Subject and Appearance – Alain Badiou

SUBJECT AND APPEARANCE – ALAIN BADIOU

Alain Badiou

Workshop Announcement

Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Middlesex University

Subject and Appearance: On Alain Badiou’s ‘Theory of the Subject’ & ‘Logics of Worlds’.

Friday 20 November, 10am to 5pm (followed by a drinks reception).

Confirmed speakers include:
Ali Alizadeh (CRMEP, Middlesex)
Bruno Bosteels (Cornell)
Peter Hallward (CRMEP, Middlesex).
Nina Power (Roehampton)
Kristin Ross (NYU)
Alberto Toscano (Goldsmiths)

The workshop will take place in Bolivar Hall, 54 Grafton Way, London W1T 5DL
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=529280&y=182164&z=0&sv=W1T+5DL&st=2&pc=W1T+5DL&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf

Further details and the schedule are posted at
http://www.mdx.ac.uk/www/CRMEP/EVENTS/Subject&Appearance.htm

Brief extracts from Badiou’s books, intended for particular attention during the workshop, will be posted shortly via this link.

The event is free but reservation is essential; to reserve a place please contact Tom Eyers on TE122@live.mdx.ac.uk

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

New York Autonomist Events

AUTONOMIST EVENTS

Antonio Negri

NEW YORK

Silvia Federici and George Caffentzis on the Politics of Oil
On Tuesday NOVEMBER 10th at 6:30PM

Join Silvia Federici and George Caffentzis as they discuss big oil’s cultural and political violence with Peter Maass, contributing editor at The New York Times Magazine and the author of the recently published Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil.

The event is moderated by Ashley Dawson, Associate Professor of English, The Graduate Center, CUNY.  The event will take place at the Graduate Center, 365 5th Ave btwn 34th and 35th (The Skylight Room, 9100)

Ariel Salleh on Eco-Sufficiency with Silvia Federici
On Wednesday, November 11th at 7:00PM, ARIEL SALLEH will be presenting on a feminist and ecologically integrated politics of the commons, themes central to her recently edited volume, Eco-Sufficiency & Global Justice: Women Write Political Ecology (Pluto Press, 2009).  She will be introduced by and in dialogue with SILVIA FEDERICI. The event takes place at Bluestockings Bookstore (172 Allen Street, NYC 10002).

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Modernism After Postmodernism

MODERNISM AFTER POSTMODERNISM

The Centre for Cultural Studies Research, University of East London presents:

Modernism After Postmodernism: Is there a future beyond capitalist realism?
November 11th 2009
2:00pm – 5:00pm
UEL Docklands Campus
Room EB.1.01
(First floor, main building, turn left upon entering the main square after leaving Cyprus DLR, Cyprus DLR is literally situated at the campus)
Free, All welcome

Has the idea of ‘postmodernism’ left any legacy but that of a generalised capitulation to the demands of liberal capitalism? What can contemporary urbanism learn from the era of unabashed ‘militant modernism’? Is the most controversial living philosopher, Alain Badiou, with his radical re-conceptualisation of Truth, Event and Subject, to be understood as advocating a neo-modernist programme, or something quite different? Can there be any progressive radicalism that does not ultimately embrace the revolutionising logic of modernism?

Speakers:

Mark Fisher
Capitalist Realism, or the Political-Economic Logic Of Postmodernism
Mark Fisher teaches at UEL, the City Lit and Goldsmiths and is the author of Capitalist Realism (Zer0, 2009)

Nina Power
Is Badiou a Modernist?
Nina Power is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Roehampton University and the author of One-Dimensional Woman (Zer0, 2009)

Owen Hatherley
They Are Rebuilding The City, Always: Regeneration now and its post-war predecessors
Owen Hatherley is a freelance writer, a researcher at Birkbeck and author of Militant Modernism (Zer0 2009)

Jeremy Gilbert
New Times Again: Legacies of Left Postmodernism
Jeremy Gilbert teaches at UEL and is the author of Anticapitalism and Culture (Berg 2008)

Here is something I wrote on Postmodernism and Education:

Rikowski, G. (2008) Postmodern Dereliction in the Face of Neoliberal Education Policy, 27^th April, London, online at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Postmodern%20Dereliction%20in%20the%20Face%20of%20Neoliberal%20Education%20Policy

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

The Human Revolution

THE HUMAN REVOLUTION

The Radical Anthropology Group is running the following seminars for the Autumn Term 2009:

November 3rd: Marx’s anthropological writings and the current global crisis – HILLEL TICKTIN

