What’s So Good About Being More Equal?

Danny Dorling

WHAT’S SO GOOD ABOUT BEING MORE EQUAL?

When: Mon 25 Jun 2012, 18.30 – 20.00

Where: Conference Centre, British Library

Price: £7.50 / £5 concessions

Book now for 25 Jun 2012, 18.30 – 20.00

 

Join Professor Danny Dorling of the University of Sheffield for the second Annual British Sociological Association/British Library Equality Lecture. 

Professor Dorling’s work highlights the impact of equality – and inequality – on our lives, using extraordinary mapping techniques which bring statistics on the way we live – and die – to life. His latest book No Nonsense Guide to Equality (published by New Internationalist) discusses the positive effects that equality can have, using examples from across the globe. It examines the lessons of history and covers race, gender and ethnicity, age, and wealth. Danny’s lecture will draw from the book and consider just how equal it is possible to be, look at why some people prefer inequality and outline the factors that will lead to greater equality for all. 

The event will be chaired by Professor Judith Burnett, Chair of the British Sociological Association and Dean of the School of Law, Social Sciences and Communications at the University of Wolverhampton.

 

**END**

 

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Glenn Rikowski’s MySpace Blog: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski/blog

Oppositions

Bonuses for Some

OPPOSITIONS

Oppositions: An Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference

28th and 29th September 2012 

University of Salford 

This conference seeks to explore ideas of opposition through the full range of disciplines in the arts, media, and social sciences. In the context of the current crisis of capitalism, there are many examples of the forms ‘opposition’ can take: the Tea Party in the United States, the rise of fascist groups, campaigns run via new technologies and social media, religious fundamentalisms, and general strikes in Greece. Though it carries radical overtones, ‘opposition’ in itself is not tied to any particular dogma, left or right. 

We invite papers that explore the value and values of opposition as a position to be adopted by individuals or groups. We welcome proposals for papers from postgraduates that engage with any aspect of opposition. 

These could include, but are by no means limited to: the ‘culture industry’ and alternative youth cultures; opposition parties within parliamentary politics; grass-roots activism; the history and future of the labour movement; hegemony; Foucauldian ‘resistance’ and its limits; radical pedagogies and the role of the University; community and class; the aesthetic value of non-mainstream or outsider art; aesthetic oppositions such as contrapuntal music or bricolage; and the formation of creole or pidgin languages. 

Papers are welcome from fields such as politics, literature, philosophy, anthropology, religions and theology, geography, sociology, history, classics, translation studies, linguistics and social linguistics, visual and screen studies, new media and communication studies, and the performing arts. Interdisciplinary papers are very welcome. Keynote speakers TBC. 

Abstracts of 250 words are invited for presentations of 20 minutes. Proposals for performances, screenings etc. are also accepted. The conference intends to publish an edited volume of the best papers presented.

Send abstracts to oppositionsconference[at]gmail.com by 6 July 2012.

Oppositions: http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/46251

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

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

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Never Waste A Crisis

Crisis

NEVER WASTE A CRISIS

CALL FOR PAPER PROPOSALS

Never Waste a Crisis. Strategies of Representing and Managing Crisis after the Crash

1-2 November, 2012, Midland Hotel, Morecambe

Deadline for paper proposals: 17 June, 2012, to be sent to a.kutter@lancaster.ac.uk

Workshop organised by CPERC, Sociology Department, Lancaster University, within the frames of Bob Jessop’s ESRC professorial fellowship and the project “Great Transformations. A Cultural Political Economy of Crisis Management”  

The North Atlantic Financial Crisis that surfaced in 2007/08 and subsequent efforts at crisis management have produced unstable constellations. Whereas the financial sector has been rescued with large injections of capital but minor structural adjustments, the symptoms in many economies of ‘epic recession’ and fiscal crisis remain. Among political and economic elites, such finance-centred crisis management remains largely unchallenged. At the same time, the economic and social costs of the austerity packages and of a finance-dominated economy more generally have spurred contestation from various quarters. The workshop on ‘Strategies of Representing and Managing Crisis after the Crash’ seeks to explore the politics (broadly interpreted) of this constellation. Papers in the workshop will review different agents’ strategies of tackling the North Atlantic Financial Crisis through discursive construction, contestation, and policy-making. We encourage the submission of papers that highlight the discursive and semiotic of economic and political processes or that situate the analysis of crisis discourse in broader questions of political economy.

Speakers include so far: Colin Hay (tbc), David Howarth, Brigitte Young 

For more details and updates see: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/cperc/events/seminars.htm and 

http://www.lancs.ac.uk/cperc/research/great_transformations.htm 

**END**

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Glenn Rikowski’s MySpace Blog: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski/blog

The Long Duree of the Far Right

 

Aesthetics

THE LONG DURÉE OF THE FAR RIGHT

The Longue Durée of the Far Right: Ideology, Organization, State Formation and International Relations

October 2012 (Queen Mary, University of London)

 

Call for Papers

The (re)emergence of far-right parties and social movements in various parts of the world – and particularly in Europe – in recent years has been widely discussed in the press and in academic commentary. In contrast to their ‘revolutionary’ bedfellows on the communist left, since the end of the Cold War far-right parties have come to form a significant and disturbing part of the political geography in a number of countries. Whilst their influence has been uneven – from participating in governing coalitions in Western Europe (the Austrian Freedom Party and the Italian Lega Nord) and in India (the Bharatiya Janata Party) to spawning a violent Islamophobic street movement (the English Defence League in the UK), to forming a major component of anti-imperialist movements across much of the Islamic world – their general appearance across time and space suggests that the current era is comparable to the earlier historical conjunctures of far-right mobilization in the late nineteenth century and inter-war periods. The varied forms of far-right have combined with their contrasting ideological dimensions, which has made the taxonomy of far-right something of an academic industry in itself. In particular, the far-right has come to be divided over its ‘post-fascist’ rhetorical commitment to (liberal) democracy as opposed to an authoritarian and demagogic populism and also between a neo-fascist commitment to a statist and protectionist model of capitalism and an embrace of much of the policy formulas of neo-liberalism by some strands of the contemporary far-right.

These developments raise a number of analytical and political questions. How distinct are these contemporary manifestations of the far-right compared to the previous historical forms of the far-right? How analytically useful is the concept of fascism in describing the generic far-right? What are the social bases of the far-right – past and present? Which methodological framework provides the most useful analytical tool to examine and understand the far-right? What of the relationship between the evolving dynamics of uneven capitalist development and geopolitical order on the determination of far-right movements – historical and contemporary?

