da Câmara da vila de Sernancelhe, formou-se um movimento municipal para anulação das próprias eleições às Cortes vintistas e revogação das procurações outorgadas aos deputados. Este artigo versa sobre ambas (...) as iniciativas, régia e municipal, considerando sobretudo que a anulação municipal das eleições vintistas é muito pouco conhecida e está praticamente por estudar na historiografia sobre a contrarrevolução. (shrink)

It is well known that over the eighteenth century the calculus moved away from its geometric origins; Euler, and later Lagrange, aspired to transform it into a “purely analytical” discipline. In the 1780 s, the Portuguese mathematician José Anastácio da Cunha developed an original version of the calculus whose interpretation in view of that process presents challenges. Cunha was a strong admirer of Newton (who famously favoured geometry over algebra) and criticized Euler’s faith in analysis. However, the fundamental propositions of (...) his calculus follow the analytical trend. This appears to have been possible due to a nominalistic conception of variable that allowed him to deal with expressions as names, rather than abstract quantities. Still, Cunha tried to keep the definition of fluxion directly applicable to geometrical magnitudes. According to a friend of Cunha’s, his calculus had an algebraic (analytical) branch and a geometrical branch, and it was because of this that his definition of fluxion appeared too complex to some contemporaries. (shrink)

This paper shows a new philosophical turn towards a new realism emerging today. And its originality lies on Maurizio Ferraris, who has recently published his Manifiesto del nuevo realismo**, which has been followed by personalities such as Umberto Eco and John Searle. On this basis, Mexican philosopher Mauricio Beuchot and me have written our Manifiesto del nuevo realismo analógico***, which had had a great acceptance by Maurizio Ferraris himself. He translated our manifest and introduced it into Italy. I will take (...) this article as a chance to thank him for reading and considering our manifest. To sum up, what I will show is article is a picture of new realism from analogical hermeneutics point of view and the reason why we choose the analogical focus on it to be accurate. (shrink)

Realitism: the postmodern attack on reality -- Realism: things that have existed since the beginning of the world -- Reconstruction: why criticism starts from reality -- Emancipation: unexamined life has no value.

There is a growing body of scholarship that is addressing the ethics, in particular, the bioethics of space travel and colonisation. Naturally, a variety of perspectives concerning the ethical issues and moral permissibility of different technological strategies for confronting the rigours of space travel and colonisation have emerged in the debate. Approaches ranging from genetically enhancing human astronauts to modifying the environments of planets to make them hospitable have been proposed as methods. This paper takes a look at a critique (...) of human bioenhancement proposed by Mirko Garasic who argues that the bioenhancement of human astronauts is not only functional but necessary and thus morally permissible. However, he further claims that the bioethical arguments proposed for the context of space do not apply to the context of Earth. This paper forwards three arguments for how Garasic’s views are philosophically dubious: (1) when he examines our responsibility towards future generations he refers to a moral principle (which we will call the principle of mere survival) which, besides being vague, is not morally acceptable; (2) the idea that human bioenhancement is not natural is not only debatable but morally irrelevant; and (3) it is not true that the situations that may arise in space travel cannot occur on Earth. We conclude that not only is the (bio)enhancement of humans on Earth permissible but perhaps even necessary in certain circumstances. (shrink)

As space travel and intentions to colonise other planets are becoming the norm in public debate and scholarship, we must also confront the technical and survival challenges that emerge from these hostile environments. This paper aims to evaluate the various arguments proposed to meet the challenges of human space travel and extraterrestrial planetary colonisation. In particular, two primary solutions have been present in the literature as the most straightforward solutions to the rigours of extraterrestrial survival and flourishing: (1) geoengineering, where (...) the environment is modified to become hospitable to its inhabitants, and (2) human (bio)enhancement where the genetic heritage of humans is modified to make them more resilient to the difficulties they may encounter as well as to permit them to thrive in non-terrestrial environments. Both positions have strong arguments supporting them but also severe philosophical and practical drawbacks when exposed to different circumstances. This paper aims to show that a principled stance where one position is accepted wholesale necessarily comes at the opportunity cost of the other where the other might be better suited, practically and morally. This paper concludes that case-by-case evaluations of the solutions to space travel and extraterrestrial colonisation are necessary to ensure moral congruency and the survival and flourishing of astronauts now and into the future. (shrink)

Sex robots are already a reality: in this provocative text, Maurizio Balistreri explores the fascinating world of future sex, exploring the ethical questions raised by the existence of a sex robot industry.

