Festival of Dangerous Ideas

 

Lost Generation

FESTIVAL OF DANGEROUS IDEAS

Festival of Dangerous Ideas
Saturday, March 17, 10-5pm
Rich Mix, London E1 6LA

The old ideas are bust. Now is the time for the new, the marginalised, the road less travelled… dangerous ideas for dangerous times. 

Join key activists, commentators and cultural figures reflecting on a world in disarray and turmoil.

Bringing the spirit of revolution to Londonare Egyptian MP Nasr-Eddin al-Zoghbi and activist Marwa Farouk of the Socialist Renewal Current, an activist group in Cairo. They will be joined by John Rees, co-author of The People Demand, to discuss how to finish a revolution, and activists from Greece describing what it means to be at the frontline of Europe’s austerity project. BBC Economics editor Paul Mason, and author and recent Question Time panellist Owen Jones join subversive authors and activists Nina Power and Sanum Ghafoor to discuss the radical ideas needed to confront the bleak landscape of austerity Britain. Paul Mason also joins Sanum Ghafoor and Lindsey German to discuss why it’s kicking off everywhere. Situationist adbuster Rob Montgomery, graffiti politician Stik and Palestinian poet Rafeef Ziadah will speak and perform. TV archaeologist Neil Faulkner will be presenting a brief history of the world. Sam Duckworth of Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. runs a workshop on the perils of political songwriting. He will perform after Tony Benn and Roy Bailey do their sell out Writing on the Wall show and Mark McGowan brings us the latest thoughts of the Artist Taxi Driver. There will also be live performances from Pandit G of Asian Dub Foundation and Sam Duckworth of Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. The Rich Mix bar and club will be serving until 1am.

Festival organiser Clare Solomon describes the day as a ‘’fun-packed and informative day using music, multimedia and a variety of interesting formats including a ‘tweet-out’, Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, lunchtime comedy from Josie Long, a guerrilla film workshop, an exclusive ‘free shop’, live graffiti walls and much more…”

Book now online or phone 0207 613 7498 as tickets are selling fast and space is limited. Tickets are £10/£5 concessions: http://www.richmix.org.uk/whats-on/event/the-festival-of-dangerous-ideas/

The event is organised jointly by Counterfire, ISG, Verso and the Rich Mix.

**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales)  

‘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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

Origins of the Current Crisis: Consequences and Political Alternatives

Crisis Sublime

ORIGINS OF THE CURRENT CRISIS: CONSEQUENCES AND POLITICAL ALTERNATIVES

Two-day seminar in Helsinkiand Tampere:

with

Professor Alex Demirović, Berlin, and Professor Andrew Kliman, New York.

PART I

Wednesday 29.2.2012 at 4.15 pm. at the University of Tampere, Linna Building, Väinö Linna Hall, Kalevantie 5, Tampere

Origins of the Current Crises

Opening words: Antti Ronkainen

PART II

Thursday 1.3.2012 at 3.15 pm. at the House of Science and Letters, Lecture Hall 505, Kirkkokatu 6, Helsinki

Consequences and Political Alternatives

Opening words: Juha Koivisto

The seminar is organized by the Finnish Karl Marx Society, the Finnish Society for Marxist Social Science, the School of Social Sciences and Humanities and School of Communication, Media and Theatre, University of Tampere.

**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

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

Philosopher Kings?

Heraclitus

PHILOSOPHER KINGS?

HOW PHILOSOPHY INFORMS REAL POLITICS TODAY

A new series of 5 weekly lectures by major practicing politicians, in May – June 2012, on Thursday evenings. With responses from leading political philosophers. Held in Lecture Theatre 2, University of East Anglia, Norwich

Free admission: All welcome. [Please note: starting-times of talks vary.]

 

May 10: 5.15pm  Jon Cruddas MP, “The good society”.

Response by Dr. Liz McKinnell, Philosophy, UEA

 

May 17: 6pm  Lord Maurice Glasman, “Labour ideology”.                 

Response by Professor Alan Finlayson, Political, Social and International Studies , UEA

 

May 24: 6pm  David Willetts MP, title tba.

Response by Dr. Alex Brown, Political, Social and International Studies, UEA.

 

May 31: 7.30pm (time tbc)  A major Green speaker, tbc.