The aim of this workshop is to promote an inter-disciplinary engagement with these issues through bringing together scholars from a range of different subject areas (IR, IPE, Geography, History, Sociology, Comparative Politics and Political Theory) to re-think the linkages between the historical, sociological and international dimensions of the far-right – as ideology, movement and state – over the longue durée from its emergence as a distinct and modern form of politics in the late nineteenth century to its more recent re-emergence in their intertwining local, national and international contexts.

Possible themes for consideration, but not limited to:

Comparative historical case studies of far-right movements and states

Analytical issues of comparisons and comparative methodologies

International relations of fascist state formation processes

Far-right movements in colonial and post-colonial contexts

Evolving class and social compositions of the far-right

Political economies of fascist states

Distinctions and relations between ideologies, movements and states

Geopolitical ordering and far-right movements and states – imperial, Cold War and post-Cold War eras

Capitalist development, uneven, combined or  otherwise and conjunctures of crisis on processes of far-right emergence, evolution and transformation

Geographical and spatial variations in the far-right – urban/rural, local/national, north/south

Aesthetic representations in architecture, art and culture

Racialized conceptions of space and territoriality in ideologies and state practices

 

Please send proposals (of no more than 500 words), along with biographical and institutional information to Rick Saull (r.g.saull@qmul.ac.uk) or Alex Anievas

(alexander.anievas@st-annes.ox.ac.uk) by June 4, 2012

 

**END**

 

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Glenn Rikowski’s MySpace Blog: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski/blog

Theory, Action and Impact of Social Protest: An Interdisciplinary Conference

Protest

THEORY, ACTION AND IMPACT OF SOCIAL PROTEST: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE

Call for Papers: Theory, Action and Impact of Social Protest: An Interdisciplinary Conference

University of Kent – Canterbury, UK, October 13-14th, 2012 
(Abstracts due by JUNE 15, 2012) 
For updates visit: http://taispconference.wordpress.com   

We are pleased to invite you to the 1st interdisciplinary social movements conference, sponsored by University of Kent’s Centre for the Study of Social and Political Movements, the School of Psychology, the ESRC South East DTC Advanced Training at SSPSSR, the Conflict Analysis Research Centre in the School of Politics & IR and the Kent Graduate School’s Postgraduate Experience Award.

Recently, social movements such as the Occupy movement, the Arab Spring and the Spanish Indignados have made headlines and grabbed the attention of power-holders and citizens. Historically, social movements have contributed to social, political and economic change. We wish to explore these elements at this conference with an interdisciplinary approach.

The conference will be held on the university campus on OCTOBER 13th-14th, 2012 with a Keynote Address by PROF. CHRISTOPHER ROOTES and PROF. DOMINIC ABRAMS of the University of Kent.

The aim is to explore the study of social movements with a variety of academic lenses and attempt to develop collaboration between disciplines on the study. We seek contributions for a broad range of disciplines and a mixture of disciplines including sociology, law, psychology, politics, economics, cultural studies, history, geography, philosophy, literature, and film studies. We hope to use this conference as a forum to bridge some of the gaps between the different disciplines and their work in the field of social movements.

We seek contributions from all scholars including postgraduate students. Proposals will be selected on their merit and in consideration of their academic discipline, with a preference to integrate a wide variety of fields.

We are open to themes such as:
- past and present collective actions
- social and political theory
- motivation, mobilization, or outcomes
- methodology
- macro- and micro-processes
- art in and from protest
- legal or economic implications and considerations
- other related topics

CALL FOR PAPERS

To offer a paper, please submit a short [300-500 words] proposal to: 
Eugene Nulman
School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research (SSPSSR)
Cornwallis North East
University of Kent
Canterbury
Kent CT2 7NF
EMAIL: e.nulman@kent.ac.uk

There is a registration fee of £10 for participants and attendees. Registration for post-graduate participants is free thanks to contributions made by the School of Psychology.

CONFERENCE PAPERS

Those giving papers are asked to supply them in advance. If selected, your paper will appear in the first edition of the online Journal for the Study of Social and Political Movements. Papers should be between 3,000 to 6,000 words in length.

For updates visit: http://taispconference.wordpress.com

 

**END**

 

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

World Conference on Psychology and Sociology

Perge

WORLD CONFERENCE ON PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY

WORLD CONFERENCE ON PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY

PSY-SOC-2012

28 November -01 December 2012

Queen Elizabeth Elite Suite Hotel & Spa, Antalya, Turkey
 

You are invited to submit your proposals for the World Conference on Psychology and Sociology that will take place at the Queen Elizabeth Elite Suite Hotel & Spa in Antalya, Turkey from 28 November to 1 December 2012.

There have been special arrangements with the Queen Elizabeth Elite Suites Hotel for conference delegates. Why not combine a holiday with your family while you attend the conference? Prices for “all inclusive” food and accommodation start from 35 € (all meals, soft and alcoholic beverages will be free and unlimited), with children being free.

I look forward to seeing you in the historical and holiday city of Antalya in Turkey. 

Kind regards

Professor Dr. Kobus Maree,  President of the Conference

Abstract submissions due: June 30, 2012.

Start here to submit abstracts to this conference: Step one of the submIssIon process

For more information please visit the conference official web site: www.psysoc.net
 

IN COLLABORATION WITH:

Manchester Metropolitan University

Pretoria University

John Hopkins University

Hacettepe University

Bahcesehir University

Gazi University

Turkish Informatics Association

Elsevier Publication LTD.

ScienceDirect

PUBLICATION OF THE PAPERS

All accepted papers of the conference will be published in Procedia-Social and Behavioral Journal (ISSN: 1877-0428) by ELSEVIER and will be indexed ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Thomson Reuters Conference Proceedings Citation Index (ISI Web of Science).

All proposals will be subjected to peer-reviews. Selected papers from the conference will be considered for extended version publication in the supporting journals. 
TYPES OF SUBMISSIONS:

All submissions are subject to a peer-review process.

