Common pleasures: The politics of collective practice from sociability to militant conviviality Valeria Antonella Graziano Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of English and Drama School of Business and Management Queen Mary University of London Dr. Michael McKinnie Dr. Arianna Bove Autumn 2014 1 Statement of originality I, Valeria Antonella Graziano, confirm that the research included within this thesis is my own work or that where it has been carried out in collaboration with, or supported by others, that this is duly acknowledged below and my contribution indicated. Previously published material is also acknowledged below. I attest that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge break any UK law, infringe any third party’s copyright or other Intellectual Property Right, or contain any confidential material. I accept that the College has the right to use plagiarism detection software to check the electronic version of the thesis. I confirm that this thesis has not been previously submitted for the award of a degree by this or any other university. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author. Signature: Date: 01th October 2014 2 Abstract This thesis considers from a theoretical and historical standpoint the different political implications of experiencing togetherness as a source of pleasure and joy. The first part critically reflects upon the discourse of “sociability” developed from early modernity to the 19th century and examines the most significant institutional formations that characterised its practice, with a particular focus on the passage from aristocratic salons to the bourgeois world of cafes. The sociability of the upper classes is then compared and contrasted with the forms of collective joy of the plebs, critically accounting for the way in which subjectivity and the body are differently implicated in the discourses surrounding carnivals, collective dancing and ecstatic practices. The second part focuses on the 20th century arguing that from this point the conflict between high and low sociability diminishes its political relevance to give way to increasingly ambivalent forms of togetherness based on the consumption of experiences and situation. The paradigms of the scene, the brand and the game are discussed as the primary institutions of a new dominant form of sociability deeply embedded in economic cycles. Finally, in the last part the notion of “militant conviviality” is introduced as a concept-tool to describe an emerging body of practices that are raising the stakes of sociability as an important component of radical political action today. 3 Acknowledgements I wish to acknowledge Queen Mary University for kindly supporting my research with a full scholarship. I thank my supervisors Dr Michael McKinnie, Dr. Arianna Bove and Dr. Stefano Harney for their exceptional support through this journey. I learned an immense amount from them and I relied upon their affectionate guidance more than they might know. I further thank my peer group of PhD students at Queen Mary University, for sharing the challenges and the exhilarations of this process with me. I’m especially indebted with Mara Ferreri and Saskia Fisher for their amazing critical feedback. The early stages of this dissertation have also benefitted tremendously from the ongoing dialogue with mentors and colleagues at my previous institution, Goldsmiths College. I welcome this opportunity to thank Prof Irit Rogoff, Dr Jean-Paul Martinon and others from the Curatorial/Knowledge programme for the many inspiring inputs that shaped the inception of this project. A special salutation goes to the comrades from Micropolitics Research Group, Carrot Workers Collective, Uninomade, Common House, Radical Education Forum, Pa-f and Summer Drafts, who all have provided me with countless moments of collective joy and fierce political learning over the years. All my love and gratitude goes to my co-conspirators Susan Kelly, Janna Graham, Manuela Zechner, Paolo Plotegher, Marten Spangberg, Stevphen Shukaitis, Erik Empson, Anja Kanngieser, Valentina Desideri, Marcelo Exposito, Maresa Lippolis, Zoe Romano, Eric Cardwell, Hypatia Vourloumis, Gigi Argyropoulou, Marcel Mars, Javier Toret Medina, Bianca Elzenbaumer, Johan Thelander and to the many friends who cannot fit in this pages and with whom I have had the privilege of sharing intellectual, political and artistic adventures. I further thank Suely Rolnik, Gerard Raunig, Brian Holmes, Franco La Cecla, Franco Berardi Bifo, Doina Petrescu and Cosimo Scarinzi for helping me to think more sharply and to all my students for teaching me so much in so many ways. Special thanks to my parents, Carla Baino and Domenico Graziano, and my brother Marcello Graziano for being there when I needed them. Finally, I thank my companion Andrea “Co” Colmelet for continuing to “farla in barba” with me every day. 4 Table Of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………9 PART I 1. Sociability and modernity…………………………………………………………………18 1.1 Sociability: a conceptual framework…………………………………….