Report on the Construction of Situations
Encyclopedia
The pamphlet
Report on the Construction of Situations is the founding Manifesto
of the Situationist International revolutionary organization. It was published by Guy Debord
in June 1957, and the following month the organization was founded, at Cosio d'Arroscia, Italy.
The organization was founded by the fusion of three organizations: the Lettrist International
, the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus
, and the London Psychogeographical Association
.
The complete title is Report on the Construction of Situations and on the International Situationist Tendency’s Conditions of Organization and Action.
, Debord, Gallizio and Korun, this report defines the main political aim of the movement as revolutionary
:
During the May 1968 general strike, the Situationists, against the unions and the Communist Party
that were starting to side with the de Gaulle
government to contain the revolt, called for the formation of workers' councils to take control of the factories, expelling union leaders and left-wing bureaucrats, in order to keep the power in the hands of the workers with direct democracy
.
s, has then a natural continuation in the "deliberately anticultural production" of novels, films, et cetera, conducted with the means of large-scale industry.
In his 1961 film Critique of Separation, Debord returned on this topic adding:
In contrast, the sense of the Report on the Construction of Situations is to fulfill human primitive desires
and pursue a superior passional quality. The main goal of the Situationist International is precisely the setting up of environments that favor such fulfillments.
is a "rigged game", where conservative powers forbid subversive ideas to have direct access to the public discourse, and where such ideas are integrated
only after been trivialized and sterilized.
Debord discusses the close link between revolution and culture and everyday life
, and the reason why conservative powers are interested in forbidding them "any direct access to the rigged game of official culture
." Debord recalls that worldwide revolutionary movements that emerged during the 1920s were followed by "an ebbing of the movements that had tried to advance a liberatory new attitude in culture and everyday life," and that such movements were brought to a "complete social isolation."
and the public discourse, where they can add new flavors to old dominant ideas and play the role of a gear wheel in the mechanism of the society of the spectacle.
In his 1959 film On the Passage of a Few Persons Through a Rather Brief Unity of Time, Debord returned on this topic adding:
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
Report on the Construction of Situations is the founding Manifesto
Manifesto
A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...
of the Situationist International revolutionary organization. It was published by Guy Debord
Guy Debord
Guy Ernest Debord was a French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationist International . He was also briefly a member of Socialisme ou Barbarie.-Early Life:Guy Debord was born in Paris in 1931...
in June 1957, and the following month the organization was founded, at Cosio d'Arroscia, Italy.
The organization was founded by the fusion of three organizations: the Lettrist International
Lettrist International
The Letterist International was a Paris-based collective of radical artists and theorists between 1952 and 1957. It was created by Guy Debord as a schism from Isidore Isou's Letterist group...
, the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus
International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus
The International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus was a small European avant-garde artistic tendency that arose out of the breakup of COBRA, and was initiated by contact between former COBRA member Asger Jorn and Enrico Baj and Sergio Dangelo of the Nuclear Art Movement.-Timeline:*December 1953:...
, and the London Psychogeographical Association
London Psychogeographical Association
The London Psychogeographical Association is an organisation devoted to psychogeography. The LPA is perhaps best understood in the context of psychogeographical praxis.-London Psychogeographical Institute:...
.
The complete title is Report on the Construction of Situations and on the International Situationist Tendency’s Conditions of Organization and Action.
Revolutionary movement
Expressing the view of the national leaders of the previous organizations, particularly JornAsger Jorn
Asger Oluf Jorn was a Danish painter, sculptor, ceramic artist, and author. He was a founding member of the avant-garde movement COBRA and the Situationist International...
, Debord, Gallizio and Korun, this report defines the main political aim of the movement as revolutionary
Revolutionary movement
Revolutionary movement is a specific type of social movement dedicated to carrying out a revolution. Charles Tilly defines it as a social movement advancing exclusive competing claims to control of the state, or some segment of it. An example of a revolutionary movement is the Armenian...
:
First, we believe that the world must be changed. We desire the most liberatory possible change of the society and the life in which we find ourselves confined. We know that such change is possible by means of pertinent actions.
During the May 1968 general strike, the Situationists, against the unions and the Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
that were starting to side with the de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
government to contain the revolt, called for the formation of workers' councils to take control of the factories, expelling union leaders and left-wing bureaucrats, in order to keep the power in the hands of the workers with direct democracy
Direct democracy
Direct democracy is a form of government in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Direct democracy is classically termed "pure democracy"...
.
The imbecilization of young people in families and schools
The imbecilization that young people undergo within their families and schoolSchool
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
s, has then a natural continuation in the "deliberately anticultural production" of novels, films, et cetera, conducted with the means of large-scale industry.
In his 1961 film Critique of Separation, Debord returned on this topic adding:
In contrast, the sense of the Report on the Construction of Situations is to fulfill human primitive desires
Desire (emotion)
Desire is a sense of longing for a person or object or hoping for an outcome. Desire is the fire that sets action aflame. The same sense is expressed by emotions such as "craving" or "hankering". When a person desires something or someone, their sense of longing is excited by the enjoyment or the...
and pursue a superior passional quality. The main goal of the Situationist International is precisely the setting up of environments that favor such fulfillments.