Full and Short Papers

Reflection Papers

Posters/Demonstrations

Exhibits

Tutorials

Panels

Roundtables

Workshop

Virtual Presentation

Product/Services Presentations

TOPICS:

Topics for Sociology Proposals Submission

Child, Youth and Old Age 

Communication and Art

Culture and Changes

Deviance and Social Control

Economy and Development

Education

Ethnic Relations, Human Rights and the Collective Good     

Gender and Human Rights

Identity, Image and Social Cohesion

Localization and Globalization

Organizations, Professions and Work

Political Sociology and Law Issues

Social Security and Public Health

Sociology of Population and Migration

Sociology of Religion, Collective Behavior and Social Movements

Theoretical, Comparative and Historical Studies

Topics for Psychology Proposals Submission

Animal Behaviors

Attention and Perception

Clinical Psychology

Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience

Community Psychology 

Cultural Psychology

Development Psychology

Disaster, Crisis and Trauma Psychology 

Educational Psychology

Emotion and Motivation 

Environmental Psychology 

Health Psychology

History of Psychology

Industrial / Organizational Psychology 

Language,Readingand Communication

Learning and Memory

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Concerns

Life Span Psychology

Peace and Conflict, Human Rights and Psychology 

Personality and Individual Differences  

Professional Issues within Psychology

Psychology and Law 

Qualitative Research Methods and Interpretations

Quantitative Research Methods and Statistics

Risk and Safety Psychology, Incl. Traffic Psychology

Sensory and Motor Processes

Social and Political Issues in Psychology

Social Psychology

Sports Psychology 

Tests and Testing 

Theory of Psychology

Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making

ACCOMMODATION

We were special agreement with the Hotel for the conference participants only. The all-inclusive room rate (per person); triple 35 Euro, Double 35 Euro and single 48 Euro. For more information please visit the conference official web site:  www.psysoc.net. if you make hotel reservation, historical places tour is free for you in 01 December 2011 (Perge, Aspendos & Side). For more information: www.psysoc.net/tours.htm

Deadlines & Important Dates:

Abstract Submissions*: June 30, 2012

Full Paper Submissions: September 30, 2012

Early Hotel Reservation: October 15, 2012

Early Registration: October 15, 2012

Last Hotel Reservation: April 25, 2012

Conference Dates:November 28 – December 01, 2012

Camera-ready for Elsevier: December 15, 2012

* After the submission date, the authors of abstracts will be notified in four (4) day.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

The abstracts can be one-page long (200-300 words). The abstract include Problem Statement, Purpose of Study, Methods, Findings and Results, and Conclusions and Recommendations (These elements may need some adaptation in the case of discussion papers: Background, Purpose of Study, Sources of Evidence, Main Argument, and Conclusions). Please note that some elements are optional in abstracts.

Start here to submit abstracts to this conference: Step one of the submIssIon process

VIRTUAL PARTICIPATION

Researchers who are unable to resolve the funding issue concerning the conference expenses will be provided with an alternative approach for participation, namely, Virtual Online Presentation. Those who would like to make their presentations online from their home countries will also be awarded with a certificate and their papers will be considered for publications similar to other participants as if they were present physically. Those who would like to make use of the Virtual Online Presentation facility will be requested to send their virtual posters or other soft copy materials such as power point presentations to the secretariat. In addition, these participants who would prefer to make use of the Virtual Online Presentation facility may also contribute to the conference through video conferencing.

WEATHER

The winter is mild and rainy inAntalya. Nearly 300 days of the year is sunny and one can swim from April to November. InAntalyain day time, the average weather at the end of the November is high 24°C and low 16°C.

TRAVEL AND VISA

The direct and regular flights are available to Antalyafrom most of the countries of the world in April. You can find concerned flight companies’ names from the web-site of Antalya International Airport (AYT). http://www.antaliaairport.com/en/index.asp . Some countries citizens will need a visa for Turkey which can be easily obtained directly from the immigration office in Istanbul Airport. Please visit Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs guide for visa information www.e-konsolosluk.net/Visa/Visa_Welcome.aspx.  

We will provide you FREE transfer services from the Antalya Airport– Hotel – Antalya Airport transfer.

PERGE, ASPENDOS & SIDE TOUR (December 01, 2012)

PERGE

Perge was one of the important cities in antiquity. The founding of the city varies depending on the sources. The inscriptions found in the Hellenistic gate refer to Calchas and Mopsus (from the Trojan Wars) and M. Plancius Varus and C. Plancius Varus, father and brother of Plancia Magna, from the 2nd century AD as well. Hittite records mention the name along with the river Cestros as Parha, which means that the city was already large and must have been founded before. It has benefited from the navigable Cestros (modern Aksu) river even though it is some 12 km inland. Perge has two famous women benefactors. Plancia Magna of the 2nd century AD and Prof. Jale Inan. The previous one helped building the city and the latter one uncovered it for us to see it. The theater is the first building that meets us. Unfortunately it is under restoration. The stadium which is one of the best preserved inTurkey, is next. After the Roman gate we are in the grandeur 2nd century Roman city of Perge with its monumental nymphaeums, the Roman bath, and the Hellenistic gate (renovated in the Roman times as an honorary hall with the statues of the founders of the city). After the Hellenistic gate, you may walk the splendid colonnaded Cardo of Perge with artificial waterfalls all along the street to the foot of the acropolis. The Agora can be visited on the way back.

ASPENDOS-BELKIS 

The city was originally built on the, then navigable river Eurymedon, on the mountain where the acropolis is today. The oldest name of the city we know; Asiawanda (the land of the horses) in the old local Anatolian languages is now very famous for its most intact 2nd C AD Roman Theater and the aqueducts which are a rare feat of engineering. The Theater was built by Zenon one of the most famous architects of the time in the 2nd century AD. It is known as the best preserved Roman Theater with very good acoustics with a capacity of 15,000 spectators. It is known to hold 20 000 people nowadays when there are concerts by nationally and internationally famous orchestras of classical music and singers. There are concerts, plays and other entertainments through out the tourist season. It was used as a church during the Byzantine times and as a palace during the Seljuk’s reign. Other than the lack of decorative statues, etc. of the stage building, it is in perfect condition. The water was brought to the city from the mountains through tunnels and over the aqueducts. The aqueducts that bring water to Aspendos are a great feat of engineering, very rare of its kind. The aqueducts cross a marsh of almost one kilometer by piping made of stone fittings on lower aqueducts. The towers of 30m height are used to change the direction of the piping and also for the siphoning system.

