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THE PARTICIPATORY COMPLEX Participation as Ideology in the Neoliberal Era Cayley Sorochan Art History & Communication Studies McGill University, Montreal October 2017 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of PhD © Cayley Sorochan 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………………...iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………vii PREFACE……………………………………………………………………………………..xi INTRODUCTION: THE PARTICIPATORY COMPLEX………………………..1 Sites of Analysis…………………………………………………………………………………11 CHAPTER ONE: PARTICIPATION AS IDEOLOGY...........................................25 An Imaginary Lived Relation................................................................................................26 Consumer Capitalism: Participation as Desublimation………..…………………………28 Enjoyment: Participation as point-de-capiton……..……………………………………...30 Neoliberalism and subjectivity..……..……………..……………………………………………32 The Participatory Complex……………………………...……………………………………….43 Activity, Passivity, Interpassivity..........................................................................................44 Structure, Procedure, Process……………...……………………………………………...47 Immediacy, Anti-representation……………..…………………………………………….49 Physical Presence: Face-to-Face and Bodily Co-presence………………………...……..51 Inclusion, Pluralism…………………..…………………………………………………...54 Consensus……………………………………..…………………………………………..56 Personalization as Empowerment……………………………………..………………….58 CHAPTER TWO: PARTICIPATION IN ACTIVISM……………………………67 Postwar Participation and the Vanishing Mediator of Direct Democracy……………………….70 The Radical Implications of Participatory Democracy……………………………………..……82 Occupy Wall Street: Genuine Democracy or Class Division?......................................................86 Participation as Ideology……………………………..………………………………………….90 Structure/Process/Procedures over Ends……...…………………………………………..92 Inclusivity or Openness………………………………………………..…………………..95 Anti-representational Attitudes………………………………………………..…………..97 Occupy or Reject Power?.............................................................................................................100 Participation in the Quebec Student Strike……………….…………………………………….101 CLASSE: The Organization Behind the Strike………………….……………………………..103 Syndicalist Ideology in the Student Movement…………………………………………….…..107 Democracy Beyond Deliberation: Cohesion, Combativeness and Solidarity………..………...112 Limits on Inclusion: common interests and ideological coherence……..……………….112 Dialogue as a path to Decision: The Destabilizing Potential of a Non-Negotiable Demand…………………………………………………………………………………..116 Neighbourhood Assemblies and the Difficulty of Expanding the Movement………….....121 The Movement Today……………………………………………………………..……………124 Conclusion: The Role of Participation in Social Movements………………….……………….125 ii CHAPTER THREE: PARTICIPATION AT WORK……………………………139 The Emergence of Participation at Work: Participation, Motivation and a More Humane Capitalism…………………………………………………………….………………………...145 The 1980s: Participation Is Disciplined by the Market……………….………………………..150 A Brief History of Unconferences……………………………..……………………………….155 The Rules of Bar Camp……………………………...………………………………………….160 The Projective City: From Institutional Hierarchy to the Ideology of the Project………….….168 Bar Camps and the Projective City……………………………………………………………..174 The Influence of F/OSS Ideology on Bar Camps……………………………………………....178 Enjoyment: The Unwritten Rules of Bar Camp Ideology………………….…………………..183 Passion and Enthusiasm: Enjoy(!) Work Camp…………………...……………………..185 Activity Over Passivity: Pragmatic Activity, “Useful Information” and Scarcity of Time………………………………………………………………………………………191 Refusing the Law of Participation: A Repressive Consensus?...........................................196 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….………..201 CHAPTER FOUR: PARTICIPATION IN ART…………………………………..215 An Ethics of the Demand: Dialogue and Social Amelioration as Ethical Standards…………...219 Bishop’s Critique: Aesthetics Beyond Ethics, the Secondary Audience and Lacanian Desire…………………………………………………………………………………………...230 To Be of Use: Superflex’s Tools of Participation and Market Utopia……………..…………..238 An Ethics of Desire: Activist Art and Deterritorializing Machines……………..……………..254 Papas Fritas: Interventionist Alternatives, Counter-Stabilization, and Revolutionary Drive……………………………………………………………………………………………263 Conclusion……………………………………….