Response by Dr. Rupert Read, Philosophy, UEA.

 

June 7: 6pm  Baroness Ros Scott, “Localism”.

Response by Professor Molly Scott-Cato, Roehampton Institute. 

 

For further information, contact: Series organiser Rupert Read: r.read@ uea.ac.uk  01603 592079

**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

‘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

Exploding the Myths of Capitalism: U.S. Marxist-Humanists

Raya Dunayevskaya

EXPLODING THE MYTHS OF CAPITALISM: U.S. MARXIST-HUMANISTS

You are invited to attend a series of open discussions on…

Exploding the Myths of Capitalism

First & Third Wednesdays, March & April

6:30-9.00 pm

@ChicagoPublic Library,  Harold Washington L ibrary Center, 400 South State St.Chicago IL, Room 3N-6

Progressive change in the United States is severely hampered owing both to the failure of the left to project an alternative to capitalism and to the myths projected by the right regarding the nature of capitalism. On the other hand, Karl Marx projected an alternative socioeconomic system that comes into view in his writings in significant part in and through exploding the myths about capitalism. This series of five classes will explore the myths of capitalism through discussions of selected writings of Marx, and others.

Readings are available online or from U.S.M.H.  Online readings are available from U.S.M.H in pdf format for e-readers etc.

Sponsored by the U.S. Marxist-Humanists

Email: arise@usmarxisthumanists.org

www.usmarxisthumanists.org

Phone: 773-561-3454

 

Schedule andReadings

March 7th:  Myth #1: Capitalism is the Economic System most in Accord with Human Nature         

Contradictory concepts of human nature abound in the culture of capitalism. Human nature is said to be fundamentally greedy and selfish, or, contrariwise, cast in an image of perfection, or both. These concepts are used to justify social and economic policies that promote and protect capitalism, but this can only work if their historical origin in capitalism itself is obscured. This class will explore the concepts of human nature extant in capitalist societies and counterpose them to concepts drawn from the Marxist-Humanist tradition. The myth that capitalism is reflective of human nature will be exploded in a discussion of the following readings:

Readings:

Erich Fromm, Marx’s Concept of Man, pp. 24-43, “The Nature of Man” www.marxists.org/archive/fromm/works/1961/man/ch04.htm

Karl Marx, Grundrisse, “Introduction,” pp. 84-110 www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/grundrisse/ch01.htm

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Chapter 13: Of the Natural Conditions of Mankind as concerning their Felicity and Misery www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdf/hobblev1.pdf  and Chapter 17:  Of the Causes, Generation, and Definition of Commonwealth www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdf/hobblev2.pdf

Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach  www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/theses.htm

 

Leading the discussion: Marilyn Nissim-Sabat, author, Neither Victim nor Survivor: Thinking Toward a New Humanity

 

March 21st:  Myth #2: Democracy is Compatible with Capitalism

The rhetoric of the candidates for the Republican nomination for president of theUS, as well as their opponents in the Democratic Party, makes it unequivocally clear that for them, and probably for the majority of Americans, capitalism is entirely conflated with ‘democracy.’ That is, the notion of the ‘free market,’ value production, and the drive to accumulate capital for its own sake have been superimposed on the meaning of democracy as a political system as if to say that only the economic system known as capitalism can facilitate democracy. This myth will be exploded in discussion of the following readings:

Readings:

Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto. www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/

Karl Marx, “Address to the Communist League of March, 1850.”

www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/communist-league/1850-ad1.htm

Raya Dunayevskaya, Marxism and Freedom, Chapter VI, The Paris Commune Deepens the content of Capital, pp. 92-102.

Raya Dunayevskaya, Rosa Luxemburg, Women’s Liberation and Marx’s Philosophy of Revolution: Marx’s Theory of Permanent Revolution.” 1843-83, pp. 158-163.

