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(Dis)obedient

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Labour Power

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis ((LECTMORPH))

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Abstract

The possibility of disobeying command is prior to the subordination that establishes a contract. First comes resistance, then obedience. This tension towards resistance and the search for personal or collective autonomy characterises the history of contractualism, as well as that of subordinate employment and self-employment. This means the subordinate subject in a power relationship cannot be tamed, not that it is a passive subject. If the history of subordinate labour refers to the conflict between servants and masters, the history of self-employment is forged in war. “When the rich plunder the poor of his rights, it becomes an example to the poor to plunder the rich of his property.”

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Y. Thomas, L’ «usage» et les «fruits» de l’esclave, where the author relates the economic, historical and philosophical analyses of Greek and Roman antiquity by M. Finley (The Ancient Economy), di H. Arendt (The Human Condition) e J. P. Vernant (Mythe et pensée chez les Grecs).

  2. 2.

    See Gros [1]. See also Laudani [2].

  3. 3.

    See Supiot [3].

  4. 4.

    See Romagnoli [4, 477 ff]; See B. Spinoza, Political Treatise. The history of labour law and the history of obedience must be read in the context of proprietary individualism, see Macpherson [5].

  5. 5.

    See B. Spinoza, Political Treatise, II, 9.

  6. 6.

    See K. Marx, The Process of Production of Capital, Draft Chapter 6 of Capital Results of the Direct Production Process, retrieved at marxists.org.

  7. 7.

    K. Marx, The Process of Production of Capital.

  8. 8.

    K. Marx, The Process of Production of Capital. See E. Screpanti, “Marx e il contratto di lavoro: dall’astrazione naturale alla sussunzione formale”, Quaderni del dipartimento di economia politica, Università degli studi di Siena, no. 546, October 2008.

  9. 9.

    Weber [6, 730].

  10. 10.

    See Ciccarelli [7].

  11. 11.

    See Macherey [8, 237–320].

  12. 12.

    See Pliny [9].

  13. 13.

    Tabula Heracleensis, vulgo lex iulia municipalis, I Ira I n. 13, Lin. 112; coll. 9, 2, 2, in M. H. Crawford et al., Roman Statutes, I, London (1996), 355–391.

  14. 14.

    See Diliberto [10].

  15. 15.

    See Biscardi [11, 109–129].

  16. 16.

    Cicero [12, I, 42].

  17. 17.

    Tabula Heracleensis C.I.L. I 119, lin. 112/113: “Depugnandi causa auctoratus erit”.

  18. 18.

    See De Robertis, Lavoro e lavoratori nel mondo romano, 155 ff.

  19. 19.

    See W. Kunkel, Auctoratus in Symb. TaubesHag, III, (1957), 207 ff. and the criticism of O. Diliberto, “Ricerche sull’auctoramentum”, 71 ff.

  20. 20.

    See A. Biscardi, “Nozione classica ed origini dell’auctoramentum”, 117.

  21. 21.

    See Albanese [13, 406].

  22. 22.

    See Foucault [14].

  23. 23.

    See Arangio Ruiz [15, 235–237]; F. De Robertis, I rapporti di lavoro nel diritto romano; Almirante [16, 9].

  24. 24.

    On the mandatum in Roman law, see Marrone [17, 499 ff].

  25. 25.

    See I. Botteri, Tra “onore” e “utile”: il galateo del professionista.

  26. 26.

    See D. Banfi, S. Bologna, Vita da freelance, second chapter.

  27. 27.

    See Roth [18].

  28. 28.

    On the history of types of work and enterprise in Roman law see M. Bretone, Storia del diritto romano.

  29. 29.

    See Derrida [19].

  30. 30.

    See E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class; Rancière [20].

  31. 31.

    On the contemporary trend of self-employment, see Fumagalli and Bologna [21]. On the transformation of self-employment during the crisis, see Bonomi [22].

  32. 32.

    See S. Bologna, Knowledge Workers, p. 25.

  33. 33.

    For a history of freelance workers see Bologna [23]; S. Bologna, Knowledge workers; S. Bologna, La new workforce; D. Banfi, S. Bologna, Vita da freelance; Gandini [24].

  34. 34.

    See Reich [25].

  35. 35.

    Scott [26].

  36. 36.

    W. Scott, Ivanhoe.

  37. 37.

    W. Scott, Ivanhoe.

  38. 38.

    Para-subordinate workers in Italy are individuals who are legally self-employed but who are often “economically dependent” on a single employer.

  39. 39.

    Machiavelli [27, p. 280].

  40. 40.

    Machiavelli [28, 38].

  41. 41.

    N. Machiavelli, The Prince, 65–66.

  42. 42.

    N. Machiavelli, The Prince, 67.

  43. 43.

    della Casa [29].

  44. 44.

    Castiglione [30, 59–60].

  45. 45.

    Noce [31, 723–762].

  46. 46.

    Benjamin [32, 31].

  47. 47.

    Benjamin [33, 169].

  48. 48.

    See Gentili [34, 21–36].

  49. 49.

    See Fortini [35, 90].

  50. 50.

    See Ciccarelli [36, 143–160].

  51. 51.

    See Benjamin [37, 422].

  52. 52.

    W. Benjamin, “The Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire” 61.

  53. 53.

    Karl Marx [38].

  54. 54.

    K. Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte.

  55. 55.

    E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, 92 ff.

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  1. Department of Education, Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy

    Roberto Ciccarelli

  2. Il Manifesto, Rome, Italy

    Roberto Ciccarelli

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Ciccarelli, R. (2021). (Dis)obedient. In: Labour Power. Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70862-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70862-7_4

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