This paper aims to argue for the thesis that it is not a priori morally justified that the first phase of space colonisation is based on sexual reproduction. We ground this position on the argument that, at least in the first colonisation settlements, those born in space may not have a good chance of having a good life. This problem does not depend on the fact that life on another planet would have to deal with issues such as solar radiation (...) or with the decrease or entire absence of the force of gravity. These issues could plausibly be addressed given that the planets or settlements we will feasibly colonise could be completely transformed through geoengineering processes. Likewise, the ability of humans to live in space could be enhanced through genetic modification interventions. Even if, however, the problems concerning survival in space were solved, we think that, at least in the first period of colonisation of space or other planets, giving birth to children in space could be a morally irresponsible choice since we argue, the life we ​​could give them might not be good enough. We contend that this is the case since when we decide to have a baby. We argue that it is not morally right to be content that our children have a minimally sufficient life worth living; before we give birth to children in space, we should make sure we can give them a reasonable chance of having a good life. This principle applies both on Earth - at least where you can choose - and for space travel. (shrink)

The theme of human extinction is increasingly at the center of the current debate on moral philosophy and bioethics. We look at space missions and station construction projects capable of accommodating a large population and at the colonization of other planets with great hope. However, solutions are not excluded either, which for now certainly appear to be much more original. One of the most original projects involves launching a spacecraft containing cryopreserved human embryos, which, once they arrive at destination on (...) another planet, must be thawed and birthed by intelligent machines through artificial wombs (ectogenesis). In this paper, I do not intend to analyze whether the embryo space colonization project is indeed feasible. Instead, I will focus on examining the primary moral questions raised by the embryo space colonization project to determine whether, at least prima facie, it can be deemed morally acceptable. I will begin by discussing the objection advanced by Konrad Szocik (2021), according to which any embryo space colonization project is doomed to failure because it cannot offer the hoped-for solution to the problem of the extinction of the human species (second paragraph). In the third paragraph, then, I will ask whether embryo space colonization is able to ensure the people it brings into the world an adequate or at least the morally appropriate quality of life. Finally, in the fourth and last paragraph, I will examine the question of the morality of human reproduction that passes through the guidance and choice of intelligent machines. I will argue that to evaluate the morality of this project we should consider not only the interests and quality of life of the first people who could be born but also the interests of all possible subsequent generations. (shrink)

The debtor-creditor relation, which is at the heart of this book, sharpens mechanisms of exploitation and domination indiscriminately, since, in it, there is no distinction between workers and the unemployed, consumers and producers, working and non-working populations, between retirees and welfare recipients. They are all "debtors," guilty and responsible in the eyes of capital, which has become the Great, the Universal, Creditor.--from The Making of the Indebted Man Debt -- both public debt and private debt Has become a major concern (...) of economic and political leaders. In The Making of the Indebted Man, Maurizio Lazzarato shows that, far from being a threat to the capitalist economy, debt lies at the very core of the neoliberal project. Through a reading of Karl Marx's lesser-known youthful writings on John Mill, and a rereading of writings by Friedrich Nietzsche, Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, and Michel Foucault, Lazzarato demonstrates that debt is above all a political construction, and that the creditor/debtor relation is the fundamental social relation of Western societies.Debt cannot be reduced to a simple economic mechanism, for it is also a technique of "public safety" through which individual and collective subjectivities are governed and controlled. Its aim is to minimize the uncertainty of the time and behavior of the governed. We are forever sinking further into debt to the State, to private insurance, and, on a more general level, to corporations. To insure that we honor our debts, we are at once encouraged and compelled to become the "entrepreneurs" of our lives, of our "human capital." In this way, our entire material, psychological, and affective horizon is upended and reconfigured. How do we extricate ourselves from this impossible situation? How do we escape the neoliberal condition of the indebted man? Lazzarato argues that we will have to recognize that there is no simple technical, economic, or financial solution. We must instead radically challenge the fundamental social relation structuring capitalism: the system of debt. (shrink)

In this book, Esposito presents a historiography of organicist and holistic thought through an examination of the work of leading biologists from Britain and America. He shows how this work relates to earlier Romantic tradition and sets it within the wider context of the history and philosophy of the life sciences.

