Abstract
In his first book translated into English, Bifo, media theorist and member of the Autonomia movement, presents the history of workers’ struggle in connection with the intellectual history of the 1960s onwards in a clear and accessible language. In the brand of Marxism that the author adopts, the focus is on subjectivity formed under the conditions of contemporary capitalism. Similar to other Autonomists and following the work of Felix Guattari, Bifo concentrates on the often neglected aspect of capitalism: its emotional affects.
Within the post-Fordist structure that evolved as a response to workers’ struggles in the 1960s, work and life becomes pathological. Under the pretence of promotion of self-enterprise, individuality and creativity at work, the new kind of worker willingly submits to the prolongation of the work day only to perpetuate unhappiness. It is a condition of general depression whereby economic production of value insidiously enslaves the soul rather than the body, which was the site of control in the Fordist economic structure. Bifo argues that ‘No desire, no vitality seems to exist anymore outside the economic enterprise, outside productive labour and business’ (p. 96). The author aims to understand and prescribe a remedy to the situation in which depression, precariousness and panic prevail as capital absorbs all creativity and desire. True to the optimistic Autonomist spirit, Bifo puts forth ideas of wealth as ‘time to enjoy, travel, learn, and make love’ in opposition to wealth as ‘cumulative possession’ (p. 140), refusal of work in order to valorise human activities that escape from capitalist domination, and estrangement as a possibility for constructing an alternative to labour relations.
Although a minimum level of familiarity with Bifo's concepts such as ‘semiocapital’, ‘precarity’ and ‘cognitariat’ (which are thoroughly explained in the book, especially in the preface by Jason Smith) is required to follow the arguments, the book clarifies some of the most contrived intellectual debates in Marxist and post-structuralist thought related to the concepts of alienation, subjectivity and desire. His analysis of Sartre's existentialist Marxism and the debate between Baudrillard and Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari not only serves the unfolding of Bifo's own argument but can also serve as an exceptional introduction to these thinkers. The Soul at Work is an inspiring and exciting text aimed not only at those who follow Bifo's work, but also at those who are interested in contemporary Marxist thought and its historical evolution.