…………….18 Friedrich D. E. Schleiermacher Georg Simmel The defining characteristics of modern sociability 1.2 The historical context of the emergence of the notion of sociability…………………………………………………………………………………………………….30 The Salons The Academies The Grand Tour The Season The withdrawal of the upper-classes 1.3 From the salons to the bourgeoisie public………………………………………….45 Cafés Clubs Freemasonry Museums 1.4 How to be together: a short history of conversation and manners………………………………………………………………………………………………………56 Manners Conversation 1.5 Conclusions: sociability as privilege?….………………………………………………63 2. Plebeian sociability and alter-modernity………………………………………67 2.1 A short history of plebeian sociability…………..…………………………………….67 Antiquity 5 Secular collective joy: a medieval invention? 2.2 The modern persecution of plebeian sociability…………………………………75 Work ethics From disciplining youth to the creation of the wage-labourer The global war against plebeian sociability Working class bars 2.3 The key features of plebeian sociality………………………………………………86 The revolutionary drive of collective joy Conducts and counter-conducts PART II 3. From transgression to valorisation: the politics of sociability and contemporary impasse………………………………………………………………….…….100 3.1 Plebeian sociability as a revolutionary cultural practice…………….…….100 3.2 The form of action in social movements: an impasse?………….………..106 Work and life 3.3 The politics of sociability in contemporary cultural production……….117 Artistic encounters and the refusal of labour Situations 4. The contemporary sociability of capital………………………………………132 4.1 The situation at work: the experience industries……………….……………132 4.2 Contemporary sociability and the governance of pleasure………………145 The Scene The Brand 4.3 The gameplay of sociability………………………………………………………………158 From games to gamification Alternate realities The Jejune Institute Gamification and the contemporary politics of the subjectivation Sociability as play? 6 PART III 5. The concept of conviviality……….………………………….….……………………191 6. Practicing conviviality: 1970s to present day……………………….…..204 6.1 Counter-branding and the city: Serpica Naro, co-research and centri sociali …………………………………….…………………………………………………………………206 Workers’ inquiry and co-research Movement of 1977 Centri sociali 6.2 Collective translations: Colectivo Situaciones and participatory action research…………………………………….………………………………………………………….….223 Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Participatory Action Research 6.3 Resilient healing: Red Ciudadana Tras M-11 and feminist organizing…………………………………………………………………………………………………236 Feminist organizing Problematizing the structure of informality 6.4 The conviviality of coming apart: Collectif Sans Ticket and institutional analysis……………………………………………………………..……………………………………..248 Collectif Sans Ticket Institutional analysis Institutional psychotherapy and pedagogy 6.5 Another kind of social work: La Lleca and sociocultural animation………………………………………………………………………………………………….261 Sociocultural Animation 7. Notes towards a contemporary militant conviviality……………….274 Different Playgrounds Irony Versus Cynicism Vulnerability Or Flexibility Invariables Against Dispersion Self-Organization Is Not Self-Management 7 Vernacular Aesthetics Conclusions……………….……………………………………………………………………………293 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………………305 8 Introduction The theoretical and political question of militant conviviality arises from the organic interconnection of my artistic practice, my theoretical research and my militant activity. As an academic, I have been teaching at universities in eight different countries; as a cultural worker, I have been creating participatory projects for art centres, museums, cultural foundations, festivals and NGOs; as an activist, I’ve been occupying, facilitating assemblies, picketing, distributing flyers, cooking and talking to people about injustice since my high school years. All these three different sets of activities contributed to the need to think through the idea of sociability, as in all three realms, over and over, there would be a point in a seminar, in a project or in a campaign when things (people, ideas, moods, gestures, communication flows, etc.) would begin to ‘click’ so to speak, to coalesce,