 

Leading the discussion: Anton Evelynov, student activist

 

April 4th: Myth #3: State Forms of ‘Socialism’ are Fundamentally Different from Capitalism

Proponents of capitalism, as well as many post-Marx Marxists, have attempted to identify “socialism” or “communism” with state control of the economy and a centralized state. However, theSoviet Unionas well as “Communist China” and the European welfare state represent not so much a departure from capitalism as a realization of it. This class will explore whether there is an alternative to either reducing a new society to state control of the economy, on one hand, or refraining from the need to seize state power as part of a revolutionary transformation, on the other. The myths regarding state forms of capitalism will be exploded in a discussion of the following readings:

Readings:

Raya Dunayevskaya, Marxism and Freedom, Chapter IV, “Worker, Intellectual, and the State,” pp. 69-77.

Raya Dunayevskaya, State Capitalism and Marx’s Humanism “Lenin vs Bukharin” pp. 10-18.  babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015071598158

“Build It Now”: An Interview with Michael A. Lebowitz radicalnotes.com/content/view/36/39/

John Holloway, Change the World without Seizing State Power, Chapter 2, “Beyond the State?” pp. 11-18.

libcom.org/library/chapter-2-beyond-state

 

Leading the discussion: Ali Reza, Iranian activist and member of Iranian Left Alliance Abroad.

 

April 18th: Myth #4: There is No Alternative to Capitalism

Proponents of capitalism as well as many critics of it have maintained that it is impossible to overcome such phenomena as commodity production, exchange value, alienated labor, and the existence of classes. This stance has within it all of the myths of capitalism, i.e., that capitalism reflects and honors ‘human nature’; that it is a form of democratic practice; and that it prevents the development of state control of the economy. It has also been claimed by many on the left that any effort to spell out the content of a new, post-capitalist society is at best useless and at worst harmful. The myth that there is no alternative to capitalism will be exploded in discussion of the following readings:

Readings:

Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program . www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/index.htm

Raya Dunayevskaya, The Power of Negativity, “Presentation on the Dialectics of Organization and Philosophy,” pp. 3-14.

 

Leading the discussion: Peter Hudis, author of Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism

 

Wednesday May 2nd

May Day Celebration and discussion

 

U.S. Marxist Humanists would like to invite all participants in this class to continue the discussion in honor of May Day in a convivial setting, with food and drink. Venue to be announced

**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  

 

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

Open Science Economy

Cognitive Capitalism

OPEN SCIENCE ECONOMY

Policy Futures in Education – www.wwwords.co.uk/PFIE

FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS for a special journal issue on the theme:

OPEN SCIENCE ECONOMY: CREATIVITY, COLLABORATION AND THE COMMONS

The open-science economy (OSE) is a rapidly growing sector of the global knowledge economy utilizing open-source models and its multiple applications (e.g. open access, open archiving, open publishing, open repositories) in distributed knowledge and learning systems. This rich-text, highly interactive, user-generated OSE has seen linear models of knowledge production give way to more diffuse, open-ended, decentralized, and serendipitous knowledge processes based on open innovation and technology.

These peer-to-peer distributed knowledge systems rival the scope and quality of traditional proprietary products through the diffusion speed and global access of open-source projects, especially in both software and open-source biology. OSE encourages innovation-smart processes based on the radical non-propertarian sharing of content, cloud data computing, and the leveraging of cross-border international exchanges and collaborations.

Furthermore, it encourages a culture of distributed, collaborative, decentralized model of research that is genuinely participatory, involving the wider public and amateur scientists along with experts in the social mode of open knowledge production. OSE provides an alternative to the intellectual property approach to dealing with difficult problems in the allocation of resources for the production and distribution of knowledge and information. Increasingly, portal-based knowledge environments and global science gateways support collaborative science.

Open-source informatics enables knowledge grids that interconnect science communities, databases, and new computational tools. Open science is seen as a means for revitalizing public institutions and for developing scientific creativity and innovation at a global level through international collaboration. This special issue explores the concept of “open science economy”, its dimensions and its significance.

Please send expressions of interest including a title and abstract to:
Professor Michael A. Peters at mpeters@waikato.ac.nz

**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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Materialities: Economies, Empiricism, and Things

Aesthetics

MATERIALITIES: ECONOMIES, EMPIRICISM, AND THINGS

Cultural Studies Association of Australasia Annual Conference 2012
Hosted by the Department of Gender & Cultural Studies, University of Sydney
Dec 4th-6th (pre-fix pre-conference Dec 3rd)

‘Materialities: Economies, Empiricism, & Things’

Organising committee: Fiona Allon, Prudence Black, Catherine Driscoll, Elspeth Probyn, Kane Race & Guy Redden.

