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157-437: Giorgio Agamben ( / ə ˈ ɡ æ m b ə n / ə- GAM -bən ; Italian: [ˈdʒordʒo aˈɡamben] ; born 22 April 1942) is an Italian philosopher best known for his work investigating the concepts of the state of exception , form-of-life (borrowed from Ludwig Wittgenstein ) and homo sacer . The concept of biopolitics (carried forth from the work of Michel Foucault ) informs many of his writings. Agamben

314-452: A regional or minority language native to Italy, the existence of which predates the national language. Although there is disagreement on the total number, according to UNESCO , there are approximately 30 languages native to Italy , although many are often misleadingly referred to as "Italian dialects ". Since 2017, in addition to the approximately 55 million Italians in Italy (91% of

471-600: A taxonomy that maps community relations, and recognizes that actual communities can be characterized by different kinds of relations at the same time: In these terms, communities can be nested and/or intersecting; one community can contain another—for example a location-based community may contain a number of ethnic communities . Both lists above can be used in a cross-cutting matrix in relation to each other. In general, virtual communities value knowledge and information as currency or social resource. What differentiates virtual communities from their physical counterparts

628-709: A worldwide famous cuisine . Due to comparatively late national unification, and the historical autonomy of the regions that comprise the Italian peninsula, many traditions and customs of the Italians can be identified by their regions of origin. Despite the political and social isolation of these regions, Italy's contributions to the cultural and historical heritage of the Western world remain immense. Famous elements of Italian culture are its opera and music, its iconic gastronomy and food, which are commonly regarded as amongst

785-650: A " state of exception " as the dominant paradigm for governing in contemporary politics. He warns against a "generalization of the state of exception" through laws like the USA PATRIOT Act , which means a permanent installation of martial law and emergency powers . In January 2004, he refused to give a lecture in the United States because under the US-VISIT he would have been required to give up his biometric information, which he believed stripped him to

942-581: A Napoleonic sister republic of Revolutionary France , took place, on the basis of the events following the French Revolution (1789–1799) which, among its ideals, advocated the national self-determination . This event is celebrated by the Tricolour Day . The Italian national colours appeared for the first time on a tricolour cockade in 1789, anticipating by seven years the first green, white and red Italian military war flag , which

1099-604: A collectivity. The English-language word "community" derives from the Old French comuneté ( Modern French : communauté ), which comes from the Latin communitas "community", "public spirit" (from Latin communis , "common"). Human communities may have intent , belief , resources , preferences , needs , and risks in common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness. Archaeological studies of social communities use

1256-528: A common agenda. Community development practitioners must understand both how to work with individuals and how to affect communities' positions within the context of larger social institutions. Public administrators, in contrast, need to understand community development in the context of rural and urban development, housing and economic development, and community, organizational and business development. Formal accredited programs conducted by universities, as part of degree granting institutions, are often used to build

1413-508: A crucial distinction in Greek between "bare life" ( la vita nuda or zoê / ˈ z oʊ i / ; Gk. ζωή zoê ) and "a particular mode of life" or "qualified life" ( bios UK : / ˈ b aɪ ɒ s / , US : /- oʊ s / ; Gk. βίος bios ). In Part III, section 7 of Homo Sacer , "The Camp as the 'Nomos' of the Modern", he evokes the concentration camps of World War II. "The camp

1570-500: A genealogical approach to several concepts that Ludwig Wittgenstein established in his late philosophy, primarily the Philosophical Investigations : rule-following , form-of-life , and the central importance of 'use' (for Wittgenstein: 'the meaning of a word is its use in language', and he uses 'language' not just to speak of word-language but any understandable behaviour). Agamben traces earlier versions of

1727-693: A key role in ushering the Age of Discovery and the European colonization of the Americas. The most notable among them were: Christopher Columbus (Italian: Cristoforo Colombo [kriˈstɔːforo koˈlombo] ), colonist in the name of Spain, who is credited with discovering the New World and the opening of the Americas for conquest and settlement by Europeans; John Cabot (Italian: Giovanni Caboto [dʒoˈvanni kaˈbɔːto] ), sailing for England, who

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1884-937: A knowledge base to drive curricula in public administration , sociology and community studies . The General Social Survey from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago and the Saguaro Seminar at the Harvard Kennedy School are examples of national community development in the United States. The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in New York State offers core courses in community and economic development, and in areas ranging from non-profit development to US budgeting (federal to local, community funds). In

2041-491: A larger philosophical critique of the concept of sovereignty itself, which he argues is intrinsically related to the state of exception. Agamben, in an article published by Il Manifesto on 26 February 2020, quoted the NRC in saying that there was no COVID-19 pandemic : "In order to make sense of the frantic, irrational, and absolutely unwarranted emergency measures adopted for a supposed epidemic of coronavirus, we must begin from

2198-586: A lesser extent in the Middle East ( Italians in the United Arab Emirates ). Italians have influenced and contributed to fields like arts and music , science , technology , fashion , cinema , cuisine , restaurants , sports , jurisprudence , banking and business . Furthermore, Italian people are generally known for their attachment to their locale, expressed in the form of either regionalism or municipalism . Hypotheses for

2355-448: A log) and are the building blocks of major communities. Moreover, we can establish other non-taxonomic subdivisions of biocenosis, such as guilds . The concept of "community" often has a positive semantic connotation, exploited rhetorically by populist politicians and by advertisers to promote feelings and associations of mutual well-being, happiness and togetherness —veering towards an almost-achievable utopian community . In contrast,

2512-571: A natural person) and outside the law (since as a body politic he has power to suspend law for an indefinite time). Agamben draws on Carl Schmitt 's definition of the Sovereign as the one who has the power to decide the state of exception (or justitium ), where law is indefinitely "suspended" without being abrogated. Agamben argues that laws have always assumed the authority to define "bare life" – zoe , as opposed to bios , or 'qualified life' – by making this exclusive operation, while at

2669-497: A number of problems: (1) they tend to give the impression that a particular community can be defined as just this kind or another; (2) they tend to conflate modern and customary community relations; (3) they tend to take sociological categories such as ethnicity or race as given, forgetting that different ethnically defined persons live in different kinds of communities—grounded, interest-based, diasporic, etc. In response to these problems, Paul James and his colleagues have developed

2826-820: A result of invasions by another Germanic tribe, the Lombards . Much of the peninsula was now politically dominated by the Kingdom of the Lombards ; however, remnants of Byzantine control remained, especially in Southern Italy , where the Byzantine Empire retained control into the 11th century until the Norman conquest of Southern Italy . In addition to the Normans , Arabs conquered parts of Southern Italy in

2983-552: A short article intending to define the fundamental concepts of national-socialism, Schmitt defines the Führung principle (sic!) by the "root identity between the leader and his entourage".{" identité de souche entre le chef et son entourage" } Agamben's thoughts on the state of emergency leads him to declare that the difference between dictatorship and democracy is thin indeed,or even ontologically non-existent, as rule by decree became more and more common, starting from World War I and

