Precorporation

Definition

Precorporation is Mark Fisher's term for the pre-emptive formatting and shaping of desires, aspirations, and hopes by capitalist culture — before they can even be voiced. It names the shift from the Situationist model of recuperation (capitalism reactively absorbing subversive material after it is produced) to a new ideological mechanism under capitalist realism: capital shapes desire in advance, so that what appears to be resistance or alternative practice is already formatted as a style within the mainstream. Fisher's decisive formulation:

"[W]hat we are dealing with now is not the incorporation of materials that previously seemed to possess subversive potentials, but instead, their precorporation." — Capitalist Realism (Fisher 2006)

The consequence is that there is no "outside" from which to launch critique: "'alternative' and 'independent'... are styles, in fact the dominant styles, within the mainstream." Precorporation is thus the "deepest mechanism" of capitalist realism — deeper than recuperation, because the absorption happens before the gesture of opposition is even made.

Key Thinkers

• Mark Fisher — originator of the term; contrasts precorporation with the Situationist concept of recuperation, arguing the old "détournement vs. recuperation" struggle "has been played out."
• (Related, not yet paged: Guy Debord and the Situationist International — the source of the recuperation concept precorporation displaces; Slavoj Žižek — the "interpassivity" that accompanies precorporation.)

Related Concepts

• Capitalist Realism — the ideological configuration within which precorporation operates; its "deepest mechanism."
• Détournement — the Situationist tactic whose struggle against recuperation Fisher declares "played out," superseded by precorporation.
• Spectacle — the image-world that, under precorporation, "performs our anti-capitalism for us" (interpassivity).
• Ideology — precorporation is the contemporary form of ideology: "ideology without belief," working through the shape of desire rather than conviction.
• Postcapitalist Desire — Fisher's affirmative counter-move: the project of re-desiring beyond the closure precorporation enforces.

Source Support

Sources in the wiki that discuss this concept:

• Capitalist Realism (Fisher 2006)
• Consumerism, Capitalism, and Iconic Architecture — precorporation as the "deepest mechanism" of capitalist realism; even "critical" or "anti-iconic" architecture is pre-emptively formatted.
• Semiocapitalism and Iconic Architecture — precorporation means even resistance is formatted as content.
• The Death of Iconic Architecture — precorporation as part of the closure that makes the icon's emptiness the built residue of a futureless present.
• The Fate of Critical Architecture — whether any critical architecture can escape being formatted as a style.
• Financialisation of Architecture — "can critique escape precorporation?"

Open Questions

• Is precorporation total — is there any gesture of resistance that is not already pre-formatted as a style — or does Fisher's own "postcapitalist desire" name a way out that precorporation cannot reach?
• Does precorporation presuppose a "recuperation" that once worked (a time when critique could emerge before being absorbed), or is the distinction itself retrospective — recuperation always already precorporation?
• What is the architectural form of precorporation — is "anti-iconic" or "critical" architecture the built proof of it, and can a building escape being pre-formatted as a style?