Plasticity, unlike neoliberal flexibility, retains memory of prior forms
Evidence
Alex Williams has come up with the suggestive formulation “post-Fordist plasticity” to describe what this new solidarity might look like. As Catherine Malabou has shown, plasticity is not the same as elasticity. Elasticity is equivalent to the flexibility which neoliberalism demands of us, in which we assume a form imposed from outside. But plasticity is something else: it implies both adaptability and resilience, a capacity for modification which also retains a “memory” of previous encounters. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1742
Categorization
- DEFINE: Distinguishes Malabou’s plasticity from elasticity — a precise conceptual tool for critiquing ‘flexibility’ rhetoric.
- SEED: A review/essay on Malabou’s plasticity as the concept that names resistance-within-adaptation against late capitalism.
- XREF: connects to: Brain plasticity is often misread as flexibility, a docility-based economy — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 154; Flexibility is an unrooted notion while plasticity is a historically grounded concept — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 59; Plasticity means formative change through rupture, not smooth continuous adaptation — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 258 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Plasticity adapts while flexibility submits, so the two are not interchangeable
#expands(0.92) - Flexibility is an unrooted notion while plasticity is a historically grounded concept
#expands(0.88) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 59 - Brain plasticity is often misread as flexibility, a docility-based economy
#expands(0.82) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 154 - Plasticity means formative change through rupture, not smooth continuous adaptation
#expands(0.75) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 258 - Plasticity holds together originary attachment and the capacity to abandon fixed form.
#expands(0.72)