New Paradigms of Unfreedom. Historical genealogies and critical strategies

Head of the Unibo research unit: Maria Laura Lanzillo

The first two decades of the 21st century bore traces of ‘unease’ and ‘malaise’ and at times of an actual ‘crisis’ in the social and political science debates on the state of Western democracies. Initially, following the 2008 global financial crisis, later the rise of the neo-populist leaders and movements, and lastly following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, debates saw the increase of pessimistic assessments on the future of democracy. 

This was a radical shift from the optimism of the 1990s’ heralding a swift growth of democratisation. However, such unease has not been mirrored faithfully in definitions and theories, as they merely highlight the symptoms of the crisis, without a conceptual thematisation. New categories have been sought, nevertheless they have mainly remained within the framework of the historical-political lexicon of modernity. A case in point is the acritical use many social scientists have made of concepts conceived in other historical contexts. They have been adopted without filtering them through their history and genealogy. This has made it difficult to develop a critical view on whether they can be applied to our time and on their renewed hermeneutical productive use. 

The present project aims (producing both books, papers and multimedia products, translating essays written during 19th-20th Century and not yet translated into Italian, but also making some intensive third mission activities) to update concepts used in interpreting present day transformations, focusing on the creation of an appropriate vocabulary (lexicon) that incorporates the breadth and width of change as well as all those individual and collective trends (phenomena) that are included in the term ‘illiberty’. Therefore, the main aim of our work is to prepare a lexicon able to identify and isolate the concepts capable of catching the new figures of illiberty. Furthermore the project intends to contribute to the creation of a theoretical-cultural framework which could be helpful to think an inclusive and sustainable european political space. Thanks to its strategy based on historical reconstruction and critical theory, the project aims to first and foremost revisit some of the 19th and 20th century conceptual paradigms to put them to the test, along five coordinated axes of investigation. A genealogical approach will verify their current diagnostic and prognostic ability, highlighting the limitations many of them display in tackling the historical weight of present day transformations. This implies shaping up new configurations in the relationships between individuals and power. 

Members of the Department

Giuseppe Sciara

Other members

Publications

Insero, Affective Turn. Ripensare gli affetti tra storia e politica, Milano, Mimesis, 2023.

Ceretta Manuela, Lanzillo Maria Laura, Visentin Stefano, Attualità e persistenza della servitù volontaria, «TEORIA POLITICA», 2022, 12, pp. 217 – 228 

«Teoria politica», 2022, n. 12, sezione “La servitù volontaria. Un approccio interdisciplinare”, a cura di M. Ceretta – M.L. Lanzillo – S. Visentin, https://journals.openedition.org/tp/2240 

Lanzillo, Maria Laura, Editoriale. Forme di servitù volontaria, «FILOSOFIA POLITICA», 2022, 1, pp. 3 - 10 

«Filosofia politica», 2022, 1, numero monografico dedicato a “Servitù volontaria”, a cura di M.L. Lanzillo, https://www.rivisteweb.it/issn/0394-7297/issue/8411 

Conferences, lectures and talks

Lectio magistralis: Françoise Mélonio, Il «mio» Tocqueville – Parma, 24 ottobre 2023 – https://www.decive.unipr.it/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Lectio-Mélonio-24ott2023_def.pdf 

Biennale Democrazia 2023 – Dixit – Le parole dell’illibertà – Torino, 23-26 marzo 2023 – https://archivio.biennaledemocrazia.it/?src_title=&src_par=&src_tem=&src_ed=2023&src_forma=dixit&src_luogo=  

Pour une éthologie de la servitude volontaire / Towards an ethology of “voluntary servitude”. Interdisciplinary workshop, Maison de science de l’homme de Bordeaux, October 28, 2022 - https://www.mshbx.fr/2022/09/25/pour-une-ethologie-de-la-servitude-volontaire/