by Paolo Saporito
What does it mean to engage in collaborative practices? How do these practices ensure the sustainable management of diversity we need in order to counter contemporary forms of discrimination? This paper reflects on these issues and proposes answers to these questions by analysing two case studies: the Italian writing collectives Wu Ming and Joana Karda. The two groups enact collaborative practices that deconstruct conceptual dualisms (i.e. subject/object; self/other) and question hyper-individualised conceptions of subjectivity characterising contemporary neoliberal society. While Joana Karda’s members ground these practices in the availability to yield (“rinunciare”) one’s views and welcoming others, Wu Ming focus on the intensification of their internal diversity and the creation of complex, inclusive solutions able to express the views of all the members. The two case studies ultimately reveal that there are no pre-packaged instructions for the smooth functioning of collaborative practices. These practices and their ethical, social and political potential must be constantly co-sought, co-experimented and co-engendered through a tireless and situated engagement.