3140-527: A small scale can be difficult to identify with archaeological data. Most reconstructions of social communities by archaeologists rely on the principle that social interaction in the past was conditioned by physical distance. Therefore, a small village settlement likely constituted a social community and spatial subdivisions of cities and other large settlements may have formed communities. Archaeologists typically use similarities in material culture —from house types to styles of pottery—to reconstruct communities in

3297-478: A solidarity that in no way concerns an essence". It is important to note his understanding of "whatever" not as being indifference but based on the Latin "quodlibet ens" translated as "being such that it always matters". Agamben starts off by describing "The Lovable" : Love is never directed toward this or that property of the loved one (being blond, being small, being tender, being lame), but neither does it neglect

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3454-705: A state of "bare life" ( zoe ) and was akin to the tattooing that the Nazis did during World War II. However, Agamben's criticisms target a broader scope than the US " war on terror ". As he argues in State of Exception (2005), rule by decree has become common since World War I in all modern states, and has been since then generalized and abused. Agamben points out a general tendency of modernity, recalling for example that when Francis Galton and Alphonse Bertillon invented "judicial photography" for " anthropometric identification",

3611-431: A state of exception that lasted twelve years. In this sense, modern totalitarianism can be defined as the establishment, by means of the state of exception, of a legal civil war that allows for the physical elimination not only of political adversaries but of entire categories of citizens who for some reason cannot be integrated into the political system" (Agamben, p. 2). The political power over others acquired through

3768-401: A state of exception, when a detainee is placed outside the law he or she is, according to Agamben, reduced to "bare life" in the eyes of the judicial powers. Here, one can see why such measures as hunger strikes can occur in such places as prisons. Within the framework of a system that has deprived the individual of power, and their individual basic human freedoms, the hunger strike can be seen as

3925-525: A term often used by Foucault} – the state of exception, justitium , the auctoritas principis , the Führertum -, put in use in more or less different circumstances, in the 1930s – overall, but not only – in Germany, the power that Weber had defined as "charismatic" is related to the concept of auctoritas and elaborated in a Führertum doctrine as the original and personal power of a leader. In 1933, in

4082-404: A weapon or form of resistance. "The body is a model which can stand for any bounded system. Its boundaries can represent any boundaries which are threatened or precarious." Within a state of exception the boundaries of power are precarious and threaten to destabilize not only the law, but one's humanity, as well as their choice of life or death. Forms of resistance to the extended use of power within

4239-515: A widely accessible power structure, often with the end goal of distributing power equally throughout the community. Community organizers generally seek to build groups that are open and democratic in governance. Such groups facilitate and encourage consensus decision-making with a focus on the general health of the community rather than a specific interest group. If communities are developed based on something they share in common, whether location or values, then one challenge for developing communities

4396-763: Is Marco Polo , explorer of the 13th century, who recorded his 24 years-long travels in the Book of the Marvels of the World , introducing Europeans to Central Asia and China. The country boasts several world-famous cities. Rome was the ancient capital of the Roman Empire, seat of the Pope of the Catholic Church, capital of reunified Italy and artistic, cultural and cinematographic centre of world relevance. Florence

4553-407: Is faith-based community organizing , or Congregation-based Community Organizing ). Community building can use a wide variety of practices, ranging from simple events (e.g., potlucks , small book clubs ) to larger-scale efforts (e.g., mass festivals , construction projects that involve local participants rather than outside contractors). Community building that is geared toward citizen action

4710-439: Is a violent act within a time of crisis. Agamben's State of Exception investigates how the suspension of laws within a state of emergency or crisis can become a prolonged state of being. More specifically, Agamben addresses how this prolonged state of exception operates to deprive individuals of their citizenship. When speaking about the military order issued by President George W. Bush on 13 November 2001, Agamben writes, "What

4867-488: Is akin to Max Weber 's concept of charisma . This is why the tradition ordered, at the king's death, the creation of the sovereign's wax-double in the funus imaginarium , as Ernst Kantorowicz demonstrated in The King's Two Bodies (1957). Hence, it is necessary to distinguish two bodies of the sovereign in order to assure the continuity of dignitas (term used by Kantorowicz, here a synonym of auctoritas ). Moreover, in

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5024-510: Is an animal born to life (Gk. ζῆν, zen ), but existing with regard to the good life (εὖ ζῆν, eu zen ) which can be achieved through politics. Bare life, in this ancient conception of politics, is that which must be transformed, via the State, into the "good life"; that is, bare life is that which is supposedly excluded from the higher aims of the state, yet is included precisely so that it may be transformed into this "good life". Sovereignty, then,

5181-456: Is conceived from ancient times as the power which determines what or who is to be incorporated into the political body (in accord with its bios ) by means of the more originary exclusion (or exception) of what is to remain outside the political body—which is at the same time the source of that body's composition ( zoe ). According to Agamben, biopower , which takes the bare lives of the citizens into its political calculations, may be more marked in

5338-547: Is considered the "father of the Italian flag". After the Battle of Waterloo , the reaction set in with the Congress of Vienna allowed the restoration of many of the old rulers and systems under Austrian domination. The concept of nationalism continued strong, however, and sporadic outbreaks led by such inveterate reformers as Giuseppe Mazzini occurred in several parts of the peninsula down to 1848–49. In this context, in 1847,

5495-423: Is how to incorporate individuality and differences. Rebekah Nathan suggests in her book, My Freshman Year , we are drawn to developing communities totally based on sameness, despite stated commitments to diversity, such as those found on university websites. A number of ways to categorize types of community have been proposed. One such breakdown is as follows: The usual categorizations of community relations have

5652-473: Is in effect something that humans are and have to be, but this is not an essence nor properly a thing: It is the simple fact of one's own existence as possibility or potentiality… The reduction of life to 'biopolitics' is one of the main threads in Agamben's work, in his critical conception of a homo sacer , reduced to 'bare life', and thus deprived of any rights. Agamben's concept of the homo sacer rests on

5809-534: Is made by those with judicial power. For example, Agamben would argue that Guantánamo Bay exemplifies the concept of 'the state of exception' in the United States following 9/11. Agamben mentions that basic universal human rights of Taliban individuals while captured in Afghanistan and sent to Guantánamo Bay in 2001 were negated by US laws. In reaction to the removal of their basic human rights, detainees of Guantánamo Bay prison went on hunger strikes . Within

5966-735: Is new about President Bush's order is that it radically erases any legal status of the individual, thus producing a legally unnameable and unclassifiable being. Not only do the Taliban captured in Afghanistan not enjoy the status of POW's (prisoner of war) as defined by the Geneva Convention , they do not even have the status of people charged with a crime according to American laws" (Agamben, pg 3). 780 Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan were held at Guantánamo Bay without trial. These individuals were termed " enemy combatants ." Until 7 July 2006, these individuals had been treated outside

6123-530: Is the extent and impact of "weak ties", which are the relationships acquaintances or strangers form to acquire information through online networks. Relationships among members in a virtual community tend to focus on information exchange about specific topics. A survey conducted by Pew Internet and The American Life Project in 2001 found those involved in entertainment, professional, and sports virtual-groups focused their activities on obtaining information. An epidemic of bullying and harassment has arisen from

6280-401: Is the principal enemy of the State. Wherever these singularities peacefully demonstrate their being in common there will be Tiananmen, and, sooner or later, the tanks will appear. In his main work "Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life" (1998), Agamben analyzes an obscure figure of Roman law that poses fundamental questions about the nature of law and power in general. Under the laws of

