Tim Christiaens
@timchristiaens
Political philosopher (they/them) working on critical theory, technology, and labour. Assistant Professor of economic ethics at Tilburg University. Genderfluid 🏳️⚧️
Today I’m summarizing chapter 1 of Cecilia Rikap’s The Rulers. The book discusses corporate power today with chapter 1 focusing on what an ‘intellectual monopoly’ is. 1/6
Starting a new run of chapter-by-chapter summaries. Currently reading the fascinating The Rulers by @ceciliarikap.bsky.social from @versobooks.bsky.social . Today I’ll start with the introduction. 1/5
When your whole day is taken up with killing your darlings to meet the wordcount for a book chapter.
Reading Shulamith Firestone’s The Dialectic of Sex and seriously considering pairing this with Marcuse for a class on the Frankfurt School I’m teaching next semester.
Brillian talk at Cambridge University by @claudia-cristalli.bsky.social on the links between American pragmatism and logical positivism.
New book acquisitions with some classics by Shulamith Firestone, Mario Mieli, and Malcolm X, but also some newer books by Hugo Drochon and Bonneuil & Fressoz.
Just finished reading Silicon Empires by @nsrnicek.bsky.social . It focuses on the geopolitics of AI development and is particularly strong in its comparison between the US and China strategies of AI dominance. Good companion to Sandro Mezzadra and Brett Neilson’s work on political capitalism.
Casually browsing through a Marvin Minsky book to find a name I didn’t expect to see there.
I sometimes forget Andreas Malm writes some banger sentences: “It is easier to imagine the end of the world than me skipping a filet mignon.” From ‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’
Studying Feltrin’s book on how global deindustrialisation can go along with increasing industrial pollution. Great book! He documents how environmentalist issues have historically come up in labour activism and how we’re going through a global economic stagnation that keeps polluters in power.
The body politic is beheaded, the time of the multitude is now.
When the outfit matches the book you’re reading. Btw, Feltrin’s book is great so far. He takes workerist Marxism as his starting point but rather than presenting today’s world economy as ruled by knowledge and service industries with a vibrant multitude of cognitive and emotional workers (Negri),…
Train reading on the way home from a wonderful conference in Edinburgh.
You know you’ve made when your book appears at a conference on someone else’s slides.
Philosophy in action as I talk about Silvia Federici and environmental politics at the Society for Italian Philosophy conference in Edinburgh. (And I love the accidental colouring effect on my slides).
Starting the Society for Italian Philosophy conference. Excited to talk about Silvia Federici, Stefania Barca, Laura Conti, and Marxist ecofeminism.
Book review copies from @versobooks.bsky.social received. Any for which you would like me to post a chapter-by-chapter summary on Bluesky?
Will miss San Benedetto Del Tronto. What a lovely place in the middle of Italy.
On holiday with some true beach reading: Marx’ 1861-1863 Economic Manuscripts.
Saw a photo exhibition of Letizia Battaglia this weekend in The Hague. Really worth a visit. Battaglia became famous as photo journalist of maffia violence in the 1980s, but she also depicted everyday life in Palermo, Sicily.
Treating myself to a novel and a coffee to celebrate the end of teaching season.
For those blocked by the paywall, this is the part I contributed.