Introduction to Contemporary Italian Thought : From Posthumanism to Cyberfascism

Over the past three decades, Italian thought has emerged as a major field within continental philosophy. But what are the latest developments since Italian theory rose to a peak of popularity in the 2000s? This book offers an accessible and incisive introduction to contemporary Italian thought, revealing above all its continued relevance to some of the most pressing political, social and ethical conflicts today. Broadening the idea of Italian thought beyond biopolitics, An Introduction to Contemporary Italian Thought engages with a number of leading and upcoming philosophers, including Silvia Federici, Rosi Braidotti, Donatella di Cesare, Emanuele Coccia, Sandro Mezzadra, Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi and Federico Luisetti. It demonstrates how Italian theory resonates in a wide variety of current debates, from digital technology, pandemics and populism to cyberfascism, environmentalism and decolonization. This not only uncovers the fruitfulness of Italian philosophy but further allows for fresh perspectives on debates dominated by well-trodden and often dated arguments. In consideration of populism, for instance, this book does not so much examine Donald Trump but rather turns to Silvio Berlusconi and Giorgia Meloni, just as its discussions of the digitization of work look beyond Silicon Valley to working conditions in EU and Global South from the perspective of Italian (post)workerism, and the Anthropocene is considered in light of radical zoological egalitarianism as it emerges in contemporary Italian thought. Tackling head-on the complex and porous notion of what constitutes ‘Italian thought’, Christiaens, De Bloois and De Cauwer bring new understanding to contemporary Italian theory and, with it, novel perspectives on current critical issues.

Tim Christiaens is Assistant Professor of economic ethics at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. He is the author of Digital Working Lives (2022) on the gig economy and worker autonomy, and has published on topics like Italian thought, philosophy of technology, neoliberalism, and biopolitical theory in journals like European Journal of Social Theory, Italian Studies, Big Data & Society, and Foucault Studies.

Joost de Bloois is Senior Lecturer of Cultural and Literary Analysis at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. His publications include Politics of Withdrawal (with Pepita Hesselberth), a special issues of Rethinking Marxism on Italian post-workerism (with Monica Jansen and Frans-Willem Korsten), essays on Giorgio Agamben, Roberto Esposito and Erri de Luca, as well as a monograph on the work of Alain Badiou and several co-authored handbooks in cultural studies.

Stijn De Cauwer is Assistant Professor at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society, the Netherlands. His publications include Critical Theory at a Crossroads: Conversations on Resistance in Times of Crisis (2018), Critical Image Operations: The Work of Georges Didi-Huberman (2019), and writings on topics such as visual studies, cultural theory, German literature (including a monograph on the work of Robert Musil), Italian philosophy and biopolitics.