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Papers by Jacopo Bonasera
Mimesis Edizioni / Studi Politici, 2024
Partendo dall’analisi di alcuni momenti cruciali attraverso cui si snoda il dibattito sulla sovra... more Partendo dall’analisi di alcuni momenti cruciali attraverso cui si snoda il dibattito sulla sovranità della Compagnia in India alla fine del XVIII secolo, questo contributo mira a ricostruire sia la posizione espressa da Malthus sull’opportunità di istruire i civil servants ai principi e allo “spirito della Costituzione britannica”, sia il modo in cui il rapporto concettuale che egli istaura tra società, costituzione e governo viene ripreso da due suoi allievi – Robert Keith-Pringle e Holt Mackenzie – impegnati a riformare la tassazione delle proprietà terriere in India. Insieme all’amministrazione della giustizia, quella delle tasse costituisce il nuovo campo di intervento sovrano della EIC su vasti territori coloniali in India. Inoltre, la valutazione delle terre, fondata su un’originale interpretazione della teoria della rendita sviluppata in quegli anni proprio da Malthus e da David Ricardo, rivela un ulteriore contenuto normativo del riferimento alla costituzione britannica. Per Malthus come per Mackenzie e Keith-Pringle, il problema è di costituire per via amministrativa la società indiana.
USAbroad. Journal of American History and Politics, 2024
This essay considers the environmental and political discourse of prominent American scientists W... more This essay considers the environmental and political discourse of prominent American scientists William Vogt and Henry Fairfield Osborn, concerning their bestsellers Road to Survival (1948) and Our Plundered Planet (1948). It is argued that by re-articulating the place of 'population' in environmental thinking, they both advanced a specific theory of limits and possibilities of individual freedom. Their public position in the most pressing debates of the time resulted in a critique of modernization and development and a specific understanding of planning as a tool to 'write' a different 'history of the future' of Western civilization.
Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, 2022
This contribution offers an historical conceptual analysis of the population question, as it was ... more This contribution offers an historical conceptual analysis of the population question, as it was articulated by Neo-Malthusian intellectuals G. Hardin and P. Ehrlich before 1972 UN Stockholm Conference. Starting from the conceptualization of nature by T.R. Malthus, the essay then assesses the theoretical and historical continuities and discontinuities that qualify the Twentieth century environmental reappraisal of Malthus’ doctrines. In so doing, the essay also proposes a different understanding of the so-called ‘Malthusian moment’ that contributed to shape the birth of global environmentalism. It is argued that the political core of both Malthus’ and environmental Neo-Malthusianism relates to the effort of making nature an un-common ground for the people, one that legitimizes social and political hierarchies. The case made by both Ehrlich and Hardin for “coercive” birth control – in polemic with women’s claim for reproductive rights – is granted particular attention. Their environmental thinking conveys the idea that all people are passengers of “Spaceship Earth”, while they hold different responsibilities to preserve it. Thus, the environmental revival of the Malthusian law of population reshapes the understanding of the “optimum” relation between population and resources, contributing to the formation of the scientific environment that influenced 1972 UN Conference.
Filosofia Politica, 2024
This essay analyses the problem of ‘regulation’ as it emerges in Malthus’ political economy. It i... more This essay analyses the problem of ‘regulation’ as it emerges in Malthus’ political economy. It is addressed the way he conceptualized ‘rent’ as a providential regulator of capital accumulation which must always be artificially sustained by government. Starting from an analysis of the essays Malthus published in 1815, this contribution then put them in relation with the definition of ‘crisis’ emerging in the Principles of Political Economy.
Through this intellectual trajectory, the author developed a conception of ‘crisis’ as an ‘irregularity’ which is part and parcel of the ‘regular’ progress of wealth. Governments’ intervention is thus defined by Malthus as being both an ‘exception’, and a necessary tool to ensure the political and social conditions of the regular progress of capital accumulation. Lastly, the role of equilibrators of the economic cycle he attributed to the landlords highlights the attempt to make rents the expression of a power which is deemed essential to ‘redeem’ capital, thus to regulate the crises it tends to produce.
