Postautonomism

Postautonomism is a theoretical current within Marxist and critical theory that emerged as a development of autonomist thought in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. It seeks to reinterpret the autonomist emphasis on workplace autonomy and direct action in light of globalized, informational, and networked capitalism, arguing that production and political subjectivity extend beyond the traditional factory and wage relations.

Core themes include immaterial labor, cognitive labor, and affective labor, with attention to how knowledge, communication, and social cooperation become productive forces. Postautonomists examine the social factory concept, global production networks, and the precarity of labor under post-Fordist regimes, arguing that value is produced through social relations, networks, and everyday life as much as through formal employment.

Politically, postautonomism stresses horizontal, bottom-up organization and prefigurative forms of action. It tends to analyze how collective abilities and commoning practices emerge within networks, cultures, and digital platforms, rather than focusing solely on capturing state power through traditional political channels. The aim is to understand and harness the potential of dispersed, non-institutional forms of resistance to restructure social relations and production processes.

Influence and reception have centered on scholars associated with the Italian autonomist tradition, notably Paolo Virno and Maurizio Lazzarato, who link cognitive and immaterial labor to new modes of political subjectivity. The term is used variably, and its boundaries overlap with broader discussions on post-Fordism, globalization, and the politics of the multitude.

Critiques of postautonomism include questions about how its analyses translate into concrete strategy and concerns that emphasis on cognitive or cultural labor may understate material conditions and class dynamics. Nonetheless, it remains a reference point for discussions on how capital organizes life beyond traditional factories.