An analysis of how capitalism today produces subjectivity like any other “good,” and what would allow us to escape its hold. “Capital is a semiotic operator”: this assertion by Félix Guattari is at the heart of Maurizio Lazzarato's Signs and Machines, which asks us to leave behind the logocentrism that still informs so many critical theories. Lazzarato calls instead for a new theory capable of explaining how signs function in the economy, in power apparatuses, and in the production of subjectivity. (...) Moving beyond the dualism of signifier and signified, Signs and Machines shows how signs act as “sign-operators” that enter directly into material flows and into the functioning of machines. Money, the stock market, price differentials, algorithms, and scientific equations and formulas constitute semiotic “motors” that make capitalism's social and technical machines run, bypassing representation and consciousness to produce social subjections and semiotic enslavements. Lazzarato contrasts Deleuze and Guattari's complex semiotics with the political theories of Jacques Rancière, Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt, Paolo Virno, and Judith Butler, for whom language and the public space it opens still play a fundamental role. Lazzarato asks: What are the conditions necessary for political and existential rupture at a time when the production of subjectivity represents the primary and perhaps most important work of capitalism? What are the specific tools required to undo the industrial mass production of subjectivity undertaken by business and the state? What types of organization must we construct for a process of subjectivation that would allow us to escape the hold of social subjection and machinic enslavement? In addressing these questions, Signs and Machines takes on a task that is today more urgent than ever. (shrink)

The idea that the phenomenon of morality and, consequently, our ability to distinguish between vice and virtue can be explained by sympathy has been challenged as a highly controversial hypothesis, since sympathy appears to be easily influenced by proximity and selective, and would therefore seem incompatible with the possibility of taking an impartial, objective point of view. We intend to show that even a sentimentalist moral perspective such as the ‘Humean’ one, which places empathy (or ‘sympathy’, as Hume calls it) (...) at the core of morality, is capable of accounting for and justifying moral responsibility to future generations. Moreover, if we consider things from a Humean perspective, it is immoral not only to harm future generations, but also not to care at all about the extinction of the human species. For in the former case, we perform actions that cause misery, pain and suffering, whilst in the latter, we are not at all concerned about the welfare (i.e., happiness) of possible people who may, in the near future, come into the world and have a life worth or very much worth living. That is, in both cases, we show no ability to empathize with the possible people who will or may be born tomorrow. (shrink)

This is the first definitive monograph on the concept of obligations erga omnes---international obligations owed to the international community as a whole and binding irrespective of consent---an increasingly important concept in contemporary international law. Ragazzi adopts a pragmatic approach that identifies five common elements among the examples of obligations erga omnes given by the International Court. These five common elements are then discussed in the light of other candidates of obligations erga omnes which have emerged in State practice and international (...) literature. (shrink)

This paper draws from Foucault’s analysis of liberalism and neoliberalism to reconstruct the mechanisms and the means whereby neoliberalism has transformed society into an ‘enterprise society’ based on the market, competition, inequality, and the privilege of the individual. It highlights the role of financialization, neglected by Foucault, as a key apparatus in achieving this transformation. It elaborates the strategies of individualization, insecuritization and depoliticization used as part of neoliberal social policy to undermine the principles and practices of mutualization and redistribution (...) that the Welfare State and Fordism had promoted. It shows that the aim of neoliberal politics is the restoration of the power of capital to determine the distribution of wealth and to establish the enterprise as dominant form; this requires that it target society as a whole for a fundamental reconstruction, putting in place new mechanisms to control individual conduct. The analysis refers to the case of workers in the culture industry to illustrate the operation of these mechanisms in practice. It also outlines the main elements of the analytical apparatus that makes visible the new role of the state as an ensemble of apparatuses constituting the conditions for neoliberal market capitalism and the new type of individual appropriate for it. The paper thus adds a new dimension to Foucault’s analysis. (shrink)

In this paper, we present a design tool, the positioning cards that we have developed, validated, and used in different projects. These cards are built to allow CI4CG and Participatory Design researchers to discuss the political alignment of design projects, in iterative processes of design involving people in the definition of the technological features to be implemented. The background of the cards is the conceptualization of contemporary participatory design as public design, engaging with societally relevant phenomena outside the traditional environment (...) of the workplace. To engage with such an extended dimension of participatory design, we frame our contribution in the contemporary form of capitalism, stressing how contemporary capitalism dispossess the wealth created by social production. In this context, we argue, CI4CG designers need to engage deeply with the theoretical implications of their work. To support this effort, we built the cards combining a political perspective oriented toward nourishing the common—the ensemble of the material and symbolic elements tieing together human beings—with the “affect turn” in the social sciences—therefore including affective dimensions like joy, sadness, and desire in the design of CI4CG technologies. In the final part of the article we discuss how we have used the cards in four different projects. (shrink)