Sandro Mezzadra lecture:
A genealogy of precariousness. Work, subjectivity, crowd

• Day: May 17
• Time: 7:00 p.m.
• Venue: Aljub
• Face-to-face activity with prior registration and limited places

Es Baluard Museu presents the public conference “A genealogy of precariousness. Work, subjectivity, multitude” by Sandro Mezzadra within the framework of the “Contact Zone” programme.

Mezzadra’s talk will expose some of the main critical approaches to precariousness developed in the last two decades. He will also critically analyze the notion of the “standard employment relationship”, drawing on feminist, anti-colonial and anti-racist thinking to develop a genealogy of precariousness that is not limited to neoliberalism and the West. On this basis, it will focus on instances of work characteristic of contemporary capitalism (such as digital and platform work) that go even beyond the usual understandings of precariousness and that test the limits between production and reproduction, work and life. Finally, he will outline a rethinking of the notion of multitude in the context of such a momentous transformation of capital and labor.

Sandro Mezzadra proposes these and other reflections, in an activity open to the general public, as a starting point for module 5 of the LAP (Laboratory of Art and Thought) program in its second edition. From this thematic block entitled “Jobs, precarious crowds” we will analyze our time of job insecurity, which is increasingly leading to a society with great inequalities, little cohesion and little hope. Many authors agree that the lack of action to combat these inequalities and address contemporary challenges feeds populist movements and discourses that erode democratic values.

“Contact Zone” is an annual training and research programme that aims to explore the potential of artistic practice and cultural production as devices for intervention in social change. In its second edition, the need to think about contemporary complexity is presented from five thematic axes: New institutionality, Environmentalisms, Feminisms, Borders and Works.