6437-413: Is the space that is opened when the state of exception begins to become the rule." Agamben says that "What happened in the camps so exceeds (is outside of) the juridical concept of crime that the specific juridico-political structure in which those events took place is often simply omitted from consideration." The conditions in the camps were " conditio inhumana ," and the incarcerated somehow defined outside

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6594-525: Is usually termed "community organizing". In these cases, organized community groups seek accountability from elected officials and increased direct representation within decision-making bodies. Where good-faith negotiations fail, these constituency-led organizations seek to pressure the decision-makers through a variety of means, including picketing, boycotting , sit-ins, petitioning, and electoral politics. Community organizing can focus on more than just resolving specific issues. Organizing often means building

6751-564: The Gemeinschaft – Gesellschaft dichotomy as a way to think about social ties. No group is exclusively one or the other. Gemeinschaft stress personal social interactions , and the roles, values, and beliefs based on such interactions. Gesellschaft stress indirect interactions, impersonal roles, formal values, and beliefs based on such interactions. In a seminal 1986 study, McMillan and Chavis identify four elements of "sense of community": A "sense of community index" (SCI)

6908-505: The Asset Based Community Development Institute of Northwestern University . The institute makes available downloadable tools to assess community assets and make connections between non-profit groups and other organizations that can help in community building. The Institute focuses on helping communities develop by "mobilizing neighborhood assets" – building from the inside out rather than

7065-579: The Baroque , Neoclassicism , the Risorgimento , Fascism , and European integration . Italy also became a seat of great formal learning in 1088 with the establishment of the University of Bologna , the oldest university in continuous operation , and the first university in the sense of a higher-learning and degree-awarding institute, as the word universitas was coined at its foundation. Many other Italian universities soon followed. For example,

7222-882: The Italian geographical region . Italians share a common culture , history , ancestry and language . Their predecessors differ regionally, but generally include native populations such as the Etruscans , the Rhaetians , the Ligurians , the Adriatic Veneti , and the Italic peoples , including the Latins , from which the Romans emerged and helped create and evolve the modern Italian identity. Foreign influences include

7379-470: The Kingdom of Sicily . From the 11th century on, Italian cities began to grow rapidly in independence and importance. They became centres of political life, banking , and foreign trade. Some became wealthy, and many, including Florence , Rome , Genoa , Milan , Pisa , Siena and Venice , grew into nearly independent city-states and maritime republics . Each had its own foreign policy and political life. They all resisted, with varying degrees of success,

7536-451: The Nation through emblems , metaphors , personifications , allegories , which are shared by the entire Italian people. Some of them are official, i.e. they are recognized by the Italian state authorities, while others are part of the identity of the country without being defined by law. Traditions of Italy are sets of traditions , beliefs , values , and customs that belongs within

7693-698: The Ostrogoths . Theodoric and Odoacer ruled jointly until 493, when Theodoric murdered Odoacer. Theodoric continued to rule Italy with an army of Ostrogoths and a government that was mostly Italian. After the death of Theodoric in 526, the kingdom began to grow weak. By 553, emperor Justinian I expelled the Ostrogoths, and Italy was included into the Byzantine Empire under the Justinian dynasty . Byzantine rule in much of Italy collapsed by 572 as

7850-528: The Papal States in central Italy. The Lombards remained a threat to papal power, however, until they were crushed by Charlemagne in 774. Charlemagne added the Kingdom of the Lombards to his vast realm. In recognition of Charlemagne's power, and to cement the church's alliance with him, Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III in 800. After Charlemagne's death in 814, his son Louis

8007-586: The Praetorian prefecture of Italy ( praefectura praetoria Italiae ), and was subdivided into two dioceses. Diocesis Italia annonaria (Italy of the annona , governed from Milan) and Diocesis Italia Suburbicaria (Italy "under the government of the urbs ", i.e. governed from Rome). Christianity became the Roman state religion in AD 380, under Emperor Theodosius I . The last Western emperor, Romulus Augustulus ,

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8164-665: The Schola Medica Salernitana , in southern Italy, was the first medical school in Europe. These great centres of learning presaged the Rinascimento : the European Renaissance began in Italy and was fueled throughout Europe by Italian painters, sculptors, architects, scientists, literature masters and music composers. Italy continued its leading cultural role through the Baroque period and into

8321-569: The Uffizi Gallery . The Catholic Church openly condemned the Mafia, and two churches were bombed and an anti-Mafia priest shot dead in Rome. Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino were named as heroes of the last 60 years in 13 November 2006 issue of Time . Italy is considered one of the birthplaces of Western civilization and a cultural superpower . Italian culture is the culture of

8478-513: The University of Macerata and at the University of Verona , both in Italy. He also has held visiting appointments at several American universities, from the University of California, Berkeley , to Northwestern University , and at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf . Agamben received the Prix Européen de l'Essai Charles Veillon in 2006. In 2013 he was awarded the Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize by

8635-509: The University of Tübingen for his work titled Leviathans Rätsel (Leviathan's Riddle, translated into English by Paul Silas Peterson). Much of Agamben's work since the 1980s can be viewed as leading up to the so-called Homo Sacer project, which properly begins with the book Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life . In this series of works, Agamben responds to Hannah Arendt 's and Foucault's studies of totalitarianism and biopolitics. Since 1995 he has been best known for this ongoing project,

8792-415: The abiotic environment, affect social structure and species richness, diversity and patterns of abundance. Species interact in three ways: competition , predation and mutualism : The two main types of ecological communities are major communities, which are self-sustaining and self-regulating (such as a forest or a lake), and minor communities, which rely on other communities (like fungi decomposing

8949-921: The culture of Italian people. These traditions have influenced life in Italy for centuries, and are still practiced in modern times. Italian traditions are directly connected to Italy's ancestors, which says even more about Italian history . Folklore of Italy refers to the folklore and urban legends of Italy . Within the Italian territory, various peoples have followed one another over time, each of which has left its mark on current culture. Some tales also come from Christianization , especially those concerning demons , which are sometimes recognized by Christian demonology . Italian folklore also includes Italian folk dance , Italian folk music and folk heroes . Women in Italy refers to females who are from (or reside in) Italy . The legal and social status of Italian women has undergone rapid transformations and changes during

9106-456: The epidemiological term " community transmission " can have negative implications, and instead of a "criminal community" one often speaks of a " criminal underworld " or of the "criminal fraternity". In Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (1887), German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies described two types of human association: Gemeinschaft (usually translated as "community") and Gesellschaft ("society" or "association"). Tönnies proposed

9263-704: The four great powers after the victory of the Allies . In the decades following unification, Italy began creating colonies in Africa , and under Benito Mussolini 's fascist regime conquered Ethiopia , founding the Italian Empire in 1936. The population of Italy grew to 45 million in 1940 and the economy, which had been based upon agriculture until that time, started its industrial development, mainly in northern Italy. World War II soon severely damaged Italy and destroyed its colonial power. Between 1945 and 1948,

