International Conference
- October 6, 2025, Bologna, Aula Prodi, Piazza San Giovanni in Monte 2
- October 7, 2025, Ravenna, Artificerie Almagià, Via dell’Almagià 2
- October 8, 2025, Reggio Emilia, DCE Unimore, Viale Antonio Allegri 9, Panizzi Library, Via Carlo Farini 3
Our time is one of change, the end of a world, a kairos in which everything is possible, and yet we remain stuck, lost in a labyrinth of myths that traps us in a seemingly inevitable present. So incapable of imagining different futures, faced with the crisis of capitalism, we cling desperately to the status quo out of fear of what lies ahead. Dismantling this labyrinth was the task Graeber pursued throughout his life, and his work is more necessary than ever today if we want to make it possible once again to imagine a collective future.
For this reason, we have chosen to dedicate a conference to his legacy: three days across Bologna, Ravenna, and Reggio Emilia, in which we will explore together some of the possibilities Graeber showed us—regarding human nature, concrete forms of self-governance, and how we should understand value and values.
We share Graeber’s skepticism toward the “monastic self,” and we want this to be as much a conversation as possible: we will leave ample space for the audience, whom we invite not only to ask questions but to actively engage in discussion.
Session 1, Bologna 6 ottobre, 2025, Prodi Lecture Hall: David Graeber between anthropology and philosophy
9:00 – 9:30 Welcome address
9:30 – 10:00 Lorenzo Vinciguerra, Sive Natura, Università di Bologna: Why Spinozists read Graeber
10:00 – 10:30 Simona Ferlini, Sive Natura: Out of the maze
10:30 – 11:00 Break
11:00-11:30 Nicholas Smaligo, independent scholar: The War for the Human Imagination
11:30-12:00 Massimiliano Mollona, Università di Bologna: Genocide, labour and images of struggle. Towards a political economy of otherness.
12:00 – 13:00 Multilogue
13:00 – 14:00 Light lunch
14:00-14:45 Botteghe Spinoza 38: my grandmother in a wheelbarrow
15:00 -17:30 Round table: David Graeber and the Ontological Turn
Chair: Federico Venturini, Stefania Consigliere, Università di Genova: Magic and imaginary. Against academic ‘bon ton’
Rastko P. Chirco Popovich, Università di Malta: Beyond the de Castro-Graeber Debate: Graeber’s Reading of Marylin Strathern’s Post-Plurality
Marco Manca, Fondazione Scimpulse: The Poiesis of Ignorance. Epistemology as Struggle for the World
Session 2, Ravenna, 7 ottobre, Arteficerie Almagià, via dell’Almagià: Imagining the abolition of the present state of affairs
9:30-10:00 Welcome address
10:00-11:30 Round table: radical democracy and social ecology (EN)
Marisa Holmes, Rutgers University; Fabio Carnevali, Sive Natura, Università di Palermo; Debbie Bookchin, Bookchin Foundation; Stevphen Shukaitis, University of Essex, A Kaddish for Tikki Tikki Tembo; Elif Sarican; Andrej Grubacic, California Institute of Integral Studies; Franco Berardi
11:30-12:00 Break
12:00 – 13:00 Anarchia e antropologia (ITA)
Stefano Boni, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia: Le antropologie anarchiche di David Graeber
Erica Lagalisse, London School of Economics
13:00-14:00 Break
14:00 – 14:30 Francesco Codello: Idee per un anarchismo positivo
14:30 – 15:00 Giovanna Gioli: Pensare da anarchici
15:30 – 16:00 Multilogo: anarchia e antropologia (ITA)
16:30 – 17:00 Break
17:30 – 19:30 Fondazione Lac o Le mon
Session 3, Reggio Emilia, 8 ottobre: Value and values
9:30-10:00 Marco Mietto, Municipality of Reggio Emilia, Councillor for Culture and Youth: Welcome and introduction
10:00 – 10:30 Federico Montanari, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia: Theories of value between Graeber, semiotics, economic sociology, and Actor Network Theory: critiques and cross-perspectives
10:30-11:00 Francesco Zanotelli, Università di Firenze
11:00-11:30 Break
11:30-12:00 Pasquale Menditto, University of Bologna: Before the jubilee. David Graeber’s vision for an alternative end of the (capitalist) world
12:00-12:30 Veronique Dutraive, Université de Lyon
12:30-13:00 Andrea Buchetti
13:00-14:00 Lunch
14:00-14:30 L. Randall Wray, Levy Economics Institute: Defining Value
14:30-15:00 Julio Linares, Economic Anthropologist, Public Outreach for the Basic Income Earth Network: Decolonizing Money
15:00-15:30 Stevphen Shukaitis, University of Essex: (Title)
15:30 Stefano Montes: Building on Graeber: anthropological indisciplines
16:00-17:00 All speakers and the public: Multilogue on value and values
