Lavoratori della conoscenza: resistenza e resa? Dialogo sulle pratiche e le teorie

The first part of the paper is the result of a dialogue between the two authors, who differ in terms of age, career, family and perspective of mobility; it is shaped as an exemplary narration of an ideal-typical knowledge worker: it is an attempt to explore professional and existential status beyond the single individual(istic) perspective and overcoming the temptation to see ourselves as members of a class, that of precarious workers, which is too vague to be useful. Here we introduce the concepts of sceptical volunteering and professional in-volunteering. The second part, also based on a dialogue, presents a short reflection on the golden cage of contemporary capitalism, developing the idea of precariousness as a condition (not a class) and proposing some prospects for emancipation which acknowledge the numerous existing subjectivities and their resources. In the conclusions we stress the social urgency of rebuilding a grammar of relations based on the structuring potential of capitalism, but without its goals and results.