9420-537: The imperium consulare or the potestas tribunicia . The Duce ' s or the Führer ' s qualities are immediately related to the physical person and belong to the biopolitical tradition of auctoritas and not to the juridical tradition of potestas . Thus, Agamben opposes Foucault's concept of " biopolitics " to right (law), as he defines the state of exception, in Homo sacer , as the inclusion of life by right under

9577-433: The psychodynamic tradition, the most important period of socialization is between the ages of one and ten. But socialization also includes adults moving into a significantly different environment where they must learn a new set of behaviors. Socialization is influenced primarily by the family, through which children first learn community norms . Other important influences include schools, peer groups, people, mass media,

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9734-588: The workplace , and government. The degree to which the norms of a particular society or community are adopted determines one's willingness to engage with others. The norms of tolerance , reciprocity , and trust are important "habits of the heart", as de Tocqueville put it, in an individual's involvement in community. Community development is often linked with community work or community planning, and may involve stakeholders, foundations, governments, or contracted entities including non-government organisations (NGOs), universities or government agencies to progress

9891-877: The " Maxi Trial ", and of the new anti-mafia measures launched by the government. In 1992, two major dynamite attacks killed the judges Giovanni Falcone (23 May in the Capaci bombing ) and Paolo Borsellino (19 July in the Via D'Amelio bombing ). One year later (May–July 1993), tourist spots were attacked, such as the Via dei Georgofili in Florence, Via Palestro in Milan, and the Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano and Via San Teodoro in Rome, leaving 10 dead and 93 injured and causing severe damage to cultural heritage such as

10048-538: The 14th century, and led to an unparalleled flourishing of the arts, literature, music, and science. However, the city-states were often troubled by violent disagreements among their citizens. The most famous division was between the Guelphs and Ghibellines . The Guelphs supported supreme rule by the pope, and the Ghibellines favoured the emperor. City-states often took sides and waged war against each other. During

10205-425: The 9th century, establishing an Emirate of Sicily that lasted until it was also eventually overtaken by the Normans in the 11th century. The subsequent interaction between Latin, Byzantine, Arab, and Norman cultures resulted in the formation of a Norman-Arab-Byzantine culture in Southern Italy. During the 5th and 6th centuries, the popes increased their influence in both religious and political matters in Italy. It

10362-477: The BBC, voiced their opinions of the forced feedings stating that this was a breach of the government's power and was against the rights of the prisoners. In The Coming Community , published in 1990 and translated by longtime admirer Michael Hardt in 1993, Agamben describes the social and political manifestation of his philosophical thought. Employing diverse short essays he describes the nature of "whatever singularity" as that which has an "inessential commonality,

10519-530: The Elder 's Origines , the first work of history composed in Latin , described Italy as the entire peninsula south of the Alps . According to Cato and several Roman authors, the Alps formed the "walls of Italy". In 264 BC, Roman Italy extended from the Arno and Rubicon rivers of the centre-north to the entire south. The northern area of Cisalpine Gaul was occupied by Rome in the 220s BC and became considered geographically and de facto part of Italy, but remained politically and de jure separated. It

10676-416: The European kings who opposed France. After the French king was overthrown and France became a republic, secret clubs favouring an Italian republic were formed throughout Italy. The armies of the French Republic began to move across Europe. In 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte led a French army into northern Italy and drove out the Austrian rulers. Once again, Italy was the scene of battle between the Habsburgs and

10833-417: The French. Wherever France conquered, Italian republics were set up, with constitutions and legal reforms. Napoleon made himself emperor in 1804, and part of northern and central Italy was unified under the name of the Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as king. The rest of northern and central Italy was annexed by France. Only Sicily, where the Bourbon king had taken refuge upon the French invasion of Naples, and

10990-418: The Geneva Conventions by the United States administration. Agamben shows that auctoritas and potestas are clearly distinct – although they form together a binary system". He quotes Mommsen , who explains that auctoritas is "less than an order and more than an advice". While potestas derives from social function, auctoritas "immediately derives from the patres personal condition". As such, it

11147-421: The Italian economy which, until the late 1960s, enjoyed a period of sustained economic growth commonly called the " Economic Miracle ". In 1957, Italy was a founding member of the European Economic Community (EEC), which became the European Union (EU) in 1993. Italy faced several terror attacks between 1992 and 1993 perpetrated by the Sicilian Mafia as a consequence of several life sentences pronounced during

11304-668: The Italian national population), Italian-speaking autonomous groups are found in neighboring nations; about a half million are in Switzerland , as well as in France , the entire population of San Marino . In addition, there are also clusters of Italian speakers in the former Yugoslavia , primarily in Istria , located between in modern Croatia and Slovenia (see: Istrian Italians ), and Dalmatia , located in present-day Croatia and Montenegro (see: Dalmatian Italians ). Due to

11461-574: The Italian peninsula without Italian citizenship. The Latin equivalent of the term Italian had been in use for natives of the geographical region since antiquity. The majority of Italian nationals are native speakers of the country's official language, Italian, a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin , or a variety thereof, that is regional Italian . However, many of them also speak

11618-730: The Italians and is incredibly diverse spanning the entirety of the Italian peninsula and the islands of Sardinia and Sicily . Italy has been the starting point of phenomena of international impact such as the Roman Republic , Roman Empire , the Roman Catholic Church , the Maritime republics , Romanesque art , Scholasticism , the Renaissance , the Age of Discovery , Mannerism , the Scientific revolution ,

11775-696: The Italians, is medieval and was used alternatively with Italicus during the early modern period . After the fall of the Western Roman Empire , which was caused by the invasion of the Ostrogoths , the Kingdom of Italy was created. After the Lombard invasions, "Italia" was retained as the name for their kingdom , and for its successor kingdom within the Holy Roman Empire , which nominally lasted until 1806, although it had de facto disintegrated due to factional politics pitting

11932-586: The Middle Ages to the early modern period, with its intricate canal system attracts tourists from all over the world especially during the Venetian Carnival and the Biennale . Naples , with the largest historic city centre in Europe and the oldest continuously active public opera house in the world ( Teatro di San Carlo ). Bologna is the main transport hub of the country, as well as the home of

12089-639: The Middle Ages. In his later work, Agamben intervenes in the theoretical debates following the publication of Nancy's essay La communauté désoeuvrée (1983), and Maurice Blanchot 's response, La communauté inavouable (1983). These texts analyzed the notion of community at a time when the European Community was under debate. Agamben proposed his own model of a community which would not presuppose categories of identity in The Coming Community (1990). At this time, Agamben also analyzed

12246-522: The Pious succeeded him. Louis divided the empire among his sons, and Frankish Italy became part of Middle Francia , extending as far south as Rome and Spoleto . This Kingdom of Italy became part of the Holy Roman Empire in the 10th century, while southern Italy was under the rule of the Lombard Principality of Benevento or of the Byzantine Empire , in the 12th century absorbed into