November 10th: ‘Beauty Magic’: Cosmetics and the origins of culture – CAMILLA POWER

November 17th: Living cosmology day-to-day: the Mbendjele hunter-gathereres of Congo – JEROME LEWIS

November 24th: What future for the forest people? – JEROME LEWIS

December 1st: Hobbits and ‘Out of Africa’ – CHRIS STRINGER

December 8th: Totem and taboo – CHRIS KNIGHT

December 15th: A Christmas fairy tale: ‘The Shoes that were Danced to Pieces’ – CHRIS KNIGHT

All lectures take palce at the St. Martin’s Community Centre, 43 Carol Street, London NW1. Tuesdays 6.15-9.00

Website: http://www.radicalanthropologygroup.org

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Crack Capitalism – A Discussion with John Holloway

 

John Holloway

CRACK CAPITALISM – A DISCUSSION WITH JOHN HOLLOWAY

7-9pm, Monday 26th October, London

At the height of the anti-capitalist movement, John Holloway’s book Change The World without Taking Power _<http://libcom.org/library/change-world-without-taking-power-john-holloway>_provoked an international debate*. Eight years later, after the failure of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined with the failure of the capitalist economy, anti-capitalism is back on the agenda.

John Holloway will introduce his forthcoming book, Crack Capitalism, followed by a discussion on how we can change the world without repeating the tragedies of twentieth century socialism.

Come and join the debate.

*To read the debate around the book Change The World Without Taking Power, go to: _http://www.herramienta.com.ar/debate-sobre-cambiar-el-mundo/presentacion-e-indice-de-articulos_

VENUE: The Great Hall, Queen’s Building, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1, Mile End Tube. (The event will be followed by a social at the Half Moon pub, 213-233 Mile End Road, London E1)

Supported by Mute Magazine (mute AT metamute.org) and the Queen Mary School of Business and Management

Crack Capitalism at Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crack-Capitalism-John-Holloway/dp/0745330088/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256420697&sr=1-8

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Commodities and Values

Karl Marx - 1872

COMMODITIES AND VALUES

 

King’s College London Reading Capital Society

October 20th 2009

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http://www.kclreadingcapital.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49539959005

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Thanks to all who attended our re-launch meeting with Ben Fine (apologies for those who had to sit on the floor and stand by the door!). There is an mp3 of the meeting (http://rapidshare.com/files/293932707/Ben_Fine_13Oct2009.mp3) for download along with older sessions on the blog. It’s a big file, but worth the wait!

We hope that everyone found the meeting interesting and will consider reading Capital with us. Details of our first meeting are below:

’Commodities & Values’

The wealth of societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails appears as an ‘immense collection of commodities’.

Marx begins Capital by looking at the elementary building block of capitalism, the commodity.

Marx identifies in the commodity a dual aspect, use-value and exchange value. One gives the commodity its usefulness for the consumer, the other commensurability with other commodities.

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Chris Harman, editor of International Socialism Journal (http://www.isj.org.uk), introduces a discussion on:

‘Commodities & Values’
Tuesday 27th October 2009
6pm
Room 2.42 F-WB
Waterloo Campus
King’s College London

N.B. We will be reading the first 3 sections of Chapter 1 in preparation.

All welcome!

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Signs of Revolt – Creative Resistance and Social Movements since Seattle

 

The Battle in Seattle - by Glenn Rikowski

Signs of Revolt – Creative Resistance and Social Movements since Seattle

EXHIBITION AND TALKS: Space Hijackers/Ultimate Holding Company/Reel News/kennardphillipps/ Cactus Network/Jonathan Barnbrook/Pedro Inhoue/Noel Douglas/David Gentlemen/Guy Smallman/Jody Boehnart/ Jess Hurd/Notes from Nowehere/Movement of the Imagination/Rebel Clown 
Army/ Indymedia London/Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination/ Creative Resistance Research Network/ Turbulence/War Boutique/Josh On

Opening FRIDAY 13 NOVEMBER 6pm then SATURDAY 14–SUNDAY 22 NOVEMBER
Opening Times: Weekends 10-10pm, Weekdays 12–9pm
Shop 14
The Old Truman Brewery
91 Brick Lane
London
E1 6QL
 

10 years ago, in November 1999 an alliance of direct action activists, environmentalists and trade unionists shut down the meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Seattle, stopping the next trade round of Capitalist Globalisation. In the process they sparked a Movement of Movements right across the globe its slogan became ‘Another World is Possible’.