Call for Papers

Cultural studies has a long history of investigating material practices – indeed it was a founding tenet of British cultural studies – but recently a new turn or return to materialism seems to be emerging in the field.  What this materiality now means is still open, but we suggest that it flags a renewed interest in questions of how to study cultural objects, institutions and practices (methods), what constitutes matter and materiality (empiricism), and how things (humans and non-humans) are being reworked at a time of global economic, environmental and cultural flux.

Our keynotes have all directed critical attention to these questions – to the more-than-human, to new philosophies of matter, to the gendered material and economic circuits of media, and to ‘the heavy materiality of language’. We have invited them to help us in reinvigorating what cultural studies can do today. They include: Ross Chambers (Michigan), Katherine Gibson (UWS), Lesley Head (UoW), Bev Skeggs (Goldsmiths, London), and Sarah Whatmore (Oxford).

We encourage proposed panels and individual papers that engage with the wide spectrum of issues flagged by our title, including submissions that focus on:

· the crossing of science studies and cultural studies;

· questions of method;

· the relation between culture and economy;

· cultural histories of objects and forms;

· new ideas about empiricism;

· placing sexuality, gender and race within the more-than-human;

· the materiality of texts and genres;

· the future and the past of material cultural studies;

· environmental humanities and changing ecologies;

· cultural studies within the anthropocene;

· cultural relations with/in primary and natural resources;

· the new materiality of globalism

Papers and panels not focusing on the theme are also welcome.

Please send submissions to csaa.2012@gmail.com by August 24th and include your name and affiliation. Abstracts for papers should be 250-300 words. Panel submissions must include three individual abstracts, a panel title and a 100-150 word rationale for the panel as a whole.

We will advise all proposers of accepted papers within 4 weeks of this deadline. Please note that accepted presenters will need to register before their paper will be scheduled in the program.

There will also be a separate event, “Pre-Fix”, geared to the needs of postgraduates and early career researchers, on December 3rd. Details of this and the main conference will be on a dedicated conference website soon.

CSAA website: http://www.csaa.asn.au/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CSAA2012
Twitter: csaa2012
—
DR GUY REDDEN | Senior Lecturer
Postgraduate Coursework Convenor
Department of Gender and Cultural Studies
School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry

THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
J4.03, Main Quad A14| The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006
T +61 2 9351 8495   | F +612 9351 3918
E guy.redden@sydney.edu.au
W http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/gender_cultural_studies/
Reviews Editor, Cultural Studies Review http://www.csreview.unimelb.edu.au/

**END**

 

‘Maximum levels of boredom

Disguised as maximum fun’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales)  

 

‘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

‘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

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

Terry Eagleton and Alex Callinicos on Marx

Karl Marx

TERRY EAGLETON AND ALEX CALLINICOS ON MARX

THURSDAY 1 MARCH AT KINGS COLLEGE, LONDON

Socialist Worker Student Society is hosting a speaking tour with Terry Eagleton (author of Why Marx Was Right) and Alex Callinicos (author of The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx).

They will be speaking at Kings College, London (Room S-2.08) on Thursday 1 March at 6pm.

All are welcome and admission is free.

**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

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

Taking Up Space

Space

TAKING UP SPACE

Call for Papers

Here are the details: Taking up Space Cultural Studies Postgraduate Event 25th – 26th June 2012, Goldsmiths College, University of London 

This is a one / two day conference exploring the meaning and understanding of space in its physical manifestations as well as in its discursive forms; through which identity, meaning, value and authority can be mapped in particular ways.

We cannot avoid space. It is inevitable. The ways in which we understand ourselves, others and the world around us implies some notion of space. Our sense of self and society is worked through and is contained in space: culture does not only take place, but also creates it “making symbolic use of its objects” (Lefebvre).

To what degree does our conception of space change when we understand ourselves as self-enclosed or permeable beings? Can art and performance therefore mediate the relationship between the self, objects and environment? “The activities of travel, journey and navigation fabricate the social world as well as reveal it” (Caroline Knowles).