12403-1023: The Poem ) and "Parody" (in Profanations ). He has been a friend and collaborator to such eminent intellectuals as Pier Paolo Pasolini (in whose The Gospel According to St. Matthew he played the part of Philip ), Italo Calvino (with whom he collaborated, for a short while, as advisor to the publishing house Einaudi and developed plans for a journal), Ingeborg Bachmann , Pierre Klossowski , Guy Debord , Jean-Luc Nancy , Jacques Derrida , Antonio Negri , Jean-François Lyotard and many, many others. His strongest influences include Martin Heidegger , Walter Benjamin and Michel Foucault . Agamben edited Benjamin's collected works in Italian translation until 1996, and called Benjamin's thought "the antidote that allowed me to survive Heidegger". In 1981, Agamben discovered several important lost manuscripts by Benjamin in

12560-520: The Renaissance, Italy became an even more attractive prize to foreign conquerors. After some city-states asked for outside help in settling disputes with their neighbours, King Charles VIII of France marched into Italy in 1494; he soon withdrew, showing that the Italian peninsula's delicate equilibrium could be taken advantage of. After the Italian Wars , Spain emerged as the dominant force in

12717-431: The Roman Empire, a man who committed a certain kind of crime was banned from society and all of his rights as a citizen were revoked. He thus became a " homo sacer " (sacred man). In consequence, he could be killed by anybody, while his life on the other hand was deemed "sacred", so he could not be sacrificed in a ritual ceremony. Although Roman law no longer applied to someone deemed a Homo sacer , they remained "under

12874-555: The Romantic period, when its dominance in painting and sculpture diminished but the Italians re-established a strong presence in music. Italian explorers and navigators in the 15th and 16th centuries left a perennial mark on human history with the modern "discovery of America", due to the Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus . In addition, the name of " America " derives from the geographer Amerigo Vespucci 's first name. Also noted

13031-475: The United Kingdom, the University of Oxford has led in providing extensive research in the field through its Community Development Journal, used worldwide by sociologists and community development practitioners. At the intersection between community development and community building are a number of programs and organizations with community development tools. One example of this is the program of

13188-872: The ancient Greeks in Magna Graecia , and the Phoenicians , who had a presence in Sicily and Sardinia , the Celts , who settled in parts of the north, the Germanics and the Slavs. Legally, Italian nationals are citizens of Italy , regardless of ancestry or nation of residence (in effect, however, Italian nationality is largely based on jus sanguinis ) and may be distinguished from ethnic Italians in general or from people of Italian descent without Italian citizenship and ethnic Italians living in territories adjacent to

13345-589: The archives of the Bibliothèque nationale de France . Benjamin had left these manuscripts to Georges Bataille when he fled Paris shortly before his death. The most relevant of these to Agamben's own later work were Benjamin's manuscripts for his theses On the Concept of History . Agamben has engaged since the nineties in a debate with the political writings of the German jurist Carl Schmitt , most extensively in

13502-721: The associated Romanization , culminated in 88 BC, when, in the aftermath of the Social War , Rome granted its fellow Italian allies full rights in Roman society , extending Roman citizenship to all fellow Italic peoples . From its inception, Rome was a republican city-state, but four famous civil conflicts destroyed the Roman Republic : Lucius Cornelius Sulla against Gaius Marius and his son (88–82 BC), Julius Caesar against Pompey (49–45 BC), Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus against Mark Antony and Octavian (43 BC), and Mark Antony against Octavian . Octavian,

13659-462: The beginning of the 14th century. During the 14th and 15th centuries, some Italian city-states ranked among the most important powers of Europe. Venice, in particular, had become a major maritime power, and the city-states as a group acted as a conduit for goods from the Byzantine and Islamic empires. In this capacity, they provided great impetus to the developing Renaissance , began in Florence in

13816-400: The boundaries of humanity, under the exception laws of Schutzhaft . Where law is based on vague, unspecific concepts such as "race" or "good morals," law and the personal subjectivity of the judicial agent are no longer distinct. In the process of creating a state of exception these effects can compound. In a realized state of exception, one who has been accused of committing a crime, within

13973-598: The capital of the kingdom. Pope Pius IX , a longtime rival of Italian kings, stated he had been made a "prisoner" inside the Vatican walls and refused to cooperate with the royal administration. Only in 1929 did the Roman Pope accept the unified Italy with Rome as capital. World War I has been interpreted as completing the process of Italian unification, with the annexation of Trieste, Istria , Trentino-Alto Adige and Zara . After World War I, Italy emerged as one of

14130-719: The city was far from the troubled frontiers. The seats of the Caesars became Augusta Treverorum (on the River Rhine frontier) for Constantius Chlorus and Sirmium (on the River Danube frontier) for Galerius , who also resided at Thessaloniki . Under Diocletian, Italy became the Dioecesis Italiciana , subdivided into thirteen provinces, now including Raetia . Under Constantine the Great , Italy became

14287-459: The concept of privacy comes in to play." If human beings were or had to be this or that substance , this or that destiny, no ethical experience would be possible… This does not mean, however, that humans are not, and do not have to be, something, that they are simply consigned to nothingness and therefore can freely decide whether to be or not to be, to adopt or not to adopt this or that destiny (nihilism and decisionism coincide at this point). There

14444-626: The declaration of the Italian National Research Council (NRC), according to which 'there is no SARS-CoV2 epidemic in Italy.' and 'the infection, according to the epidemiological data available as of today and based on tens of thousands of cases, causes light/moderate symptoms (a variant of flu) in 80–90% of cases. In 10–15%, there is a chance of pneumonia, but which also has a benign outcome in the large majority of cases. We estimate that only 4% of patients require intensive therapy. ' " Agamben argued that “the health emergency

14601-544: The efforts of noblemen, emperors, and larger foreign powers to control them. The emergence of identifiable Italian dialects from Vulgar Latin , and as such the possibility of a specifically "Italian" ethnic identity, has no clear-cut date, but began in roughly the 12th century. Modern standard Italian derives from the written vernacular of Tuscan writers of the 12th century. The recognition of Italian vernaculars as literary languages in their own right began with De vulgari eloquentia , an essay written by Dante Alighieri at

14758-444: The empire against the ascendant city republics in the 13th century. The Italian peninsula was divided into a multitude of tribal or ethnic territory prior to the Roman conquest of Italy in the 3rd century BC. After a series of wars between Greeks and Etruscans , the Latins , with Rome as their capital, gained the ascendancy by 272 BC, and completed the conquest of the Italian peninsula by 218 BC. This period of unification

14915-472: The etymology of the Latin name "Italia" are numerous. One is that it was borrowed via Greek from the Oscan Víteliú 'land of calves' ( cf. Lat vitulus "calf", Umb vitlo "calf"). Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus , mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides . According to Antiochus of Syracuse ,

15072-634: The expansion of the Roman Republic , the name was used by Greeks to indicate the land between the Strait of Messina and the line connecting the Gulf of Salerno and Gulf of Taranto , corresponding roughly to the current region of Calabria . The Greeks gradually came to apply the name "Italia" to a larger region In addition to the "Greek Italy" in the south, historians have suggested the existence of an "Etruscan Italy" covering variable areas of central Italy. The borders of Roman Italy are better established. Cato

15229-530: The fascist Duce or the Nazi Führer , it is important not to forget their continuity with the principle of auctoritas principis {Agamben refers here to Augustus's Res Gestae }. ...Neither does the Duce nor the Führer represent constitutionally defined public charges – even though Mussolini and Hitler endorsed respectively the charge of head of government and Reich's chancellor, just as Augustus endorsed

