In the Multiple Shadows of Modernity

The book is about the relationship between critique and the field of tensions interweaving modernity and capitalism where critique itself has to be practiced and re-thought In which way can a fruitful connection between social sciences and critique be realized in a context of profound transformations in capitalism and in its mode of interpreting the vocabulary of modernity? Contemporary capitalism – analysed in the book as a specific mode of domination – seems characterized by a peculiar ability of ‘recuperating’ and incorporating several languages and forms of critique. The inquiry undertaken in this book aims at contributing in an on-going, collective process of research on the conditions for rescuing critique from the pitfalls and predicament produced by the peculiarity of contemporary capitalism. Arising out of exchanges and dialogues between the two authors around these topics, the book traverses some crucial debates in social sciences and political theory (from studies of networks to postcolonial criticism) and seeks to root criticism in an investigation of the production of subjectivity and social world underlying contemporary capitalism.

Sandro Mezzadra, Associate Professor (PhD Torino 1993), teaches Postcolonial Studies and Contemporary Political Theory at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Bologna. Vando Borghi, Associate Professor (PhD Bologna 1996) teaches Sociology of Development and Labour Policies at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Bologna.