Postcritica: oltre l’attore niente

This article addresses postcritique as a novel epistemological and methodological attitude that invites to get closer to how social actors put the social together. It first discusses the break with critical scholarship by juxtaposing alternative conceptions of what guides people’s conduct. While most critical approaches concern themselves with the invisible mechanisms governing social action, postcritique is more attuned to how people’s doings produce effects of connection. The article goes on to discuss the notion of theory postcritique entails. Theory becomes a form of mediation whereby the theorist enters a network and becomes one of its node. By doing so, theory makes the network transitable to those who are outside it. The conclusion insists on the transformative potential of postcritical theories as they disseminate conceptual resources of the practices they traverse and at the same time create potential connections between those who are inside and those who are outside them.