This November exactly 10 years from that momentous demonstration, and with most of the predictions of the movements rapidly coming true what with the crisis of the economy, a permanent state of war and the collapse of our eco-system wrecking lives across the planet, the rich and powerful meet again in Copenhagen to discuss the next Climate treaty after Kyoto, yet again activists are preparing to challenge the idea that the Market can solve the problems of the world, and take another step toward that possible world after Capitalism.

Signs of Revolt is an exhibition that weaves together the story of the past decades social movements, drawing out the influences and connections between and across the movements against Capitalism, War and Climate Change. Using archive material and documentary photography and video from movement photographers and filmmakers, it reveals the story of how we got from Seattle to Copenhagen.

Interspersed in this narrative are works by artist and designer activists and collectives, produced during, within and for the movements, this is the first time such a collection has been brought together in the UK and it will be a chance to reflect upon and celebrate the new creative impulses that the movements spawned and the possibilities for developing the creative capacity of future movements, these issues will also be discussed in greater depth during a series of talks during the exhibition.

As Capitalism threatens our very existence, Signs of Revolt defiantly maps out possible routes to a future filled with hope… http://www.signsofrevolt.net

Festival of Radical Communication–a weekend of talks as part of Signs of Revolt: http://signsofrevolt.net/?page_id=41

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?invites&eid=152633464034

Contact and to register for the weekend (it’s free but we need to know numbers!): show@signsofrevolt.net

“they can cut all the flowers, but they cannot stop the coming of spring” Pablo Neruda

Noel Douglas
http://www.noeldouglas.net
http://www.movementoftheimagination.org
http://www.myspace.com/freemachine
+44[0]7989 471159

The Battle in Seattle: Its Significance for Education – by Glenn Rikowski: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Battle-Seattle-Significance-Education-Hilcole/dp/1872767370 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

The Future of Democracy: Prospects and Challenges

Chantal Mouffe

The Future of Democracy: Prospects and Challenges

 

Which way forwards for the European Union?

This event has been organised by Chantal Mouffe (co-initiator of the Spaces of Democracy and the Democracy of Space network).

Friday, 13 November 2009, 10.30am to 1pm
The Pavilion, University of Westminster
115 Cavendish Street, London W1W 6UW

RSVP Charlotte Regan
Email:  charlotte.regan@my.westminster.ac.uk

Round-table discussion:
Thomas Ferenczi (Paris)
Fernand Keuleneer (Brussels)
Kalypso Nicolaidis (Oxford)
Frieder Otto Wolf (Berlin)

The Round-table will be chaired and introduced by Chantal Mouffe (London)

Now that the Irish have finally voted in favour of the ratification of the Lisbon treaty, a decisive step in the consolidation of the European Union might hopefully take place. After years of uncertainty – initiated by the rejection of the Constitutional Treatise by the French and the Dutch – concerning the future of the European institutions, the possibility now exists to envisage the future in a more optimistic way. But a successful future requires fostering among the people of Europe a real allegiance towards the European project. To be sure, with the financial crisis many people began to realize the importance of being in the EU, however its popularity remains at a very low ebb. A few decades ago things were different though, and the European project appeared as expressing the aspirations of many people and as able to awaken their enthusiasm. What has happened to bring about this change? Which mistakes have been made to explain the current disaffection with the EU? Many explanations have been offered which range for the geo-political transformations linked to the end of the Cold War, the resistances against a too rapid process of enlargement, imposed from the top without popular consultation. The criticism most often rehearsed is the lack of legitimacy of the EU due to its democratic deficit. What can be done to reverse this trend? Which model should European unification adopts? How could common forms of identification be established among the citizens of Europe, so as to mobilize their affects around a European vision that does not negates their differences? Those are some of the issues that will be discussed by a panel composed of specialists from various countries and several disciplines.

For “The Spaces of Democracy and the Democracy of Space” network website: http://www.spaceofdemocracy.org

For Radical Politics Today magazine:
http://www.spaceofdemocracy.org/resources/publications/magazine/magazine.html

For more on the book What is Radical Politics Today? published in 2009 by Palgrave Macmillan: http://www.spaceofdemocracy.org/resources/resources_bookstoread.html

Jonathan Pugh
Senior Academic Fellow
Director “The Spaces of Democracy and the Democracy of Space” network
School of Geography, Politics and Sociology
5th Floor Claremont Tower
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
United Kingdom
Honorary Fellow, The Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Walled States, Waning Sovereignty

Wall Street

WALLED STATES, WANING SOVEREIGNTY

 

A special lecture by
Wendy Brown, University of California, Berkeley

Wednesday, 25 November 2009, 14:00 – 16:30
Berrill Lecture Theatre, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, dozens of walls have been erected between and within nation-states. Why? What are these walls doing–materially, performatively, symbolically? What is their relationship to the erosion of state sovereignty? What is the nature of state and popular investments in them, especially when they don’t ‘work’?

Professor Brown’s lecture will include responses from:

Professor Stuart Elden, Department of Geography, Durham University
Dr Raia Prokhovnik, Department of Politics and International Studies, Open University.

A reception will follow this event from 4.30pm onwards.

All are welcome; attendees should RSVP to Sarah Batt at a.s.c.batt@open.ac.uk

Further details, including a flyer for the event, can be seen at:
http://www.open.ac.uk/ccig/events/keynote-event-wendy-brown

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

What is Radical Politics Today?

Radical Politics

WHAT IS RADICAL POLITICS TODAY?

 

What is Radical Politics Today?

Debate and book launch

1.30pm, 25th November 2009, Canada House, Trafalgar Square, London, SW1Y 5BJ

Hosted by:
Catherine Fieschi (Director of Counterpoint, The Think Tank of the British Council; http://www.counterpoint-online.org/)
Jonathan Pugh (Director, the Spaces of Democracy and the Democracy of Space network; http://www.spaceofdemocracy.org)
Dan Porter (Marketing Executive, Palgrave Macmillan).

Those who are interested in attending should contact: counterpoint@britishcouncil.org

The discussion on 25th November will include … Doreen Massey, Saskia Sassen and David Chandler.

NEW BOOK:

What is Radical Politics Today?

Published November 2009, by Palgrave Macmillan

Edited by Jonathan Pugh, Senior Academic Fellow, Newcastle University

A crisis makes you re-think your life. The recent economic crisis is no exception. All of us are now thinking how the world could be run differently. Despite this, a radical alternative has hardly emerged to mobilise the masses, which begs the question: What is radical politics today? In this book, leading academics, politicians, journalists and activists attempt to pinpoint an answer, debating the issues facing radical politics in the 21st Century. Rarely united in their opinions, they collectively interrogate the character and spirit of being radical in our times.

Including original contributions from Zygmunt Bauman, Frank Furedi, Paul Kingsnorth, James Heartfield, Terrell Carver, Clare Short, Edward W. Soja, David Chandler, Hilary Wainwright, Dora Apel, Michael J. Watts, Jason Toynbee, James Martin, Jeremy Gilbert and Jo Littler, Doreen Massey, Gregor McLennan, Tariq Modood, Nick Cohen, Amir Saeed and David Bates, Alastair Bonnett, Ken Worpole, Sheila Jasanoff, Nigel Thrift, Will Hutton, Saul Newman, Chantal Mouffe, David Featherstone, Alejandro Colas and Jason Edwards, David Boyle, and Saskia Sassen.

The project is ongoing, through the Radical Politics Today magazine and events (see http://www.spaceofdemocracy.org)

To purchase the book:
Order online at http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=375741
http://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Radical-Politics-Today-Jonathan/dp/023023626X
or visit your local bookseller.

Hardback 978-0-230-23625-7
Paperback 978-0-230-23626-4

Those who come to the book launch, or attend Spaces of Democracy and Democracy of Space events more generally, will get 25% off the paperback purchase price.

Keys themes of ‘What is Radical Politics Today?’

*A wide-ranging survey of the spirit and character of radical politics at this pivotal moment in history.
*Thirty influential commentators write original 3000 word essays.
*Offers thought provoking and often conflicting opinions.
*Accessibly written for the general public and student audiences.

Recommendations for ‘What is Radical Politics Today?’

‘This is a bold, brave and timely book. As we emerge, blinking into the light after three decades of neo-liberal darkness, Jonathan Pugh has put together a collection of essays that will provoke and provide clues to the question of what comes next; what indeed is radical politics today ?’ — Neal Lawson (Chair, Compass)

‘This collection is a model for the kinds of discussion we need to move forward.’ — Michael Hardt, co-author of Empire, Multitude and Commonwealth

‘ … we need this sort of sustained critical discussion of the kinds of alternative politics available to us.’ — James Tully (University of Victoria).

‘…a major contribution to the ongoing debate on the problems of our times.’ — Lord Bhikhu Parekh

‘ … what sort of Left can win hearts and minds in this moment of crisis? The answers to these important questions are the stuff of this excellent book.’ — Noel Castree (Manchester University).

‘With impeccable timing, this volume provides a stimulating range of perspectives on what radical politics can offer during this period of crisis and change. It deserves to be widely read and debated.’ — Ruth Lister (Loughborough University).

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com