Category Archives: environment
The Elemental Forms of Social Life
Out now in Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy
Abstract. The notion of elemental reality is parsed here as instrumental to a renewal of the understanding of social formations, orders, processes, events, and, more generally, social life. An attempt is made to revisit the element notion drawing insights from the classical imagination, so as to develop an ‘elementalism’ that does not imply a simple return to atomism, but rather retrieves some important insights from the Aristotelian tradition. Elementalism, it is suggested, enables us to see the limitations of both individualist and collectivist takes on social life, allowing for a more ‘environmentalist’ idea of what constitutes society. In an attempt to analyze how an elemental reality can be said to be at play, the category of ‘the visible’ is considered, so as to evince some of its constitutive dimensions, properties, and moments.
Keywords: social theory; medium theory; social environment; elemental reality; the visible
Link to OA article : https://cosmosandhistory.org/index.php/journal/article/view/1168
Also here
On Bioabilities. A new approach for ecological thinking and action

(with Carlo Brentari and Federico Comollo)
Abstract. We propose the notion of bioability as the subjective correlate to biodiversity. Bioability entails the capacity to maximize the forms and patterns of life within given ecosystems. Cutting across the natural and social sciences, the bioability approach opens up a field for research and intervention, which focuses on the imaginational and aspirational dimensions of terrestrial politics. In the context of increased awareness of climate tipping points, developing bioabilities help advancing experimental practices in ecological conversion.
>>> Draft available upon request.
Euregio, as Seen through its Railway Stations
Seeing in Verticality: From ‘Vertical Gaze’ to ‘Figuring Out’ (with Andrea Pavoni)
Now out in Gary Bratchford, Dennis Zuev (Eds) Vision and Verticality. A Multidisciplinary Approach. Berlin: Springer. ISBN: 9783031398834.
On Penal Servitude
Je haïs ces brigands! said an aristocrat named M-ski one day in Omsk as he strode past Dostoevski with flashing eyes. Dostoevski went in and lay down, hands behind his head.
Anne Carson

Inhabiting the ecological conversion. Experiments in diavolution
New paper on Alex Langer, ecology, politics, measure.
Now published at | https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-36667-3_5
La vitesse au pouvoir – Cahiers Paul Virilio
Happy to be included in Dromologie 01, a new journal of Virilio studies.
+info | http://www.eterotopiafrance.com/catalogue/la-vitesse-cest-letat-durgence/
my hosted piece in pdf | Brighenti 2021 la vitesse au pouvoir
Monster-Measures and Monstrous Values. A short reflection on the foundations of individual-environmental theory

Chapter forthcoming in Caterina Nirta & Andrea Pavoni (Eds) (2021) Monstrous Ontologies: Politics Ethics Materiality. Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press.
+ info | https://vernonpress.com/book/953

Urban crystallisation and the morphogenesis of urban territories (with Mattias Kärrholm)
Now out in Territory, Politics, Governance
At https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21622671.2021.1872040

Robert Smithson, Geophilosopher
On my way towards The Tag Conference
Will be my pleasure to join Javier Abarca and the other fellows at http://thetagconference.com/