……………………………………………..274 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………….....286 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………299 iii ABSTRACT Participation has a particular ideological function in the context of digital networks. Approaching participation as a complex of values rather that a particular form of decision making or organizational structure, this dissertation analyzes a range of contemporary practices that embrace participation as an ideal. Such practices include social movements, open conferencing events in the knowledge and IT industries, and social practice art. Through these sites I seek to clarify the way that participation operates in terms of what Slavoj Žižek refers to as a mode of “enjoyment.” While in all cases participation is presented as a path towards progress or emancipation, this widespread assumption has led to the restructuring of social relations in a fashion that is not incompatible with capitalist exploitation. The dissertation explores the paradox that exploitation presents to social actors who place their hopes in participation as a primary principle in their vision of social transformation. I argue that our attachment to participatory values is an impasse to radical political organization and our capacity to build democratic power. In contrast to the conflation of participation with democracy in the radical imagination, I argue that participation today operates as a complex of values that has become uncoupled from direct democratic practices. The “participatory complex,” as I define it, includes: a valuation of activity over passivity; the privileging of procedure or structure over ends; a desire for immediacy and anti-representational attitudes; the privileging of face-to-face encounters or bodily co-presence; an orientation towards inclusiveness and pluralism; a will to consensus; and discourses of empowerment through personalization. iv RÉSUMÉ La participation détient une fonction idéologique dans le contexte des réseaux sociaux numériques. Cette thèse étudie la participation comme un complexe de valeurs et non comme une façon de prendre des décisions ou comme une structure organisationnelle. Ainsi, je m’emploie à analyser une série de pratiques contemporaines qui prônent une vision idéalisée de la participation. Parmi les pratiques qui idéalisent la participation on peut compter : les mouvements sociaux, les conférences ouvertes au public dans les industries du savoir et des nouvelles technologies (TIC) ainsi que l’art engagé. L’étude des diverses conceptions que l’on se fait de la participation au sein de ces domaines permet d’observer comment la participation opère selon les modalités de ce que Slavoj Žižek appelle la « jouissance ». Si dans tous ces cas de figure la participation représente le progrès et l’émancipation, une telle conception de la participation contribue néanmoins à une restructuration des relations sociales qui n’est pas sans rappeler la logique d’exploitation du capitalisme. Cette thèse examine le paradoxe que pose l’exploitation pour les acteurs sociaux qui avaient misé sur la participation en tant que principe fondateur du changement social qu’ils envisageaient. Je soutiens que notre attachement aux valeurs participatives représente une impasse pour la constitution de mouvements politiques radicaux et entrave notre capacité de bâtir un pouvoir démocratique. A l’opposé de l’imaginaire radical qui présuppose un amalgame entre participation et démocratie, j’affirme qu’aujourd’hui la participation opère selon un complexe de valeurs qui sont détachées des pratiques démocratiques directes. Ce que j’ai nommé « complexe de participation » comprend : une valorisation de l’activité au détriment de la passivité ; un intérêt marqué pour les procédures ou les structures plutôt que pour les fins ; un désir d’immédiateté et l’adoption d’une posture non- représentationnelle ; une valorisation du face-à-face et de la co-présence physique ; un v mouvement vers l’inclusion et le pluralisme ; une volonté d’établir des consensus ; l’établissement de discours d’émancipation fondés sur le principe de la personalisation. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation was made possible by the support of many colleagues, friends, and mentors who over the years have contributed in numerous ways to my thinking, to my confidence and to my general well-being. The following people have in some fashion enabled me conceive this project and to persist through to its end. I owe enormous gratitude to my supervisor Darin Barney for his unending faith in my work, his precise and thoughtful comments on drafts, for engaging in enthusiastic conversations about politics and theory, and for his generous nature, sharp intellect and readiness to lend an ear. Numerous individuals have enriched the arguments found within by sharing their insights during workshops and conference talks. My thanks to all of the participants in the Banff Research in Culture residency “On the Commons” for being supportive in the early stages of this project when my critique of participation as ideology was only a rough sketch. Their receptiveness
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