Overcoming the Planetary Scale of Logistical Infrastructure

Discussion

Matthew Thompson and Yousaf Nishat-Botero:

"Bernes poses the question of scale: the planetary scale of logistical infrastructure, and the tightening multi-scalar, trans-local integration of production nodes within a complex system of circulation, not only imposes huge operational barriers to breaking down this unwieldy totality into manageable parts, but also entails an overwhelming complexity, opacity and illegibility for collective action to assail, such that its reconfiguration would fail the test of transparency. The alienation experienced by democratic planners would far surpass the transhistorical alienation from the product of one’s labours, argues Bernes, taking on a monstrous quality, as the concrete materialization of the law of value."

(https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10245294231210980)