Situationism

[Lyev]

I understand it arose out of Mai '68, but other than this, I don't know bundles about it. I think there was a situationist international for a while, that then fell apart; a second international was discussed but it never got off the ground. What was the significance of the SI in the global leftist movement; how successful were the situationists? Also, is it necessarily a Marxist ideology? I think there's also a bit of Sartre thrown in it too. As regards "setting up situations" to pursue "superior passional quality", what exactly does this mean and entail? I look forward to the replies. Thanks.

[Apoi_Viitor]

http://www.hnet.uci.edu/mposter/EM/

I was actually just finished reading this when I came across your post. To be honest, I never understood the specificities of the Situationist International, but I regard their lasting influence as their appropriation of Marx's idea of alienation to all sectors of life, not just the workplace. Mostly, they advocate for Marxism by appeals to spontaneity, autonomy, and creativity. I think this is essential for any Revolutionary Leftist movement, as the success of the events of 68, were its inclusiveness of all social classes, from students, to intellectuals and factory workers, to even high-ranking technological experts.

Their main literary achievement is Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle, which sadly, I have not read in its entirety. Though I have read in some works of Foucault - where he attacks the metaphorical appropriation of capitalist society to a 'Spectacle', instead enunciating that capitalism is best seen as a Panopticon.

http://www.hnet.uci.edu/mposter/books/

Here is another work of Mark Poster's dealing with the development of Western Marxism (including Situationism) and its relationship to Foucault.

[Thirsty Crow]

I understand it arose out of Mai '68No, the formation of the SI preceded the uprising of 1968.

[Sasha]

i know people seem to frown uppon using google and wikipedia, but it are realy good places to go and get your basics before coming here and asking more in dept questions.

from the first page of google hits:

wikipedia's exstensive article, part of an whole serie on situationism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situationist_International

Situationism in a nutshell
http://www.barbelith.com/cgi-bin/articles/00000011.shtml


Situationists - an introduction | libcom.org (http://libcom.org/thought/situationists-an-introduction)

http://libcom.org/thought/situationists-an-introduction

[bricolage]

Like was said it arose prior to May '68 (and its influence in May '68 itself is probably overstated by most), the Situationist International was formed in the late 1950s. I think broadcastingsilence made a good point about expanding the idea of alienation beyond the workplace, added to this Situationist works were also largely structured on cultural critique primarily manifested through the 'spectacle'. I think Debord especially has been largely co-opted by academia as well as hippie art students and watered down to not very much but at its heard the Situationists still worked on a class analysis of society. There is however an issue to be made of the fact that they, like many other theorists of the time, had a partially Eurocentric view of the world assuming that a number of the contradictions of capitalism had been surpassed so seeking primary sources of conflict beyond that of class conflict. I don't think this is a reason to jettison their works but it is worth taking into consideration. The two biggest texts are 'Society of the Spectacle' and 'Revolution of Everyday Life' but I think this website is best for things like that; http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/index.html

[bricolage]

Oh also Situationists would reject the idea of 'Situationism' "a meaningless term improperly derived from the above. There is no such thing as situationism, which would mean a doctrine of interpretation of existing facts. The notion of situationism is obviously devised by antisituationists."

[bricolage]

Though I have read in some works of Foucault - where he attacks the metaphorical appropriation of capitalist society to a 'Spectacle', instead enunciating that capitalism is best seen as a Panopticon.
This sounds interesting, where did you read it?
I had a look at the link you posted and the spectacle only seems to be mentioned briefly in part 18 of chapter 1.

[Apoi_Viitor]

This sounds interesting, where did you read it?
I had a look at the link you posted and the spectacle only seems to be mentioned briefly in part 18 of chapter 1.

In Foucault's book Discipline and Punish. "Our society is one not of spectacle, but of surveillance; under the surface of images, one invests bodies in depth; behind the great abstraction of exchange there continues the meticulous, concrete training of useful forces; the circuits of communication are the supports of an accumulation and centralization of knowledge; the play of signs defines the anchorage of power; it is not that the beautiful totality of the individual is amputated, repressed, altered by our social order, it is rather that the individual is carefully fabricated in it, according to a whole technique of forces and bodies"

There are other quotes from him on why he believes the panopticism has replaced the spectacle as a metaphor for society, here: http://libcom.org/library/panopticism-michel-foucault

and here's a rebuttal from notbored http://www.notbored.org/foucault-and-debord.html

Foucault has always been critical towards Western Marxists, particularly in his History of Sexuality, were he argues against the Freud-Marxist "repressive hypothesis."

[soyonstout]

Situationism actually led me to Marxism from Anarchism, although I think it has severe limits, I've actually been thinking about it a lot lately. Situationist slogans appealed very much to me in my youth, especially "never work" because I had just started working and finished school and was not prepared for what I encountered. Having said that, I think my middle-class upbringing and initial disgust with the "real world" dovetailed very well with situationist theories (which is telling both of my politics at the time and I also think reveals something about situationism's audience and difficulty speaking to the working class). Yet I think they had a lot of valuable contributions and certainly there is no group with more style or savoir-faire, despite their MANY MANY problems (imo).

Society of the Spectacle is a pretty good work, and fairly serious. For an easier-to-read but with worse politics introduction, you can check Raoul Vaneigem (who almost enshrines hedonism as revolutionary). You should also check out Dauve's Critique of the Situationist International here: http://libcom.org/library/critique-situationist-international-gilles-dauve
(http://libcom.org/library/critique-situationist-international-gilles-dauve)
-soyons tout

[cenv]

Situationist thought is largely based on an extension of Marx's ideas of alienation, reification, and commodity fetishism as well as on analyses like Lukac's History and Class Consciousness. Although the SI wasn't without flaws, I think a better understanding of their contributions could be instrumental in helping revolutionaries move forward with their theory and praxis. Situationist theory explored the subjective aspects of Marxism in the context of a revolutionary movement that was (and still is) largely cold and ideological, tending to organize itself in ways that reproduced the relations of what the SI termed the "spectacle" -- among other things, a set of relations mediated by images and characterized by passivity, the people as the object of ideology, etc.

Anyway, in addition to the links that've already been posted, I'd recommend Larry Law's series of booklets, The Spectacular Times (http://nntk.net/main.php?g2_itemId=251). But really, nothing beats sitting down with Society of the Spectacle and taking the time to figure out what Debord is getting at through his theses.

When I was first introduced to situationist theory, it took me a while to fully grasp the fundamental concepts because there's a lot of one-dimensional interpretations of the SI's ideas floating around, and it's easy to isolate individual aspects of situationist thought without putting them in a broader context. But getting into the SI's texts and really figuring out what they were saying helped me understand Marxism on a completely new level, partly because the aspects of Marxism they emphasize are ideas that are revolutionaries and revolutionary groups today tend to gloss over or ignore completely.