Many Northern Italian city states established municipal offices for the policing of public morals in the 15th and 16th centuries. Florence, however, was exceptional in its lenient convictions and punishments. Venice had a much blunter approach to policing sodomy that backfired on their ultimate economic interests as a state.
Featuring Max Fox and Chris Nealon on the late Christopher Chitty's book Sexual Hegemony: Statecraft, Sodomy, and Capital in the Rise of the World System.
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Further reading:
libcom.org/article/after-fall-communiques-occupied-california
viewpointmag.com/2012/09/12/towards-a-socialist-art-of-government-michel-foucaults-the-mesh-of-power
thenewinquiry.com/blog/in-love-and-memory
Buy Abolition Geography versobooks.com/books/3785-abolition-geography