History of European Ideas, 2024
This contribution analyses the scientific and political meaning of the concept of ‘population’ wi... more This contribution analyses the scientific and political meaning of the concept of ‘population’ within Thomas Robert Malthus’ thought. It is here argued that by encapsulating ‘population’ in a scientific principle, the author not only aimed at contrasting radical and revolutionary theories of his time; he was also looking for a renovation of the role principles hold in scientific reasoning. He considered this crucial for delineating a plausible science for such an elusive political object as society. Through an examination of key passages of Malthus’ theoretical production – his critique of previous definitions of ‘population’, his reassessment of the natural history of society, and the use of selected metaphors to explain his political thought – it is possible to observe how the author attempted to naturalize society and the inequalities arising from its historical laws. As shown in the conclusions, Malthus’ scientific and political effort was directed towards questioning possibilities to reduce the history of social relations to a path of rational progress, which is consistent with the way he re-conceptualized ‘population’ as regarding the fate of the people and their chances to transform the future in the plausible outcome of their political action in the present.
Politics. Rivista di studi politici, 2023
This essay takes into account the conceptual nexus between history, politics, and critique establ... more This essay takes into account the conceptual nexus between history, politics, and critique established by two major theorists of the Anthropocene: Bruno Latour and Dipesh Chakrabarty. It is argued that despite important theoretical differences between their reflections, they both find the Anthropocene to have disruptive effects on human possibilities to comprehend and criticize history. On the one hand, for Latour the discovery of Gaia brings about a new geo-history which allows us to both 'disinvent' old historical categories, and favor the political composition of a new order. Chakrabarty, on the other hand, finds in the Anthropocene the key to a new 'negative universal history' that makes the 'evolutionary' history of the species crucial for a critical understanding of the present. Finally, the way Latour and Chakrabarty utilize the concepts of 'class' and 'population' is used to draw conclusions on their conceptualization of political ecology.
Storia del pensiero politico, 2023
This essay advances an interpretation of key moments of Thomas Robert Malthus’ theoretical and po... more This essay advances an interpretation of key moments of Thomas Robert Malthus’ theoretical and political production in light of the historical and conceptual problem represented by the public presence of the people in the aftermath of the late 18th century’s revolutionary turn. It is argued that the principle of population is the Malthusian response to the danger posed by the popular classes: by establishing both the natural subjection of the majority of the population to need, and the indifference of political and social rights to that condition, the principle of population both poses limits to the politics of the people and defines which movements make them a formless «mob». The Malthusian principle thereby claims to regulate the tension between «part» and «whole» that constitutes the concept of the people in this historical turning point; then, its revival in the 1830s by Francis Place shows the persistence of a dispute around the relationship between order and integration that runs through the modern genesis of the people-democracy nexus.
Storicamente, 2022
This contribution presents a bibliographical itinerary on Twentieth century environmental revival... more This contribution presents a bibliographical itinerary on Twentieth century environmental revival of Malthusian doctrines. After introducing both the main conceptual strains inherent to the topic, and their scientific interest the essay takes into consideration the Post-WWII emergence of global environmentalism. A survey of the texts of 1960s and 1970s exponents of Neo-Malthusian environmentalism shows the important role played by this tradition of thought in shaping environmental concerns on both the scientific and the governmental level. The itinerary ends with an analysis of the main authors and strains of enquiry that have assessed the historical and conceptual relevance of Neo-Malthusian environmentalism. It is argued that more researches into Malthus’ legacy over time could grant significant theoretical gains both for the history of political thought, and its entanglments with the history of environmentalism.
L'ordine dei diritti. Processi, soggetti, categorie - IISF Press, 2022
Partendo dal rapporto instaurato da Malthus tra la natura e la genesi della società, è possibile ... more Partendo dal rapporto instaurato da Malthus tra la natura e la genesi della società, è possibile osservare come egli risalga al linguaggio della teologia naturale per verificare la legittimità della disuguaglianza e gettare le fondamenta per un’adesione attiva degli individui agli “sforzi” che essa impone. Affermare la necessità e il carattere provvidenziale della disuguaglianza non è tuttavia sufficiente a farne un attributo indiscusso della società. Alle istituzioni Malthus accorda un fondamentale potere disciplinante; eppure, il tentativo di codificare moralmente la felicità e il benessere raggiungibili in società rimangono continuamente esposti a un possibile “cambiamento” del loro contenuto causato dal carattere “inestinguibile” delle passioni umane.
