10 May 2023 online
Arianna Introna
In their The Productive Body François Guéry and Didier Deleule examine as central to the socialization of the labor-power contained in the biological body the mediation of what they call ‘the productive body’ (Guéry and Deleule 2015, p.51).
While Guéry and Deleule portray the genesis of the productive body as a smooth process which articulates a series of abstract, immaterial bodies, I will suggest that a material conception of the body and its limits is necessary for a perspective of struggle to be re-centered in Guéry and Deleule’s theory of the productive body. Bringing together disability studies and autonomist Marxism, my presentation will explore how non-normative bodies and minds function as a memento mori for the productive body as theorized by Guéry and Deleule. It will delineate four phases through which the creation of the productive body can be undone, and develop an ‘autonomist cripistemology’ of the productive body to grasp the ways in which disability as a socio-economic phenomenon can make a key contribution to forestalling its (re)production.
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