15386-412: The feeling of love and belonging. The process of learning to adopt the behavior patterns of the community is called socialization . The most fertile time of socialization is usually the early stages of life, during which individuals develop the skills and knowledge and learn the roles necessary to function within their culture and social environment . For some psychologists, especially those in

15543-416: The figure of "ex-ception", which is simultaneously inclusion and exclusion. Following Walter Benjamin's lead, he explains that our task would be to radically differentiate "pure violence" from right, instead of tying them together, as did Carl Schmitt. Agamben concludes his chapter on " Auctoritas and potestas " writing: It is significative that modern specialists were so inclined to admit that auctoritas

15700-501: The final victor (31 BC), was accorded the title of Augustus by the Senate and thereby became the first Roman Emperor. Augustus created for the first time an administrative region called Italia with inhabitants called "Italicus populus", stretching from the Alps to Sicily : for this reason historians like Emilio Gentile called him Father of Italians . In the 1st century BC, Italia

15857-459: The first public performance of the song Il Canto degli Italiani , the Italian national anthem since 1946, took place. Il Canto degli Italiani , written by Goffredo Mameli set to music by Michele Novaro , is also known as the Inno di Mameli , after the author of the lyrics, or Fratelli d'Italia , from its opening line . The unification of Italy was brought to a successful conclusion under

16014-530: The guidance of Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour , prime minister of Piedmont. Cavour managed to unite most of Italy under the headship of Victor Emmanuel II of the house of Savoy, and on 17 March 1861, the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed with Victor Emmanuel II as king. Giuseppe Garibaldi , the popular republican hero of Italy, contributed much to this achievement with the Expedition of the Thousand and to

16171-423: The introduction of laws regulating divorce (1970), abortion (1978), and the approval in 1975 of the new family code. Today, women have the same legal rights as men in Italy, and have mainly the same job, business, and education opportunities. Community In terms of sociological categories, a community can seem like a sub-set of a social collectivity . In developmental views, a community can emerge out of

16328-515: The island of Sardinia, which had been ceded to the Alpine House of Savoy in 1720 and had remained under their rule ever since, were not under French control. French domination lasted less than 20 years, and it differed from previous foreign control of the Italian peninsula. In spite of heavy taxation and frequent harshness, the French introduced representative assemblies and new laws that were

16485-538: The knowledge and application of certain rules. He states that this process goes through four stages: In 1991, Peck remarked that building a sense of community is easy but maintaining this sense of community is difficult in the modern world. An interview with M. Scott Peck by Alan Atkisson. In Context #29, p. 26. The three basic types of community organizing are grassroots organizing, coalition building, and "institution-based community organizing", (also called "broad-based community organizing", an example of which

16642-572: The largest Italian community outside Italy), more than 18 million Italian Americans , and people in other parts of Europe (e.g. Italians in Germany , Italians in France and Italians in the United Kingdom ), the American Continent (such as Italian Venezuelans , Italian Canadians , Italian Colombians and Italians in Paraguay , among others), Australasia ( Italian Australians and Italian New Zealanders ), and to

16799-405: The legal system, loses the ability to use his/her voice and represent themselves. The individual can not only be deprived of their citizenship, but also of any form of agency over their own life. "Agamben identifies the state of exception with the power of decision over life." Within the state of exception, the distinction between bios (the life of the citizen) and zoê (the life of homo sacer )

16956-462: The modern state, but has essentially existed since the beginnings of sovereignty in the West, since this structure of ex-ception is essential to the core concept of sovereignty. In this book, Agamben traces the concept of ' state of exception ' ( Ausnahmezustand ) used by Carl Schmitt to Roman justitium and auctoritas . This leads him to a response to Carl Schmitt's definition of sovereignty as

17113-604: The most elementary principles'. Agamben turns to the Franciscans to survey a unique historical incident of a group organising itself with a rule that is their life, and thinking of their own lives not as their own possession but as a communal 'use'; he examines the ways in which this idea developed and how it eventually lapsed into the law of the Catholic Church . According to reviewer Nathan Schneider , " The Highest Poverty examines two medieval Christian attempts, in

17270-448: The most popular in the world, its cinema (with filmmakers such as Federico Fellini , Michelangelo Antonioni , Mario Monicelli , Sergio Leone , etc.), its collections of priceless works of art and its fashion (Milan and Florence are regarded as some of the few fashion capitals of the world). National symbols of Italy are the symbols that uniquely identify Italy reflecting its history and culture . They are used to represent

17427-426: The name of eternal life, to live this life beyond the reach of ordinary politics: several centuries of monasticism, and then the brief and momentous epiphany in the movement founded by Francis of Assisi. Each, according to Agamben, fails in revealing ways." Giorgio Agamben is particularly critical of the United States' response to 11 September 2001 , and its instrumentalization as a permanent condition that legitimizes

17584-756: The ontological condition and "political" attitude of Bartleby (from Herman Melville 's short story) – a scrivener who "prefers not" to write. Currently, Agamben is teaching at Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio ( Università della Svizzera Italiana ) and has taught at the Università IUAV di Venezia , the Collège international de Philosophie in Paris, and the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee , Switzerland; he previously taught at

17741-407: The outlines of a new Italy began to appear. Victor Emmanuel III gave up the throne on 9 May 1946, and his son, Umberto II , became king. On 2 June Italy held its first free election after 20 years of Fascist rule (the so-called Ventennio ). Italians chose a republic to replace the monarchy , which had been closely associated with Fascism . They elected a Constituent Assembly , which was formed by

17898-479: The outside in. In the disability field, community building was prevalent in the 1980s and 1990s with roots in John McKnight's approaches. In The Different Drum: Community-Making and Peace (1987) Scott Peck argues that the almost accidental sense of community that exists at times of crisis can be consciously built. Peck believes that conscious community building is a process of deliberate design based on

18055-548: The papers by Floyd Hunter on Atlanta . At the turn of the 21st century the concept of community was rediscovered by academics, politicians, and activists. Politicians hoping for a democratic election started to realign with community interests. In ecology , a community is an assemblage of populations—potentially of different species—interacting with one another. Community ecology is the branch of ecology that studies interactions between and among species. It considers how such interactions, along with interactions between species and

18212-460: The past decades. This includes family laws , the enactment of anti-discrimination measures , and reforms to the penal code (in particular with regard to crimes of violence against women). After World War II , women were given the right to vote in 1946 Italian institutional referendum . The new Italian Constitution of 1948 affirmed that women had equal rights. It was not however until the 1970s that women in Italy scored some major achievements with

18369-424: The past. This classification method relies on the assumption that people or households will share more similarities in the types and styles of their material goods with other members of a social community than they will with outsiders. Early sociological studies identified communities as fringe groups at the behest of local power elites. Such early academic studies include Who Governs? by Robert Dahl as well as

18526-454: The person detaining auctoritas —the sovereign— public life and private life have become inseparable. Augustus , the first Roman emperor who claimed auctoritas as the basis of princeps status in a famous passage of Res Gestae , had opened up his house to public eyes. In his theorization of thanatopolitics (the politics of death), Agamben uses the English and Roman examples to show how

18683-516: The power and voice of authority over others extended well beyond where the law has existed in the past. "In every case, the state of exception marks a threshold at which logic and praxis blur with each other and a pure violence without logos claims to realize an enunciation without any real reference" (Agamben, pg 40). Agamben refers a continued state of exception to the Nazi state of Germany under Hitler's rule. "The entire Third Reich can be considered

18840-445: The power to proclaim the exception. Agamben's text State of Exception investigates the increase of power by governments which they employ in supposed times of crisis. Within a state of emergency, Agamben refers to the states of exception, where constitutional rights can be diminished, superseded and rejected in the process of claiming this extension of power by a government. The state of exception invests one person or government with

18997-571: The procedure was reserved to criminals; to the contrary, today's society is tending toward a generalization of this procedure to all citizens, placing the population under permanent suspicion and surveillance : "The political body thus has become a criminal body". And Agamben notes that the Jews deportation in France and other occupied countries was made possible by the photos taken from identity cards . Furthermore, Agamben's political criticisms open up in

19154-505: The proper" that, according to an expression of Friedrich Hölderlin 's, is "the most difficult task." Following the same trend, he employs, among others, the following to describe the "watershed of whatever": Other themes addressed in The Coming Community include the commodification of the body, evil, and the messianic. Unlike other continental philosophers he does not reject the dichotomies of subject/object and potentiality/actuality outright, but rather turns them inside-out, pointing out

19311-484: The properties in favor of an insipid generality (universal love): The lover wants the loved one with all of its predicates , its being such as it is. Similarly, Agamben discusses "ease" as the “place” of love, or more precisely, love as the encounter with a unique moment (“love as the experience of taking-place in a whatever singularity"), which resonates with his utilization of the concept of "use" in his later writings. In this sense, ease names perfectly that "free use of

19468-607: The region. Venice, Milan, and other city-states retained at least some of their former greatness during this period, as did Savoy -Piedmont, protected by the Alps and well defended by its vigorous rulers. Italian explorers and navigators from the dominant maritime republics, eager to find an alternative route to the Indies in order to bypass the Ottoman Empire , offered their services to monarchs of Atlantic countries and played

19625-632: The reorganization of constitutional balance. Agamben often reminds that Hitler never abrogated the Weimar Constitution : he suspended it for the duration of the Third Reich with the Reichstag Fire Decree , issued on 28 February 1933. Indefinite suspension of law is what characterizes the state of exception. The English edition was translated by Adam Kotsko. In this study of medieval monastic rules, Agamben offers

19782-660: The representatives of all the anti-fascist forces that contributed to the defeat of Nazi and Fascist forces during the Italian Civil War , to prepare a new democratic constitution. The Assembly approved the new Italian constitution in 1947, which came into force on 1 January 1948. Under the Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947 , Istria , Kvarner , most of the Julian March as well as the Dalmatian city of Zara

19939-551: The same for all parts of the country. For the first time since the days of ancient Rome, Italians of different regions used the same money and served in the same army. Many Italians began to see the possibility of a united Italy free of foreign control. During the Napoleonic era , in 1797, the first official adoption of the Italian tricolour as a national flag by a sovereign Italian state, the Cispadane Republic ,

20096-406: The same time gaining power over it by making it the subject of political control. The power of law to actively separate "political" beings (citizens) from "bare life" (bodies) has carried on from Antiquity to Modernity – literally from Aristotle to Auschwitz . Aristotle, as Agamben notes, constitutes political life via a simultaneous inclusion and exclusion of "bare life": as Aristotle says, man

20253-497: The service of France, renowned as the first European to explore the Atlantic coast of North America between Florida and New Brunswick in 1524. The French Revolution and Napoleon influenced Italy more deeply than they affected any other outside country of Europe. The French Revolution began in 1789 and immediately found supporters among the Italian people. The local Italian rulers, sensing danger in their own country, drew closer to

20410-406: The social well-being of local, regional and, sometimes, national communities. More grassroots efforts, called community building or community organizing , seek to empower individuals and groups of people by providing them with the skills they need to effect change in their own communities. These skills often assist in building political power through the formation of large social groups working for

20567-473: The sovereign justifies authority by his claimed ability to control or manage his own death. Agamben writes that the rituals of two deaths by the sovereign (as an ordinary human and then as effigy) demonstrate that death rituals show the people that the sovereign is in control of both lives. The concept of auctoritas played a key-role in fascism and Nazism , in particular concerning Carl Schmitt's theories, argues Agamben: To understand modern phenomena such as

20724-471: The spell" of law. This means that "human life" is "included in the juridical order solely in the form of its exclusion (that is, of its capacity to be killed)". Homo sacer was therefore both excluded from law and included at the same time. This paradoxical figure of homo sacer is the exact mirror image of the sovereign ( basileus ) – a king, emperor, or president – who stands, on the one hand, within law (so he can be condemned, e.g., for treason, as

20881-642: The state of exception, as suggested in Guantánamo Bay prison, also operate outside the law. In the case of the hunger strike, the prisoners were threatened and endured force feeding not allowing them to die. During the hunger strikes at Guantánamo Bay prison, accusations and founded claims of forced feedings began to surface in the autumn of 2005. In February 2006, The New York Times reported that prisoners were being force fed in Guantánamo Bay prison and in March 2006, more than 250 medical experts, as reported by

21038-489: The state of exception, places one government—or one form or branch of government—as all powerful, operating outside the laws. During such times of extension of power, certain forms of knowledge shall be privileged and accepted as true and certain voices shall be heard as valued, while of course, many others are not. This oppressive distinction holds great importance in relation to the production of knowledge. The process of both acquiring knowledge, and suppressing certain knowledge,

21195-460: The study State of Exception (2003). His recent writings also elaborate on the concepts of Michel Foucault, whom he calls "a scholar from whom I have learned a great deal in recent years". Agamben's political thought was founded on his readings of Aristotle 's Politics , Nicomachean Ethics , and treatise On the Soul , as well as the exegetical traditions concerning these texts in late antiquity and

21352-824: The subsequent incorporation of the Papal States under the Italian monarch. Cavour handed Savoy and Nice over to France at the Treaty of Turin , a decision that was the consequence of the Plombières Agreement , on 24 March 1860, an event that caused the Niçard exodus , which was the emigration of a quarter of the Niçard Italians to Italy, and the Niçard Vespers . Italian troops occupied Rome in 1870, and in July 1871, this formally became

21509-476: The term "community" in two ways, mirroring usage in other areas. The first meaning is an informal definition of community as a place where people used to live. In this literal sense it is synonymous with the concept of an ancient settlement —whether a hamlet , village , town , or city . The second meaning resembles the usage of the term in other social sciences : a community is a group of people living near one another who interact socially. Social interaction on

21666-408: The term 'form-of-life' throughout the development of monastic life, beginning with the establishment of a genre of written rules in the fourth century. The aim of the book is to differentiate between 'law' and a particular use of rule that is opposite to the implementation of law. In order to sketch out the potential of this concept, we would need 'a theory of use – of which Western philosophy lacks even

