Abstract

The singular regimes of activities belonging to the three fields of society, science and art seem to meet on two noteworthy points: first, what I choose to call a « regime » of intermittence within which activity occurs, and second, in the existence of an « immaterial labor site » which can crystallize this activity and modulate its « dimensions » for future effects. Young scholars, social workers on a contract basis, artists of the Permanent Festival Off which post-Fordist capitalism requires; it is essential to keep sight of these « inner exiles » who oscillate between extreme precarity and access to social benefits. To deny the specificity of their situation amounts to wishing for the impossible return of stable employment which characterizes the Fordist regime, or accepting the disasters of precarious economic circumstances. Now, a politics of intermittence must begin with what the labor of intermittence « constitutes » in the strong sense of terms, as a mode of life