Official culture and the trivialization and sterilization of the subversive
For Debord, official cultureOfficial culture
Official culture is the culture that receives social legitimation or institutional support in a given society. Official culture is usually identified with bourgeoisie culture...
is a "rigged game", where conservative powers forbid subversive ideas to have direct access to the public discourse, and where such ideas are integrated
Social integration
Social integration, in sociology and other social sciences, is the movement of minority groups such as ethnic minorities, refugees and underprivileged sections of a society into the mainstream of societies...
only after been trivialized and sterilized.
Debord discusses the close link between revolution and culture and everyday life
Everyday Life
Everyday Life is the first solo album made by Life MC of the British Hip Hop group Phi Life Cypher....
, and the reason why conservative powers are interested in forbidding them "any direct access to the rigged game of official culture
Official culture
Official culture is the culture that receives social legitimation or institutional support in a given society. Official culture is usually identified with bourgeoisie culture...
." Debord recalls that worldwide revolutionary movements that emerged during the 1920s were followed by "an ebbing of the movements that had tried to advance a liberatory new attitude in culture and everyday life," and that such movements were brought to a "complete social isolation."
Emptiness of an art separated from politics
Historically, revolutionary ideas have emerged first among artists and intellectuals. For this reason, artists and intellectuals are relegated into specialized, compartmentalized disciplines, defusing their revolutionary potential and imposing unnatural dichotomies such as the "separation of art from politics". Once artistic-intellectual works are separated from current events and from a comprehensive critique of society, they are sterilized and can be safely integrated into the official cultureOfficial culture
Official culture is the culture that receives social legitimation or institutional support in a given society. Official culture is usually identified with bourgeoisie culture...
and the public discourse, where they can add new flavors to old dominant ideas and play the role of a gear wheel in the mechanism of the society of the spectacle.
One of the contradictions of the bourgeoisie [...] is that while it respects the abstract principle of intellectual and artistic creation, it resists actual creations when they first appear, then eventually exploits them. This is because it needs to maintain a certain sense of criticality and experimental research among a minority, but must take care to channel this activity into narrowly compartmentalized utilitarian disciplines, dismissing all comprehensive critique and research. In the domain of culture, the bourgeoisie strives to divert the taste for the new, which has become dangerous for it, toward certain degraded forms of novelty that are harmless and confused. [...] The people within avant-garde tendencies who distinguished themselves are generally accepted on an individual basis, at the price of vital renunciations: the fundamental point of debate is always the renunciation of comprehensive demands, and the acceptance of a fragmentary work, susceptible to multiple interpretations. This is what makes the very term avant-garde, which in the end is always defined and manipulated by the bourgeoisie, somewhat suspicious and ridiculous. ( pp.2-3 )
In his 1959 film On the Passage of a Few Persons Through a Rather Brief Unity of Time, Debord returned on this topic adding:
Knowledge of empirical facts remains abstract and superficial as long as it is not concretized by being related to the whole situation. This is the only method that enables us to supersede partial and abstract problems and get to their concrete essence, and thus implicitly to their meaning. [...] We can never really challenge any form of social organization without challenging all of that organization’s forms of language. [...] When freedom is practiced in a closed circle, it fades into a dream, becomes a mere image of itself.
Further reading
- On anticulture:
- Russel Hardin (2007) The Systemic Anticulture of Capitalism in Víctor NeeVictor NeeVictor Nee is the Frank and Rosa Rhodes Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Economy and Society at Cornell University. He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology at Harvard University in 1977...
, Richard SwedbergRichard SwedbergRichard Swedberg is a Swedish sociologist at Cornell University. Swedberg has been a contributor to developing a sociological approach to the analysis of the economy....
(2007) On capitalism Stanford University Press, pp. 21–41 - James C. ScottJames C. ScottJames C. Scott is Sterling Professor of Political Science, formerly Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Anthropology at Yale University. He is also the director of the Program in Agrarian Studies. By training, he is a southeast Asianist.- Research topics :James Scott's work focuses...
1976 The moral economy of the peasant Yale University PressYale University PressYale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day. It became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but remains financially and operationally autonomous.... - James C. ScottJames C. ScottJames C. Scott is Sterling Professor of Political Science, formerly Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Anthropology at Yale University. He is also the director of the Program in Agrarian Studies. By training, he is a southeast Asianist.- Research topics :James Scott's work focuses...
1985 Weapons of the weak Yale University PressYale University PressYale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day. It became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but remains financially and operationally autonomous....
- Russel Hardin (2007) The Systemic Anticulture of Capitalism in Víctor Nee
Editions and translations
- Original French text Rapport sur la construction des situations
- English translations:
- by Ken KnabbKen KnabbKen Knabb is an American writer, translator, and theorist, best known for his translations of Guy Debord and the Situationist International.-Early life:...
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/report.htm - by Tom McDonough, published at pp. 29-seq of Guy Debord and the Situationist International
- by Ken Knabb
- Italian translation: published by Nautilus (counterculture publisher)Nautilus (counterculture publisher)Nautilus is an Italian publisher based in Turin. Started in 1981, it is linked with Autonomism. One of its most prestigious publications is the translation, by scholar Mario Lippolis, of the complete collection of the issues of the Situationist International...
.