Sociology and Space, Vol. 59 No. 219, 2021.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.5673/sip.59.0.2
Autophagy of Capitalism. A Pandemic Crisis Between Nature and Society
Pavle Milenković
orcid.org/0000-0003-2704-361X
; University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Philosophy, Sebia
Alpar Lošonc
; University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Serbia
Abstract
The pandemic crisis caused by the COVID-19 virus leads to a rethinking of the anatomy and
genealogy of the crisis of Capitalism. The current pandemic is just one sequence in the multiplication
of different crises The insight social system of capitalism is subject to the crisis, and
that the crisis is an integral part of social equilibrium and social dynamics, is placed in the context
of biopolitics and biopower, as well as autophagically intoned natural and demographic
selection. The COVID-19 crisis thus imposes a re-examination of the mechanisms of selfregulation
of Capitalism through the concept of crisis and risk management, as well as through
the discourse of vulnerability and control over nature that has spiraled out of control. The
subversive effect of viruses on social organization and social mobilization can be encompassed
by the virus theory (Baudrilard), which sees the threat of a virus in the context of the evolutionary
supremacy of highly differentiated sociability. This leads to the question of the ontological
status of the crisis, as well as its historical continuity/discontinuity. It is proposed to rethink the
relationship between crisis, pandemic and death, i.e. the phenomenon of tanatization of Capitalism
as well as necrocapitalism itself. In the light of recent discussions, the problem of the
relationship between nature and society in the categories of postnaturalism, hybridization, i.e.
the permeation of the natural and the social, which leads to the idea of erasing the difference
between nature and society, has been especially considered. The discourse on the pandemic
crisis needs to be understood both in the light of the nature-society dichotomy as well as in
the angle of structurally determined capitalist and neoliberal demand for unlimited resources.
Keywords
Capitalism; pandemic; crisis; autophagy; virus theory; bio-politics; bio-power; death
Hrčak ID:
255045
URI
Publication date:
1.4.2021.
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