 
SIDE 

She has existed at least since 1400 BC and has still kept her original name Side, which means pomegranate in the old Anatolian Sidetan language. This is provided by the coins from the 6thCBCand three records from 3rdCBC. This language has not been deciphered yet two of the only three records found are bilingual. This language was in use until after the invasion of Alexander the Great around 333 BC, when ‘koione’ the common dialect of Greek was used. Side is unique in many ways. It still offers the small sweet Anatolian fisherman town atmosphere despite the flood of tourism. The long, fine, sandy beaches are also worth mentioning. The city was built on a flat peninsula instead of a mountain acropolis, for defense, like Perge, Sillyum and Aspendos. Instead the peninsula is walled on both the land and the sea all around. The first buildings that meets you are the aqueducts, bringing water from 32km from the mountains. The monumental nymphaeum is the next. The colonnaded main street with shops and houses on both sides take you to the inner city. The Roman bath which is restored as a museum is on the right near the monumental Roman gate.The theater, the largest in Pamphylia, is built on flat land instead of resting on a slope. It rests on a multi-story sloped arches, 17m high, and is a true wonder of Roman engineering. The stage building is higher, 21m. The adjacent buildings of the extensive agora and thetempleofTykeand fine public toilets within are closed to visitors for the time being. The Temple of Apollo and Athena have some columns that and have been restored on the beach near the harbour are the symbol of Side. The Byzantian Basilicas, the Temple of Man and the Bibliotect are a few of the other buildings.

ANTALYA SHOPPING-OLD CITY & MUSEUMS TOUR (EVERYDAY)

Start here to submit abstracts to this conference
Step one of the submIssIon process

For more information please visit the conference official web site: www.psysoc.net   

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

Posthegemony and Method

POSTHEGEMONY AND METHOD
“POSTHEGEMONY” AND METHOD: A POSTGRADUATE WORKSHOP WITH DR JON BEASLEY-MURRAY
12 May 2012
Culture Lab
Newcastle University
Organiser: Dr Matt Davies (matt.davies@ncl.ac.uk)

The core concept at the foundation of Cultural Studies was “hegemony.” In the wake of the rebellions of the 1960s, as political and economic systems in both the developed core and the developing periphery appeared to be more stable than expected or as reactionary regimes settled in, theorists and observers in various disciplinary idioms set out to examine the persistent ideational basis for liberal political and economic systems. These thinkers found in the concept of hegemony a powerful notion that confirmed much of what they had suspected. The idea was taken up not only in Cultural Studies proper, but also in disciplines across the Humanities and Social Sciences: in Politics and in International Relations, in Literature and Linguistics,  in Film and Television, in Geography, in Sociology, in Development Economics.

But what theoretical work does the concept of hegemony do? What conception of politics does it presuppose, and what conception of culture? Is the concept tied, ontologically, to particular kinds of political and social formations? Given that hegemony describes particular structures and ways of knowing, what are its epistemological underpinnings? And, crucially given its multi-disciplinary applications, what are the methodological implications of hegemony?

This one-day workshop for postgraduates in the North East Doctoral Training Centre will explore these questions through dialogues between our postgraduate research students and Dr Jon Beasley-Murray, author of the 2010 ground-breaking critique of cultural studies, Posthegemony: Political Theory and Latin America (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press).

Contributors to the workshop will participate in roundtable discussions with Dr Beasley-Murray and members of Newcastle University’s academic staff. Doctoral students will be asked to familiarize themselves with the arguments from Posthegemony and to prepare very short statements (maximum two sides of A4) regarding problems of method, problems with regard to hegemony, and/or problems regarding inter-disciplinarity for circulation at the workshop. These will be the basis for the day’s discussions.

Jon Beasley-Murray is a Visiting Fellow at Newcastle University, thanks to a generous grant from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. His home institution is the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, where he lectures in Latin American Studies. He has published widely on Latin American culture and politics and on contemporary political theory and philosophy. He has made some interesting contributions to Wikipedia (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jbmurray), and he blogs at: http://posthegemony.blogspot.co.uk/.

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

BSA Medical Sociology Group Annual Conference 2012 – Final Call for Papers

Medical Sociology

BSA MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY GROUP ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2012 – FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS

British Sociological Association

MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY GROUP

ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2012

Final Call for Papers

Wednesday 5th – Friday 7th September 2012

University of Leicester

 We look forward to welcoming you to our 44th Annual Conference.

 We are pleased to announce Kathy Charmaz, Sonoma State University, San Franciscoand David Armstrong, King’s College London have agreed to be our plenary speakers at the 2012 conference.

Papers, posters and other forms of presentation will be structured around streams that include:

1.       Cancer

2.       Citizenship and health

3.       Complementary and alternative medicines

4.       Critical public health

5.       Embodiment and emotion

6.       Ethics

7.       Ethnicity

8.       Experiences of health and illness

9.       Evidence

10.   Gender

11.   Health policy

12.   Health service delivery

13.   Health care organisation

14.   Screening and diagnosis

15.   STS and medicine

16.   Individual, collective and global risk

17.   Inequalities

18.   Life course – reproductive health: chronic conditions: ageing; death and dying

19.   Mental health

20.   Methods

21.   Patient – professional interaction

22.   Pharmaceuticals

23.   Politics of health

24.   Professions

25.   Theory

26.    Open

 

We welcome abstract submissions for oral presentations, poster presentations and symposia/special events

Further details and abstract submission form available from: www.britsoc.co.uk/events/medsoc and events@britsoc.org.uk

The abstract submission deadline is 20th April 2012.

Abstracts received after this date will not be considered.

**END**

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Ninth Annual Social Theory Forum

Social Movements

THE NINTH ANNUAL SOCIAL THEORY FORUM

April 18^th and 19^th 2012

The Campus of the University of Massachusetts Boston

100 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, MA 02125-3393, Tel: 617-287-5000

Conflict, Social Movements, and Social Change: Theory and Practice

Final Program

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2012

8:30-9:25 – REGISTRATION AND BREAKFAST (Ryan Lounge, Third Floor of the McCormack Hall, Third Floor of the McCormack Hall )

9:25-9:30 – Opening the Conference     

Siamak Movahedi, Jorge Capetillo, Glenn Jacobs, & Darren Kew, the Conference Moderators

9:30-10: OPENING STATEMENTS

(Ryan Lounge, Third Floor of the McCormack Hall)

Winston Langley, Provost & Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Professor of Political Science and International Relations, University of Massachusetts Boston

10:00-10:45:  Distinguished Lectures

(Ryan Lounge, Third Floor of the McCormack Hall)

Lauren Langman, Loyola University of Chicago, and

Valentine Moghadam, Northeastern University

 

From Tahrir Square to Zucotti Park and Beyond

 

11:00-12:30 Block

Session 1: Global Perspectives on the Occupy Movements

(Ryan Lounge, Third Floor of the McCormack Hall)

Langman, Lauren, Loyola University of Chicago and

Lundskow, George, Grand Valley State University

Down The Rabbit Hole to a Tea Party

Mutisi, Martha , African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)

Structures of Reconciliation: the Organ of National Healing in Zimbabwe.

