How To Refuse Research from The Ruins of Its Own Production

Writing in 1965, Mario Tronti’s claim was that the greatest power of the working class is refusal: the of work, the of capitalist development, and the to bargain within a capitalist framework. One can see how this strategy of refusal has been utilised in all sorts of instances by movements, but how does this play out now in the context of wider struggles over autonomy today – not just in terms of labour power and class struggles; but also intersectional feminism and queer politics; race and decolonialism, geopolitics, populism, environmental concerns; and the current pandemic? In what ways does a of production manifest itself in contemporary artistic, political, social, cultural, or other movements? And, how might a of certain forms of production come together with a politics of care and social closeness – also when thinking of how research itself might be refused? This essay in the editorial introduction for a co-edited Journal.