A. Moretti, Debito e controllo. Oltre lo Stato disciplinare

Abstract

The debt shapes itself, at the present time, as one of the most important structures of modern economy and, at the same time, the most controversial and unquestioned social configuration. As a matter of fact, as long as it is considered merely by the economical point of view, the debt presents itself as the perfect functor, which reproduces a certain order in macroeconomics; yet, if we consider its ethical and political implication, then we should also acknowledge the peculiar relation of power it induces. My essay proposes to outline the genealogy of debt society, guided by French ethical-political philosophy from Michel Foucault to Gilles Deleuze. Moving from Foucault’s Sixties and Seventies researches about the birth and development of disciplinary societies and liberal governmentality, I intend to continue the Deleuzian suggestion about control societies. With this concept, Deleuze expressed the specific alignment of powers framing at the hearth of disciplinary society, when the analogical principle of internment is substituted by the en plein air control, flawlessly embodied by the structure of the debt – in each and every form it takes.