Draft Thesis Outline

WHAT DO YOU WANT THE THESIS TO BE ABOUT?

My idea for the thesis can be described so far as an analysis on the function of law from small communities to big scale society (civil society) . In particular, I will look at the relation between legislation and agency, trying to write a story about the process of finding communal strategies of collaboration. Processes which can be unofficial and necessary regulations (part of the sphere of the LEGITIMATE) or obligations / expropriations to what is proper and individual, hegemonic norms (part of the sphere of the LEGAL). The formation of the concept of “commons” is rooted in the laws which protects the common. Commons is a rupture in the concept of identity-boundaries and expose individuals to a potential conflict. Those risks are often protected by particular rituals: the norms. Norms can be oppressive and not socially necessary. In our political panorama, where the ZOE (the natural life) and the BIOS (the political existence) are interrelated as inseparable concepts, the value of law dominance has to be questioned and maybe replaced by something else.

“Nothing is more obscure than this unconditional power of juridical categories in a world in which they no longer reflect a grain of comprehensible ethical substance” (Agamben, Homo Sacer)

The realization of the law should now more than ever happen in an application of justice without law. In this sense a cathartic action of spreading justice through social, political life could form a “state of exception” founded on a tradition of hope. The conflictual model of collaboration rooted in communities existence (e.g. Thomas Schelling) should recall a concept of strategical friendship: a spontaneous struggling through experience and affection.

[ Bargaining is collaborating. Participating is fighting. ]

Regulations should take form of self-coordinated norms that allows people to solve problems and co-operate among each other. Individuals that are naturally moved by individual self-interest, are still able to commit to a game of tactical collaboration?

My research will then (hopefully) follow the line of my graduation work, which aims to trigger “metalogues” (e.g. Gregory Bateson) on the value of law dominance & law exceptions in collective organizational structures.

HOW IT RELATES TO YOUR RESEARCH?

The topic of my thesis relates to the research I’m building up during my Master at Piet Zwart for a fundamental question: how to re-consider forms of organization and collaboration within our neoliberal political panorama. The re-consideration is for me synonym of “counter-mediation”, a necessary and unpredictable need of claiming extra-categories that are able to describe us as identities and the common space we share with others. The common characteristic of my works are social engagement and participation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 5 important texts:

- Roberto Esposito: Immunitas: The Protection and Negation of Life

- Giorgio Agamben: Homo Sacer / State of Exceptions

- Ferdinand Tonnies: Community and Civil Society

- Augusto Boal: Legislative Theatre

- Gregory Bateson: Steps to An Ecology of Mind