Hagerty, Talia, University of Massachusetts, Boston

‘This is What Democracy Looks Like’: Strategic Nonviolent Conflict and the Case of Occupy Wall Street

Jeyapal, Daphne, University of Toronto

Space, race and the protest of others

Callahan, Mary-Jo, Central Connecticut State University

From Chiapas to New York: The Zapatista Influence on the Occupy Movement

 

Moderator: Jorge Capetillo-Ponce, Sociology, University of Massachusetts

Session 2: Conflict Resolution and Social Movement Theory

(Harbor Art Gallery, First Floor of the McCormack Hall)

Jarul, Tufail, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi-India

Kashmir Conflict and its Impact on the Seasonal Movement of the Bakarwal tribe and its future in the Valley of Kashmir

Kriesberg,  Louis, Syracuse University

Burdick, Samuel John, Syracuse University

Roy, Beth, University of California, Berkeley

Struggling on the Street and at the Table: How Social Action and Civil Dialogue can work together.

Stein, Andrew, The Lacanian group Apres Coup in New York City

Occupy Wall Street: Politics As Usual Or Social Justice Event?

Charles W Ogg, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Applying Relational Analysis to Labor as a Social Movement: The Sleeping Beast Awakes in Wisconsin.

 

Session 3: The Politics of Funding and the Pursuit of Social Justice

(Sociology Conference Room, Wheatley 4^th floor, room 22-23)

Diane Swords, Elizabeth Mount, Anya Stanger, Syracuse University

12:30-1:30 Lunch

 

1:30-2:20:  Distinguished Lecture

(Ryan Lounge, Third Floor of the McCormack Hall)

Louis Kriesberg, Maxwell School, Syracuse University

 

2:30-4: Block

Session 4: The Arab Spring Movements: Where are they now and where are they going?

(Ryan Lounge, Third Floor of the McCormack Hall)

 

Leila Farsakh, University of Massachusetts Boston (Moderator)

Lina Khatib, Program Manager for the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy, Stanford University,

Tarek Masoud, Harvard University

Stuart Krusell, Associate Director, Office of External Relations, MIT

Session 5: Minority, Immigrant, and Gender Movements

(Harbor Art Gallery, First Floor of the McCormack Hall)

Zulfiqar, Ghazal, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Microfinance and the Promise of Social Change inSouth Asia

Dao, Loan, University of Massachusetts Boston

‘American Accent’: Counter-hegemonic Narratives of Undocumented and Non-citizen Asian (American) Youth

 

Jorge Capetillo-Ponce and Cedric Woods, University of Massachusetts at Boston

Latino/a or Native American?Changing Patterns of Collective Identification Among the Maya K’iche in the United States

Ahmad, Shabab, CUHP, Dharamsala H.P. India

Minority Status- Saga of Dispute: A Critical Review

Nair, Rashmi, Clark University, and

Johanna ay Vollhardt, Clark University

Solidarity between minority groups-voices from social movements in India

 

Moderator: Lorna Rivera, Women’s Studies,University of Massachusetts

Session 6: Nationalism, Autonomy, and Separatism

(Sociology Conference Room, Fourth Floor of Wheatley Hall   )

Subedi, Anand Prasad, University of Nepal

Conflict Affected Internally Displaced Families in Nepal: A Special Reference to (1996-2006) Decade Long Maoist Insurgency

Ozugurlu, Sonay Bayramoglu,Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.

Keskin, Nuray Erturk, Ondokuz Mayis University, Samsun, Turkey.

Local and Regional self government? / Autonomy? A Study on the Turkish Case

Obeni, Ehioboh Sonia,

The Unifying Role of English in a Multicultural nation: The Case of Nigeria

4:30-6:30 Block

Session 7: Social Theory

(Ryan Lounge, Third Floor of the McCormack Hall)

 

Kozlarek, Oliver, Universidad de Michoacán, Mexico

The Humanist Turn: a Comparative Critque of Dehumanization

 

Solis-Gadea, Héctor Raúl, Universidad de Guadalajara, México

The Challenges of Social Theory in the Twenty First Century

Margarita Palacios, Birkbeck College, Germany

Hermeneutics and the Art of Disobedience: A critical reading of Ricoeur and Derrida

Arai, Tatsushi, School for International Training (SIT)

Toward Functional Coexistence: Peace building in the Context of Mutual Non-Recognition

D’Arcy, Michael, UC Berkeley – UC San Francisco

Shahid and the Mnay Struggles: Translating the Revolution and the Witness-as-Word

Moderator: Jorge Capetillo-Ponce, Sociology, University of Massachusetts

Session 8: Comparative Social Movements

(Harbor Art Gallery, First Floor of the McCormack Hall)

Galanes Luis, University of Puerto Rico at Cayey

Contemporary Social Movements: Lessons from theCaribbean

Muñoz-PROTO, Caolina, The Graduate center, CUNY and

Opotow, Susan, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Justice, Activity and Narrative: Studying the World March for Peace and Nonviolence

Awodola, Bosede, Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution-Abuja-Nigeria

Social Movements and 2011 General Election in Nigeria: Case Study of Neighbor 2 Neighbor

Agarwal Ankit, University of Pune, India

The Fade out of 2011 Indian Corruption Movement

7:00-Dinner

Location: TBA

THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2012

8:00-9:00 – REGISTRATION AND BREAKFAST (Ryan Lounge, Third Floor of the McCormack Hall, Third Floor of the McCormack Hall)

 

9:00-10:30 Block

 

Session 9: Digital Democracy, Social Media, and Movements I

(Ryan Lounge, Third Floor of the McCormack Hall)