21823-548: The term Italy was used by the Greeks to initially refer only to the southern portion of the Bruttium peninsula corresponding to the modern province of Reggio and part of the provinces of Catanzaro and Vibo Valentia in Southern Italy . Nevertheless, by his time the larger concept of Oenotria and "Italy" had become synonymous and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. According to Strabo 's Geographica , before

21980-454: The volumes of which have been published out of order, and which include: In 2017, these works were collected and published as The Omnibus Homo Sacer . In the final volume of the series, Agamben intends to address "the concepts of forms-of-life and lifestyles." "What I call a form-of-life," he explains, "is a life which can never be separated from its form, a life in which it is never possible to separate something like bare life. […] [H]ere too

22137-485: The whole Italian geographical region . All its inhabitants were considered Italic and Roman . The Latin term Italicus was used to describe "a man of Italy" as opposed to a provincial . For example, Pliny the Elder notably wrote in a letter Italicus es an provincialis ? meaning "are you an Italian or a provincial?". The adjective italianus , from which are derived the Italian (and also French and English) name of

22294-410: The wide-ranging diaspora following Italian unification in 1861, World War I and World War II , (with over 5 million Italian citizens that live outside of Italy) over 80 million people abroad claim full or partial Italian ancestry. This includes about 60% of Argentina 's population ( Italian Argentines ), 1/3 of Uruguayans ( Italian Uruguayans ), 15% of Brazilians ( Italian Brazilians ,

22451-552: The zone where they become indistinguishable. Matter that does not remain beneath form, but surrounds it with a halo. The political task of humanity, he argues, is to expose the innate potential in this zone of indistinguishability. And although criticised as dreaming the impossible by certain authors, he nonetheless shows a concrete example of whatever singularity acting politically: Whatever singularity, which wants to appropriate belonging itself, its own being-in-language, and thus rejects all identity and every condition of belonging,

22608-428: Was a fellow at the Warburg Institute , University of London , due to the courtesy of Frances Yates , whom he met through Italo Calvino . During this fellowship, Agamben began to develop his second book, Stanzas (1977). Agamben was close to the poets Giorgio Caproni and José Bergamín , and to the Italian novelist Elsa Morante , to whom he devoted the essays "The Celebration of the Hidden Treasure" (in The End of

22765-446: Was adopted by the Lombard Legion in 1796. The first red, white and green national flag of a sovereign Italian state was adopted on 7 January 1797, when the Fourteenth Parliament of the Cispadane Republic (1797), on the proposal of deputy Giuseppe Compagnoni , decreed "to make universal the ... standard or flag of three colours, green, white, and red ...": For having proposed the green, white and red tricolour flag, Giuseppe Compagnoni

22922-407: Was annexed by Yugoslavia causing the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus , which led to the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 of local ethnic Italians ( Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians ), the others being ethnic Slovenians, ethnic Croatians, and ethnic Istro-Romanians , choosing to maintain Italian citizenship . In 1949 Italy became a member of NATO . The Marshall Plan helped to revive

23079-642: Was being exaggerated” to create a state of exception. Agamben's views were strongly criticised by Sergio Benvenuto , Roberto Esposito , Divya Dwivedi , Shaj Mohan , Jean-Luc Nancy , Benjamin H. Bratton , and others. Agamben's major books are listed in order of first Italian publication (with the exception of Potentialities , which first appeared in English), and English translations are listed where available. There are translations of most writings in German, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. Italians Italians ( Italian : italiani , pronounced [itaˈljaːni] ) are an ethnic group native to

23236-403: Was deposed in 476 by a Germanic foederati general in Italy, Odoacer . His defeat marked the end of the Western Roman Empire , and the end of the political unification of Italy until the establishment of the modern Kingdom of Italy in 1861. Odoacer ruled well for 13 years after gaining control of Italy in 476. Then he was attacked and defeated by Theodoric , the king of another Germanic tribe,

23393-468: Was developed by Chavis and colleagues, and revised and adapted by others. Although originally designed to assess sense of community in neighborhoods, the index has been adapted for use in schools, the workplace, and a variety of types of communities. Studies conducted by the APPA indicate that young adults who feel a sense of belonging in a community, particularly small communities, develop fewer psychiatric and depressive disorders than those who do not have

23550-499: Was educated at the University of Rome , where in 1965 he wrote an unpublished laurea thesis on the political thought of Simone Weil . Agamben participated in Martin Heidegger 's Le Thor seminars (on Heraclitus and Hegel ) in 1966 and 1968. In the 1970s, he worked primarily on linguistics, philology, poetics, and topics in medieval culture. During this period, Agamben began to elaborate his primary concerns, although their political bearings were not yet made explicit. In 1974–1975 he

23707-446: Was followed by one of conquest in the Mediterranean, beginning with the First Punic War against Carthage . In the course of the century-long struggle against Carthage, the Romans conquered Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. Finally, in 146 BC, at the conclusion of the Third Punic War , with Carthage completely destroyed and its inhabitants enslaved, Rome became the dominant power in the Mediterranean. The process of Italian unification, and

23864-495: Was inherent to the living person of the pater or the princeps . What was evidently an ideology or a fictio aiming to be the groundwork of auctoritas' preeminence or, at least, specific rank compared to potestas thus became a figure of right's {"droit"} immanence to life. ... Although it is evident that there can't be an eternal human type that would incarnate itself each time in Augustus, Napoleon, Hitler, but only more or less comparable ("semblables") mechanisms {"dispositif",

24021-429: Was legally merged into the administrative unit of Italy in 42 BC by the triumvir Octavian as a ratification of Julius Caesar 's unpublished acts ( Acta Caesaris ). Under Emperor Diocletian the Roman region called "Italia" was further enlarged with the addition in 292 AD of the three big islands of the western Mediterranean Sea : Sicily (with the Maltese archipelago ), Sardinia and Corsica , coinciding with

24178-549: Was still a collection of territories with different political statuses. Some cities, called municipia , had some independence from Rome, while others, the coloniae , were founded by the Romans themselves. Around 7 BC, Augustus divided Italy into eleven regiones . During the Crisis of the Third Century , the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of invasions, military anarchy and civil wars, and hyperinflation. In 284, emperor Diocletian restored political stability. The importance of Rome declined, because

24335-433: Was the first European to set foot in "New Found Land" and explore parts of the North American continent in 1497; Amerigo Vespucci , sailing for Portugal, who first demonstrated in about 1501 that the New World (in particular Brazil) was not Asia as initially conjectured, but a fourth continent previously unknown to people of the Old World (the name of " America " derives from his first name ); and Giovanni da Verrazzano , at

24492-434: Was the heart of the Renaissance , a period of great achievements in the arts at the end of the Middle Ages. Other important cities include Turin , which used to be the capital of Italy, and is now one of the world's great centers of automobile engineering. Milan is the industrial and financial capital of Italy and one of the world's fashion capitals . Venice , former capital of a major financial and maritime power from

24649-432: Was usually the popes who led attempts to protect Italy from invasion or to soften foreign rule. For about 200 years the popes opposed attempts by the Lombards, who had captured most of Italy, to take over Rome as well. The popes finally defeated the Lombards with the aid of two Frankish kings, Pepin the Short and Charlemagne . Using land won for them by Pepin in 756, the popes established political rule in what were called

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