Scienza&Politica, 2021
This essay takes into account the pedagogical reform for the poor proposed in England by Andrew B... more This essay takes into account the pedagogical reform for the poor proposed in England by Andrew Bell, Joseph Lancaster and Patrick Colquhoun between Eighteenth and Nineteenth century. Differentiating individuals and re-producing social order through the implementation of a pedagogical plan is a response both to the excessive expec-tations of well-being raised among the English poor by the Revolution in France, and to the uncontrolled spread of crime and undisciplined behaviours in the new manufacturing districts. This is why social reformers looked at the pedagogical reform of mutual instruction as a way to build the conditions of reproduction of social differences: the plans proposed by Bell and Lancaster, based on emulation, competition and merit, are supported by Colquhoun because they offer a possible solution for the problems of crime and immoral behaviour. The order of Merit , triggered by emulation, distinction and reward, thus become the main tool of influencing poor’s expectations so to predict and discipline their conduct as future waged workers.
Filosofia Politica, 2019
The essay analyses some key passages of Thomas Hobbes’ works focusing particularly on the discipl... more The essay analyses some key passages of Thomas Hobbes’ works focusing particularly
on the discipline of individual passions as an unstable precondition of the reproduction
of political obligation. In front of two opposite manifestations of the desire of power,
melancholy and prophetic vain-glory, Hobbes is forced to include, among the duties of
the sovereign, the satisfaction of subjects’ claims that go beyond the mere preservation
of physical life. Therefore, once the inspired prophet is regarded as a vainglorious subject,
it is possible to suggest that the conflict between the State and the seditious reveals
the persistence of a desire and of an expectation about the future that trigger a sociability
which is both exterior to the social contract, and consequently capable of questioning
the representative neutralization of conflicts granted by the «chain» of the civil law.
Book Reviews by Jacopo Bonasera
Filosofia politica, 2021
Mimesis Edizioni / Studi Politici, 2024
Partendo dall’analisi di alcuni momenti cruciali attraverso cui si snoda il dibattito sulla sovra... more Partendo dall’analisi di alcuni momenti cruciali attraverso cui si snoda il dibattito sulla sovranità della Compagnia in India alla fine del XVIII secolo, questo contributo mira a ricostruire sia la posizione espressa da Malthus sull’opportunità di istruire i civil servants ai principi e allo “spirito della Costituzione britannica”, sia il modo in cui il rapporto concettuale che egli istaura tra società, costituzione e governo viene ripreso da due suoi allievi – Robert Keith-Pringle e Holt Mackenzie – impegnati a riformare la tassazione delle proprietà terriere in India. Insieme all’amministrazione della giustizia, quella delle tasse costituisce il nuovo campo di intervento sovrano della EIC su vasti territori coloniali in India. Inoltre, la valutazione delle terre, fondata su un’originale interpretazione della teoria della rendita sviluppata in quegli anni proprio da Malthus e da David Ricardo, rivela un ulteriore contenuto normativo del riferimento alla costituzione britannica. Per Malthus come per Mackenzie e Keith-Pringle, il problema è di costituire per via amministrativa la società indiana.
USAbroad. Journal of American History and Politics, 2024
This essay considers the environmental and political discourse of prominent American scientists W... more This essay considers the environmental and political discourse of prominent American scientists William Vogt and Henry Fairfield Osborn, concerning their bestsellers Road to Survival (1948) and Our Plundered Planet (1948). It is argued that by re-articulating the place of 'population' in environmental thinking, they both advanced a specific theory of limits and possibilities of individual freedom. Their public position in the most pressing debates of the time resulted in a critique of modernization and development and a specific understanding of planning as a tool to 'write' a different 'history of the future' of Western civilization.
Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, 2022
This contribution offers an historical conceptual analysis of the population question, as it was ... more This contribution offers an historical conceptual analysis of the population question, as it was articulated by Neo-Malthusian intellectuals G. Hardin and P. Ehrlich before 1972 UN Stockholm Conference. Starting from the conceptualization of nature by T.R. Malthus, the essay then assesses the theoretical and historical continuities and discontinuities that qualify the Twentieth century environmental reappraisal of Malthus’ doctrines. In so doing, the essay also proposes a different understanding of the so-called ‘Malthusian moment’ that contributed to shape the birth of global environmentalism. It is argued that the political core of both Malthus’ and environmental Neo-Malthusianism relates to the effort of making nature an un-common ground for the people, one that legitimizes social and political hierarchies. The case made by both Ehrlich and Hardin for “coercive” birth control – in polemic with women’s claim for reproductive rights – is granted particular attention. Their environmental thinking conveys the idea that all people are passengers of “Spaceship Earth”, while they hold different responsibilities to preserve it. Thus, the environmental revival of the Malthusian law of population reshapes the understanding of the “optimum” relation between population and resources, contributing to the formation of the scientific environment that influenced 1972 UN Conference.
Filosofia Politica, 2024
This essay analyses the problem of ‘regulation’ as it emerges in Malthus’ political economy. It i... more This essay analyses the problem of ‘regulation’ as it emerges in Malthus’ political economy. It is addressed the way he conceptualized ‘rent’ as a providential regulator of capital accumulation which must always be artificially sustained by government. Starting from an analysis of the essays Malthus published in 1815, this contribution then put them in relation with the definition of ‘crisis’ emerging in the Principles of Political Economy.
Through this intellectual trajectory, the author developed a conception of ‘crisis’ as an ‘irregularity’ which is part and parcel of the ‘regular’ progress of wealth. Governments’ intervention is thus defined by Malthus as being both an ‘exception’, and a necessary tool to ensure the political and social conditions of the regular progress of capital accumulation. Lastly, the role of equilibrators of the economic cycle he attributed to the landlords highlights the attempt to make rents the expression of a power which is deemed essential to ‘redeem’ capital, thus to regulate the crises it tends to produce.
History of European Ideas, 2024
This contribution analyses the scientific and political meaning of the concept of ‘population’ wi... more This contribution analyses the scientific and political meaning of the concept of ‘population’ within Thomas Robert Malthus’ thought. It is here argued that by encapsulating ‘population’ in a scientific principle, the author not only aimed at contrasting radical and revolutionary theories of his time; he was also looking for a renovation of the role principles hold in scientific reasoning. He considered this crucial for delineating a plausible science for such an elusive political object as society. Through an examination of key passages of Malthus’ theoretical production – his critique of previous definitions of ‘population’, his reassessment of the natural history of society, and the use of selected metaphors to explain his political thought – it is possible to observe how the author attempted to naturalize society and the inequalities arising from its historical laws. As shown in the conclusions, Malthus’ scientific and political effort was directed towards questioning possibilities to reduce the history of social relations to a path of rational progress, which is consistent with the way he re-conceptualized ‘population’ as regarding the fate of the people and their chances to transform the future in the plausible outcome of their political action in the present.
Politics. Rivista di studi politici, 2023
This essay takes into account the conceptual nexus between history, politics, and critique establ... more This essay takes into account the conceptual nexus between history, politics, and critique established by two major theorists of the Anthropocene: Bruno Latour and Dipesh Chakrabarty. It is argued that despite important theoretical differences between their reflections, they both find the Anthropocene to have disruptive effects on human possibilities to comprehend and criticize history. On the one hand, for Latour the discovery of Gaia brings about a new geo-history which allows us to both 'disinvent' old historical categories, and favor the political composition of a new order. Chakrabarty, on the other hand, finds in the Anthropocene the key to a new 'negative universal history' that makes the 'evolutionary' history of the species crucial for a critical understanding of the present. Finally, the way Latour and Chakrabarty utilize the concepts of 'class' and 'population' is used to draw conclusions on their conceptualization of political ecology.