Ogenga, Frederic, Maseno University-Kenya

Is Peace Journalism in the ‘war’ against terror? The Daily Nation and the East African Standard representation of Operation Linda Nchi in Somalia

Oravec, Jo Ann, University of Wisconsin at Whitewater

The Protest Culture of the Midwest: Comparison of Pre-Internet and Internet-Enabled Imagery and Organizational Strategies

Rastogi, Divyanshu & Gupta, Gazal

Social Media and Its Usage Trends: A Socio-cultural Perspective

Session 10: Digital Democracy, Social Media, and Movements II

(Sociology Conference Room, Wheatley 4^th. Floor, Room 22-23)

Clark, James,York University Toronto, Canada

‘Cyber Utopia’ readings of the Arab Spring: A neoliberal and pro-war fantasy

Mutisi, Martha, African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)

Countering State Repression through Digital Democracy: The Role of Electronic Media in Social Movements in Zimbabwe

Heisler, Jay, Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada

Nonviolent Propaganda: Examples from Burma and Iran

Session 11: Labor, Civil Society and Culture

(Harbor Art Gallery, First Floor of the McCormack Hall)

League, Panagiotis, Hellenic College

Rewriting Unwritten History: Nationalism, Folklore, and the Ban of the Cretan Violin

Dorsey, James, Nanyang Technological University-Singapore

Soccer as an Engine of Change and Assertion of Identity

Tucker, Terry, Middlebury College,Vermont

The Book of Mozilla in Conflict Resolution

Usman, Mohammed and Ibrahim Badamasi,  Babangida University, Lapai -Nigeria

Religious Revivalism, Boko Haram and the Nigerian Society

Singh, Harneet, Gulati, Ashish, Kumar, Duru Arun, & Netaji Subhas, Institute of Technology, Dwarka,New Delhi, India

Plight of Contract Labor in a Liberalizing Economy – An Indian Experience

10:40-12:10 Block

Session 12: Anti-Hegemonic Social Movements

(Ryan Lounge, Third Floor of the McCormack Hall)

Binkley, Sam, Emerson College (Moderator)

Social Movements and the Government of Intimacy: Expertise and the Intensification of Emotional Reciprocity.

Desai, Chandni, Institute for Studies in Education Center: Center for Urban Schooling, Ontario

Supression of Social Movements: Challenges to the Road Map to Peace.

Feng, Wen, Beijing University, China

Right against power: collective action of medical professionals in China.

Di, Jin Di, University of Saskatchewan-Canada

Institutional Change and earnings of migrants and non-migrants in urban China

 

Session 13:  Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, and Torture

(Harbor Ar tGallery, First Floor of the McCormack Hall)

Aryal, Sanjaya, Mahidol University, Bangkok-Thailand

Transition without Justice: Flourishing Impunity in Nepal.

Soldz, Stephen, Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis

Opposing Psychologist Complicity in Torture

Bhoi, Dhaneswar, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India

Issues of Atrocity Against the Dalits: A Study of Students.

Mutisi, Martha, African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)

Dealing with the aftermath of genocide through the Concept of Abanyarwanda: A Case of ‘Ethic Amnesia’ in Rwanda?

 

Moderator: Siamak Movahedi, Sociology, University of Massachusetts

 

12:10-1:40 Lunch

 

1:40-2:30:  Distinguished Lecture

(Ryan Lounge, Third Floor of the McCormack Hall)

Donald L. Carveth

Professor of Sociology and Social & Political Thought, York University

Training and Supervising Analyst Canadian Institute of Psychoanalysis

Director Toronto Institute of Psychoanalysis

“A Civil War in Every Soul”: Progress and Regress in the Struggle for Modernity

2:30- 4:00 Block

Session 14: Sustainability and Environmental Movements

(Ryan Lounge, Third Floor of the McCormack Hall)

Allen, Fidelis, University of Kwa Zulu-Natal, South Africa

Issues, Strategies and Achievements of Environmental Advocacy Groups in South Africa and Nigeria

Gecker, Whitney, University of Massachusetts-Boston

Kromash, Kevin, Yale University

Food for Thought: Using Habermas to Analyze the Marketing of Food in the U.S. 

Medina, Fernando Campos, GSBC Graduate School Human Behaviour in Social and Economic Change

The de-politicization of the socio-ecological conflict in Chile, When the pollution and the sustainability prevent to observe the human injustice

Dainius, Genys, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas-Lithuania

The role of social conflict in civil society boundaries formation in the Baltic States

4:00-5:00 Block

Occupy Boston Documentary, Emerson College

Directed by John Forrester

(Ryan Lounge, Third Floor of the McCormack Hall)

 

Program & Registration details: http://www.umb.edu/news_events_media/events/the_ninth_annual_social_theory_forum 

 

**END**

 

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

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

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Europe in Crisis

Eurozone Crisis

EUROPE IN CRISIS

PERG Workshop – Europe in Crisis

Thursday, 19 April, 9.30 -17.00

JG 1008 (John Galsworthy building), Kingston University, Penrhyn Road

Europeis in a crisis. An international financial crisis has laid bare the fundamental flaws in the construction of the European economic policy regime. Monetary integration without fiscal and social integration has not only resulted in a mediocre economic performance, falling wage share and persistent imbalances, but has also left the peripheral countries without protection against the crisis. Rather than using fiscal policy to counteract a Great Depression in the European South, fiscal policies are firmly put into austerity mode. If the subprime financial crisis was not sufficient to lead to a new Great Depression, austerity might do so. The workshop will discuss the causes of the crisis in Europe, the present economic policy and strategies to deal with the crisis, and progressive alternatives forEurope.

9.00 Registration and coffee

9.30 Introduction

10.00-12.00 Roots of the crisis

-         E. Stockhammer, Kingston University: Rebalancing the Euro area: inflationary or depressive

-         D. Gabor, University of West England: The Missing Link: European bank funding strategies and ECB’s crisis policies

-         J. Grahl, Middlesex University: The First European Semester: an incoherent strategy.

