[Commons-Law] A man, with his notes, in the city...

[Joe Joe Harding]

Dear Jeebesh,

thanks for the reply.
But a few more comments would poosibly help me in
expressing myself beter.

--- Jeebesh Bagchi <jeebesh at sarai.net> wrote:

> 
> My own question arises from another set of queries.
> 
> - When something is marked under the sign of
> `commodity`, 
> `commodification`,  `illegality`, `criminality`, or
> `wage-work` we seem 
> loose a sense of curiousity about the social
> worlds/realms that live, 
> elaborates, innovates, contests, performs under
> these signs. I am now 
> interested in how to talk about these social worlds
> and to develop 
> conceptual and descriptive framework to do so.

The lived social world which elaborates, innovates,
contest and performs is anterior to the signs. 
Circumscribibg the curioisity of the lived world by
the signs brings in the logic of the signs and that
which they signify. The challenge perhaps is to talk
of the 
social world and to develop conceptual and descriptive
framework to do so by the transcending the binaries
and
irrespective of the binaries.

> 
> - Commodity economy grew over the last 500 years
> rapidly and wage-based 
> commodity production accelerated this process. We
> have now an adequate 
> understanding of some of its working and how it
> expands and how it 
> devours more and more areas of social life. But the
> logic of commodity 
> production is also historically imbricated in many
> diverse social forms 
> and practices. At times it produces Goebbels and at
> times circulates Bob 
> Dylan. At times it punishes people into indentured
> labours and attimes 
> it stops people to enter its borders. I would think
> looking at certain 
> specific imbrication can make us ask interesting
> questions about nature 
> of power, social practices and imaginations.

The world possibly can be visualised as a
deterministic  chaos. The logic of the commodity is
one deterministic axis and there are other axes of
determinations which produces the chaoticness of the
world. Material production and reproduction together
with its entourage of state-legalistic grid has
unfortunately produced almost all our conceptual
categories. The other axes are perhaps equally if not
more important in understanding the variations or the
imbrications.
  
> - What interest me today are specific networks of
> production and 
> circulation of cultural goods that are continuously
> raided by property 
> enforcers and deviously being marked by discourse of
> `theft` and 
> `criminality`. I am interested in figuring out the
> social world that 
> seems so threatening to huge global players. In this
> question, is also 
> locked in the question of `imagination` of urban
> landscape and 
> transformation. The specific urban design and plans
> that today are being 
> enlarged has got to do with how social life is to be
> re-organised. I 
> think that, what it stubbornly resisting this
> `re-design` is worthy to 
> be looked at and understood. Maybe, through it we
> can ask other set of 
> questions about our collective future and it's look.

The production and network of vibrant cultural goods
are interesting per say. But when that is
circumscribed by its relation to state-legalistic
grid, it again signifies the grand entry of the
predominat axes of material production and
reproduction. 
Resistance has a lot to do with the internal logic of
commodity production. But there are also resistances
which is possibly due to other axes of 
determination. And that is interesting to study.
 
> - I agree that people have been singing and will be
> singing outside 
> commodity forms. I would think the relation is not
> just one of  simple 
> binary opposite. It is interlaced in a complicated
> way. The global 
> popularity and circulation of many currents of music
> and it's continuous 
> remixing is an interesting case in point.
> (popularity and circulation of 
> Jazz is a good case)

The relation is not binary and is a complicated one
possibly because the world is a deterministic chaos
with multiple axes of determinations. The point which
interests is to look for the other axes of
determinations. During the last two centuries our
vision is constrained by material reproduction of
social life, state and politics, perhaps these needs
to be transcended.

J
 
> 
> 
> Joe Joe Harding wrote:
> 
> >Few Comments for consideration (and not as
> critique):
> >
> >What popularly goes as 'Piracy' or 'Copy culture'
> can
> >also be defined as Commodity production units
> >struggling to survive in an environment of varying
> >hostility
> >of the legal framework of the state.
> >
> >--- Jeebesh Bagchi <jeebesh at sarai.net> wrote:
> >
> >  
> >
> >>- A copy culture builds infrastructures and
> networks
> >>(the infrastructure 
> >>argument can be seen in Brain Larkin's work in
> >>Nigeria around video 
> >>cultures).
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >Like all commodity production it also has and build
> >networks 
> >and infrastructure. Limits are defined by the
> strength
> >and density of state-legal grid.
> >
> >  
> >
> >>- These networks are dispersed, agile and dense.
> >>They move into 
> >>otherwise `technologically marooned spaces` (this
> >>concept is being 
> >>developed by Ravikant at Sarai) and create a lower
> >>threshold level that 
> >>allows for the entry of thousands of people.
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >Being dispersed and with low investment requirement
> it
> >attracts greater and greater production. Limits are
> >defined by social productivity, 
> >demand and legal enforcement. 
> >
> >  
> >
> >>- Researching the proliferation of the `remix`
> >>culture, he shows how 
> >>these networks have developed internal `productive
> >>capacities` to 
> >>intervene, produce and circulate new cultural
> forms.
> >>His collection of 
> >>`Kaante Laga Ke` versions clearly gestured towards
> >>an increasingly 
> >>complicated matrix.
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >All commodity production does engengender
> 'productive
> >capacities' for production of new forms and
> products.
> >
> >These are common to all commodity production. The
> only
> >difference is the covert struggle against the
> existing
> >legal framework. Celebration and valoristaion of
> >commodity economy, in all its forms has its own
> >implications.
> >
> >Milton Friedman could openly say that smugglers do 
> >great good to society for they break the 
> >artificial barriers to the free growth of commodity
> >economy. He too followed the logic of commodity
> >economy
> >to its obvious conclusion.
> >
> >But does it make commodity production any more
> >enticing?
> >
> >  
> >
> >>- Now with this new phase, he is opening up a new
> >>realm (the realm that 
> >>was opened up in Peter Manuel's Cassette Culture).
> >>This is a world of  
> >>so called `regional music`. Here, singers,
> >>musicians, sound engineers, 
> >>small time dealers, locality studios combine to
> >>produce an extremely 
> >>vibrant music culture for the `mobile-migrant`
> world
> >>of labour and the 
> >>mohalla (dense habitations outside of the planned
> >>grids). You can listen 
> >>to these songs on a public scale in Delhi during
> >>holi, Chatt festival, etc.
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >A 'vibrant music culture for the 'mobile migrant'
> 
=== message truncated ===


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