Storia del pensiero politico, 2023
This essay advances an interpretation of key moments of Thomas Robert Malthus’ theoretical and po... more This essay advances an interpretation of key moments of Thomas Robert Malthus’ theoretical and political production in light of the historical and conceptual problem represented by the public presence of the people in the aftermath of the late 18th century’s revolutionary turn. It is argued that the principle of population is the Malthusian response to the danger posed by the popular classes: by establishing both the natural subjection of the majority of the population to need, and the indifference of political and social rights to that condition, the principle of population both poses limits to the politics of the people and defines which movements make them a formless «mob». The Malthusian principle thereby claims to regulate the tension between «part» and «whole» that constitutes the concept of the people in this historical turning point; then, its revival in the 1830s by Francis Place shows the persistence of a dispute around the relationship between order and integration that runs through the modern genesis of the people-democracy nexus.
Storicamente, 2022
This contribution presents a bibliographical itinerary on Twentieth century environmental revival... more This contribution presents a bibliographical itinerary on Twentieth century environmental revival of Malthusian doctrines. After introducing both the main conceptual strains inherent to the topic, and their scientific interest the essay takes into consideration the Post-WWII emergence of global environmentalism. A survey of the texts of 1960s and 1970s exponents of Neo-Malthusian environmentalism shows the important role played by this tradition of thought in shaping environmental concerns on both the scientific and the governmental level. The itinerary ends with an analysis of the main authors and strains of enquiry that have assessed the historical and conceptual relevance of Neo-Malthusian environmentalism. It is argued that more researches into Malthus’ legacy over time could grant significant theoretical gains both for the history of political thought, and its entanglments with the history of environmentalism.
L'ordine dei diritti. Processi, soggetti, categorie - IISF Press, 2022
Partendo dal rapporto instaurato da Malthus tra la natura e la genesi della società, è possibile ... more Partendo dal rapporto instaurato da Malthus tra la natura e la genesi della società, è possibile osservare come egli risalga al linguaggio della teologia naturale per verificare la legittimità della disuguaglianza e gettare le fondamenta per un’adesione attiva degli individui agli “sforzi” che essa impone. Affermare la necessità e il carattere provvidenziale della disuguaglianza non è tuttavia sufficiente a farne un attributo indiscusso della società. Alle istituzioni Malthus accorda un fondamentale potere disciplinante; eppure, il tentativo di codificare moralmente la felicità e il benessere raggiungibili in società rimangono continuamente esposti a un possibile “cambiamento” del loro contenuto causato dal carattere “inestinguibile” delle passioni umane.
Scienza&Politica, 2021
This essay takes into account the pedagogical reform for the poor proposed in England by Andrew B... more This essay takes into account the pedagogical reform for the poor proposed in England by Andrew Bell, Joseph Lancaster and Patrick Colquhoun between Eighteenth and Nineteenth century. Differentiating individuals and re-producing social order through the implementation of a pedagogical plan is a response both to the excessive expec-tations of well-being raised among the English poor by the Revolution in France, and to the uncontrolled spread of crime and undisciplined behaviours in the new manufacturing districts. This is why social reformers looked at the pedagogical reform of mutual instruction as a way to build the conditions of reproduction of social differences: the plans proposed by Bell and Lancaster, based on emulation, competition and merit, are supported by Colquhoun because they offer a possible solution for the problems of crime and immoral behaviour. The order of Merit , triggered by emulation, distinction and reward, thus become the main tool of influencing poor’s expectations so to predict and discipline their conduct as future waged workers.
Filosofia Politica, 2019
The essay analyses some key passages of Thomas Hobbes’ works focusing particularly on the discipl... more The essay analyses some key passages of Thomas Hobbes’ works focusing particularly
on the discipline of individual passions as an unstable precondition of the reproduction
of political obligation. In front of two opposite manifestations of the desire of power,
melancholy and prophetic vain-glory, Hobbes is forced to include, among the duties of
the sovereign, the satisfaction of subjects’ claims that go beyond the mere preservation
of physical life. Therefore, once the inspired prophet is regarded as a vainglorious subject,
it is possible to suggest that the conflict between the State and the seditious reveals
the persistence of a desire and of an expectation about the future that trigger a sociability
which is both exterior to the social contract, and consequently capable of questioning
the representative neutralization of conflicts granted by the «chain» of the civil law.
Filosofia politica, 2021