12.00-13.20 Lunch

13.20 -15.20 EU Economic Policy

-         T van Treeck, IMK: Reducing Economic Imbalances in the Euro Area: Some Remarks on the Current Stability Programs

-         J Weeks, SOAS: Crisis Scams in Italy, Spain and the UK: Triumph of Ideology over Reality

-         T. Evans, Berlin School of Economics and Law: The crisis in the euro area

15.40-17.00 Progressive strategies for Europe

-         D. Sotiropoulos, Kingston University: The fundamental problem of Euro zone and the problem with ‘fundamentals’: an alternative (Marxian) approach to European economic policy context

-         R. Hyman, LSE, and R. Gumbrell-McCormick, Birkbeck: European Trade Unions: Responses to the Crisis

 

Political Economy Research Group (PERG)

The Political Economy approach highlights the role of effective demand, institutions and social conflict in economic analysis and thereby builds on Austrian, Institutionalist, Keynesian and Marxist traditions. Economic processes are perceived to be embedded in social relations that must be analysed in the context of historical considerations, power relations and social norms. As a consequence, a broad range of methodological approaches is employed, and cooperation with other disciplines, including history, law, sociology and other social sciences, is necessary. (http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/research/perg )

MA Economics (Political Economy) at Kingston University

http://www.kingston.ac.uk/postgraduate/booklets/FASS/political-economy-MA.pdf

MA Politics, Philosophy, Economics at Kingston University

http://www.kingston.ac.uk/postgraduate/booklets/FASS/PoliticsPhilosophyEconomics.pdf

 

**END**

 

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

 

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

The American Road to Capitalism – by Charles Post

Capitalism

THE AMERICAN ROAD TO CAPITALISM – BY CHARLES POST

Wednesday, 11 April 2012, 5:30 – 7:00 PM

@ University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way (between Telegraph and Dana), Berkeley, CA  

Charles Post speaks on his new book:

The American Road to Capitalism: Studies in Class Structure, Economic Development and Political Conflict, 1620-1877

Shortlisted for the 2011 Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize

“Charles Post’s new book, The American Road to Capitalism,is sure to become a reference point for debates among historians and Marxists about the transformation of the English colonies into the fully developed capitalist United States. [...] it should be widely read, appreciated for its insights and rigor, and also debated.” — Ashley Smith, International Socialist Review

“This is a thoughtful, learned, stimulating, challenging and altogether valuable volume. It reprints a series of reflections by the Marxist sociologist Charles Post on various aspects of the rise and evolution of capitalism in North America between the colonial era and the late 19th century. The book is anchored in a wide-ranging study of (and it duly credits) the work of generations of historians.” — Bruce Levine, author of Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War, in Against the Current

“Explaining the origin and early development of American capitalism is a particularly challenging task. It is in some ways even more difficult than in other cases to strike the right historical balance, capturing the systemic imperatives of capitalism, and explaining how they emerged, while doing justice to historical particularities – To confront these historical complexities requires both a command of historical detail and a clear theoretical grasp of capitalism’s systemic imperatives, a combination that is all too rare. Charles Post succeeds in striking that difficult balance, which makes his book a major contribution to truly historical scholarship.” — Ellen Meiksins-Wood, York University, author of The Origins of Capitalism: A Long View.

Unable to analyze the dynamics of specific forms of social labour in the antebellum U.S., most historians of the US Civil War have ignored its deep social roots. To search out these roots, Post applies the theoretical insights from the transition debates to the historical literature on the U.S.to produce a new analysis of the origins of American capitalism.

Charles Post Ph. D. (1983) in Sociology, SUNY-Binghamton, is Professor of Sociology at Borough of Manhattan Community College-CUNY. He has published in New Left Review, Journal of Peasant Studies, Journal of Agrarian Change, Against the Current and Historical Materialism.

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Workers, Despite Themselves

Work

WORKERS, DESPITE THEMSELVES

Call for Oapers for an ephemera issue on: ‘Workers, Despite Themselves’
Issue Editors: Stevphen Shukaitis and Abe Walker

Deadline for submissions: November 30th, 2012.

Workers’ inquiry is an approach to and practice of knowledge production that seeks to understand the changing composition of labor and its potential for revolutionary social transformation. It is the practice of turning the tools of the social sciences into weapons of class struggle. Workers’ inquiry seeks to map the continuing imposition of the class relation, not as a disinterested investigation, but rather to deepen and intensify social and political antagonisms.

The autonomist political theorist Mario Tronti argues that weapons for working class revolt have always been taken from the bosses’ arsenal (1966: 18). But, has not it often been suggested, to use feminist writer Audre Lorde’s phrasing (1984), that it is not possible to take apart the master’s house with the master’s tools? While not forgetting Lorde’s question, it is clear that Tronti said this with good reason, for he was writing from a context where this is precisely what was taking place. Italian autonomous politics greatly benefited from borrowing from sociology and industrial relations – and by using these tools proceeded to build massive cycles of struggle transforming the grounds of politics (Wright, 2003; Berardi, 2009).

Of these adaptations the most important for autonomist politics and class composition analysis is workers’ inquiry. Workers’ inquiry developed in a context marked by rapid industrialization, mass migration, and the use industrial sociology to discipline the working class. Workers’ inquiry was formulated within autonomist movements as a sort of parallel sociology, one based on a radical re-reading of Marx (and Weber) against the politics of the communist party and the unions (Farris, 2011). While the practitioners of workers’ inquiry were often professionally-trained academics – especially sociologists – its proponents argued their research differs in important ways from ‘engaged’ social science, and all varieties of industrial sociology, even if it there are similarities. If bourgeois sociology sought to smooth over conflicts, and ‘critical’ sociology to expose these same conflicts, workers’ inquiry takes the contradictions of the labor process as a starting point and seeks to draw out these antagonisms into the formation of new radical subjectivities.

This is not to say that workers’ inquiry is an unproblematic endeavor. We remain skeptical that the weapons of managerial control can be cleanly re-appropriated without reproducing the very social world they were designed to take apart. For as Steve Wright argues, “the uncritical use of such tools has frequently produced a register of subjective perceptions which do no more than mirror the surface of capitalist social relations” (2003: 24). As the legacy of analytical Marxism reveals, imitation is never far removed from flattery, and at its worst moments, workers’ inquiry risks becoming its object of critique. To be fair there are disagreements among the proponents of workers’ inquiry over the limitations of drawing from the social sciences. But to continue the metaphor, like any potentially dangerous ‘weapon’, sociological techniques must be carefully examined, and when necessary, disabled.

