Manuel DeLanda. The City and Capitalism. 2011

www.egs.edu/ Manuel Delanda, contemporary philosopher, uses assemblage theory to discuss the city, society, Walter Christaller, and civilization throughout history. DeLanda then tackles the topic of capitalism, challenging Karl Marx and Marcism with the theory of French historian Fernand Braudel. Public open lecture for the students and faculty of the European Graduate School EGS Media and Communication Studies department program Saas-Fee Switzerland. 2011 Manuel DeLanda.
Manuel DeLanda, (born 1952 in Mexico City), is a writer, artist and distinguished philosopher who has lived in New York since 1975. He is a professor and the Gilles Deleuze Chair of Contemporary Philosophy and Science at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, a professor at the Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, and professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. DeLanda was formerly an Adjunct Associate Professor at Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University (New York).
He is the author of War In the Age of Intelligent Machines (1991), A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History (1997), Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy (2002), A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity (2006), Deleuze: History and Science (2010), and Philosophy and Simulation: The Emergence of Synthetic Reason (2011). He has published many articles and essays and lectured extensively in Europe and in the United States. His work focuses on the theories of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze on one hand, and modern science, self-organizing matter, artificial life and intelligence, economics, architecture, chaos theory, history of science, nonlinear science, cellular automata on the other. De Landa became a principal figure in the "new materialism" based on his application of Deleuze's realist ontology. His universal research into "morphogenesis" - the production of the semi-stable structures out of material flows that are constitutive of the natural and social world - has been of interest to theorists across many academic and professional disciplines.

[@Michael-xv1gn]

My new favorite contemporary thinker and lecturer.

[@jaredalfordastheysay]

I don't think it's fair to interpret his remark about Marx being basically wrong about everything so literally. His tone suggests he's well aware it's a very controversial, grandiose remark. More generally, I don't think it's apt to respond to his arguments in theological terms, talking of priests & disciples. Why not focus on the empirical data & theoretical models? DeLanda cites textual points that he truly does disagree w/ Marx, H&N, D&G on. Measure your respect in respect to that.

[@GlobalPerambulator]

a pretty good class. he goes more than a bit too far in saying that marx was wrong about everything. one of the people who delanda practically worships is foucault, foucault himself said that all of his work comes out of the tradition of marx's 'capital vol. 2' delanda is good on deleuze. but he attacks hardt, negri and marx on points that i don't think that they would actually disagree with him on.....the second half of his talk caused me to lose quite a bit of respect for him.