RE: AUT: RE: fwd Ricercatori Precari

[".: s0metim3s :." <s0metim3s@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Stevphen:

: time. although im not clear what you're
: talking about here with the
: subjectivites of capital and how that
: relates - could you perhaps clarify
: that?

Ok, the relation between subjectivities and
capital ...  What I pointed to was of academics
talking about the virtues of a 'free exchange of
knowledge' in a statement whose ostensible purpose
was to challenge the capitalisation of the
university.

Now, for sure there's a debate here about whether
one regards this capitalisation as commencing with
privatisation or precarisation -- socialists would
tend to insist that it does, that the solution is
therefore public ownership and tenure.  But I
don't think capitalisation starts here.  I reckon
it begins when you see yourself (your job, task,
self and others) as inhabiting the eternal
universe of the marketplace, commodity exchange,
wage labour, etc.

So, I don't think that recourse to 'free exchange
of knowledge' is a challenge.  The forms of
connection and relationship between people this
concept puts forward are those of the
marketplace -- exchange, circulation, networking
even. On top of which, there's the increasingly
redundant idea that the distinct status of the
university should be protected, because the
university (apparently) produces *knowledge*.
It's all a bit too priestly for me.  The
possibilities of making the experience of
commodification unbearable (and therefore getting
combative about it) are constantly undermined by
the benefits of assuring oneself of one's
metaphysical status, outside the world, with
knowledge.

Terranova and Bousquiet's piece is really quite
good; but in the same edition of Mute there's the
'Teach Yourself Institutions' section -- one,
practical indication of what the
displacement/diffusion of the university (and its
abolition as an ivory tower) might mean.

Angela
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