Today we find ourselves at a moment when co-research, participatory action research, and other heterodox methods have been adopted by the academic mainstream, while managerial styles like TQM carry a faint echo of workers’ inquiry. In the contemporary firm workers are already engaged in self-monitoring, peer interviews, and the creation of quasi-autonomous ‘research’ units, all sanctioned by management (Boltankski and Chiapello, 2005). Workers’ inquiry is now part of the accepted social science repertoire: its techniques no longer seem dangerous, but familiar, at least at the methodological level. The bosses’ arsenal now includes weapons mimicking the style, if not the substance, of workers’ inquiry. And as George Steinmetz (2005) has suggested, while blatantly positivistic research styles have fallen out of favor, this obscures the ‘positivist unconscious’ that continues to interpellate even apparently anti-positivist methodologies.

The pioneers of workers’ inquiry argued researchers must work through/against the ambivalent relations of (social) science; now, there may be no other option. Wherever there are movements organizing and addressing the horrors of capitalist exploitation and oppression, the specter of recuperation is never far behind. The point is not to deny these risks, but to the degree such dynamics confront all social movements achieving any measure of success. It is by working against and through them that recomposing radical politics becomes possible (Shukaitis, 2009). Today workers’ inquiry remains, as Raniero Panzieri claimed (2006 [1959]), a permanent reference point for autonomist politics, one that informs continuing inquiries into class composition. With this issue we seek to rethink workers’ inquiry as a practice and perspective, and through that to understand and catalyze emergent moments of political composition.

Contributors
We invite papers that update the practices of workers’ inquiry for the present moment of class de-/recomposition. Can we develop, taking up Matteo Pasquinelli’s suggestion (2008: 138), a form of workers’ inquiry applied to cognitive and biopolitical production? The very possibility of a *workers* inquiry begs reconsideration when official unemployment figures drift toward 50% among sectors of the industrial working class.

This issue picks up themes that developed in previous issues of ephemera inquiring into affective and immaterial labor (2007), digital labor (2010), militant research (2005), and the politics of the multitude (2004). We encourage submissions that draw upon this previous work, particularly on the politics of social reproduction.

Recently, workers’ inquiry has proven its versatility through new applications and reconfigurations. Groups like Colectivo Situaciones (2011) and have used the practice of workers’ inquiry to analyze popular uprisings. Scholars have drawn from class composition analysis to explore areas such as cognitive labor (Brophy, 2011; Peters & Bulut, 2011), citizenship and migration (Papadopoulos et al, 2008; Barchiesi, 2011), and finance (Marazzi, 2008; Mezzadra and Fumagalli, 2010). Militant research collectives such as Kolinko (2002), Team Colors (2010), and the Precarious Workers Brigade (2011) have employed workers’ inquiry to intervene composition of social movements and labor politics.

We are particularly interested in research that expands and/or deconstructs the project of workers’ inquiry, or that transposes workers’ inquiry onto unconventional terrain such as archival research and cultural studies. Additionally, we encourage contributors to include a substantial reflection on method, possibly addressing some of the tensions outlined above and engaging with recent debates about method and measure.

Deadline for submissions: November 30th, 2012.

Please send your submissions to the editors. All contributions should follow ephemera guidelines – see http://www.ephemeraweb.org/journal/submit.htm. In addition to full papers, we also invite notes, reviews, and other kinds and media forms of contributions – please get in touch to discuss how you would like to contribute. We highly encourage authors to send us abstracts (of 500 words) outlining their plans. The ephemera conference in May 2013 will focus on a related theme, with contributors for this issue invited to present their work.

Contacts:
Stevphen Shukaitis: stevphen@autonomedia.org
Abe Walker: awalker@qc.cuny.edu
http://www.ephemeraweb.org/

We’re also interested in putting together a panel on this theme for the Historical Materialism conference in London in November (information here: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/conferences/annual9/call-for-papers), particularly with people who plan to submit a piece for this issue. If you are interested in this please contact Stevphen by April 20th.

References
Barchiesi, F. (2011) Precarious liberation: workers, the state, and contested social citizenship in postapartheid South Africa. Albany: SUNY Press.
Berardi, F. (2009) Precarious rhapsody: semiocapitalism and the pathologies of the post-alpha generation. London: Minor Compositions.
Boltanski, L. and E. Chiapello (2005) The new spirit of capitalism. London: Verso.
Brophy, E. (2011) “Language put to work: cognitive capitalism, call center labor, and workers inquiry,” Journal of Communication Inquiry. Volume 35 Number 4: 410-416.
Colectivo Situaciones (2011) 19&20: notes on a new social protagonism. Brooklyn / Wivenhoe: Minor Compositions.
Farris, S. (2011) “Workerism’s inimical incursions: on Mario Tronti’s Weberianism,” Historical Materialism Volume 19 Number 3: 29-62.
Kolinko (2002) Hotlines. Berlin: Kolinko. Available at www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/kolinko/lebuk/e_lebuk.htm
Lorde, A. (1984) “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house,” Sister outsider: essays and speeches. Berkeley: The Crossing Press: 110-114.
Marazzi, C. (2008) Capital & language: from new economy to war economy. New York: Semiotexte.
Mezzadra, S. and A. Fumagalli (Eds.) (2010) Crisis in the global economy: financial markets, social struggles, and new political scenarios. Los Angeles: Semiotexte.
Panzieri, R. (2006 [1959]) “Socialist uses of workers’ inquiry.” Available at http://www.generation-online.org/t/tpanzieri.htm.
Papadopoulos, D., N. Stephenson, and V. Tsianos (2008) Escape routes: control and subversion in the 21st century. London: Pluto Press.
Pasquinelli, M. (2008) Animal spirits: a bestiary of the commons. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers.
Peters, M. & E. Bulut, Eds. (2011) Cognitive capitalism, education and digital labor. New York: Peter Lang.
Precarious Workers Brigade (2011) Surviving internships: a counter guide to free labor in the arts. London: Hato Press.
Shukaitis, S. (2009) Imaginal machines: autonomy & self-organization in the revolutions of everyday life. Brooklyn: Autonomedia.
Steinmetz, G. (2005) “The genealogy of a positivist haunting: comparing pre-war and post-war U.S. sociology” boundary 2 Volume 32 Number 2: 109-135
Team Colors (Eds.) (2010) Uses of a whirlwind: movement, movements, and contemporary radical currents in the United States. Oakland: AK Press.
Tronti, M. (1966) Operai e capitale. Torino: Einaud.
Wright, S. (2003) Storming heaven: class composition and struggle in Italian autonomist marxism.London: Pluto Press.

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski