"A space that affects": on the affective politics of a collaborative space in the age of soft capitalism

This contribution focuses on the politics of affects of a collaborative space located in Milan, that materially performs the contemporary discourse of innovation. More specifically, the paper approaches entrepreneurial serendipity as an affective disposition to be governed on the side of the organization, and shows how the organizational space functions as the primary mechanism of government to this end. Building upon an ethnographic observation, the analysis offers a critical understanding of the strategic use of space, paying attention to the socio-material processes and affective micro-geographies of power as they happen in an iconic workspace in the age of soft capitalism. On the one hand, the socio-spatial dialectics is analysed from the viewpoint of the material culture characterizing the working environment; on the other hand, the paper shows how affect functions by bonding practices, spaces and discourses, thus producing political effects. Theoretically, the analysis contributes to the emerging research field of geographies of organizations, endorsing the legitimacy of the organization as a heuristically valuable object of interest for geography.

Keywords: Affectivity, innovation, discourse, space, organization.

Anna Paola Quaglia, "Uno spazio che muove": la politica affettiva di uno spazio collaborativo al tempo del capitalismo soft in "RIVISTA GEOGRAFICA ITALIANA" 4/2019, pp 117-138, DOI: 10.3280/RGI2019-004007