The space of the streets has become the site of dis-order and territory has become a prime issue for understanding contemporary social tensions. The recent riots in the UK brought into the forefront questions such as who owns space, how we can use this as a place for resistance and what notions of space are currently active in shaping and operating the socially constructed body. The possession of a categorized space can be considered in line with homelessness as a dislocation of the public and private, attesting to the multi-dimensionality of space and both the potentials and restrictions embodied in it.

The upcoming Olympics also signify the difficulties facing spaces contesting belonging and struggle. Questions of locality and identity are important, inciting questions of nationalism and tourism, paramount to the formation of cultural identity. In turn, the Occupy movement and one year anniversary ofTahrir Squarereinstates the need to define sacred and everyday space and the potentials in multiple usages of place. This conference will ask how can we negotiate the historicisation of memory? The aim of this conference is to rethink how space is interacted with and reconfigured in different mediums as a site for action as well as containment. If we cannot avoid space how can this be used to further an understanding of self or curtail ideas of autonomy? How are we embodied by space and embodying it at the same time? In what ways can space be used as a site for artistic and political development and how does the contemporary world and being become through the spatial? We welcome proposals for papers, discussions, short film, dance, performances, workshops and other engagements and activities engaging among others with the different ways of being in space.

Topics, experiences, understandings and possibilities might include but are not restricted to: • Temporality and embodiment • Knowledge and materiality • Interaction between objects and self • Memory/ history/ time • Bodies and public and private • Restrictions and exclusions • Performance / realm of aesthetics • Identity/ territory / alienation • Subversive potential – resistance / containment 

Abstracts/ proposals of 300-500 words should be sent to takingupspace2012@gmail.com by 15th March 2012. 

Program will be confirmed mid-April. 

**END**

‘Maximum levels of boredom

Disguised as maximum fun’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub,Bangor, northWales)  

‘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

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

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

Situationist Aesthetics: The S.I. Now

Situationist Human

SITUATIONIST AESTHETICS: THE S.I. NOW

University of Sussex, Brighton, UK – Friday 8th June 2012

Keynote: McKenzie Wark (The New School, NY), author of The Beach Beneath the Street: The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International (2011), Gamer Theory (2007) and Hacker Manifesto (2004).

“Since the beginning of the movement there has been a problem as to what to call artistic works by members of the SI. It was understood that none of them was a situationist production, but what to call them? I propose a very simple rule: to call them ‘antisituationist.’ We are against the dominant conditions of artistic inauthenticity. I don’t mean that anyone should stop painting, writing, etc. I don’t mean that that has no value. I don’t mean that we could continue to exist without doing that. But at the same time we know that such works will be coopted by society and used against us. Our impact lies in the elaboration of certain truths which have an explosive power whenever people are ready to struggle for them. At the present stage the movement is only in its infancy regarding the elaboration of these essential points.” — Attila Kotányi at the Fifth Conference of the SI, 1961

Is it oxymoronic, heretical or just plain wrong to talk about Situationist aesthetics? The Situationist International (SI) condemned attempts to discuss its work in terms of aesthetics, but perhaps it is now time to brush the SI against the grain.

When it first announced its programme, the SI insisted that ‘There is no such thing as Situationism’. A few years later, before expelling its members deemed to be too invested in artistic production, the SI declared that in an age of spectacle any work of art produced by a Situationist must necessarily be ‘antisituationist’. The SI’s tactical intransigence regarding the political value of the aesthetic, and its refusal of the possibility of a specifically Situationist aesthetic, threw up problems that remained unresolved by the time of the SI’s dissolution. Since 1972, particularly in Anglophone contexts, Situationist practices have penetrated an array of cultural spheres, and much cultural production which the SI would have dismissed as spectacular has claimed some Situationist influence.

The SI located itself within but against culture. This symposium asks whether such a position is tenable, and what possibility might there be for Situationist aesthetics after all. Do cultural phenomena such as punk, or the current psychogeography industry, for example, work as or against Situationist aesthetics? Is it possible to identify art works and/or practices indebted to the SI that do not recuperate its politics but fortify and develop them?

Possible themes include, but are not limited to:

·           The work of Guy Debord and other members of the Situationist International

·           The work of artists, writers, thinkers or film-makers proximate to or influenced by the SI

·           Critiques of the SI

·           (Post-)Situationist theory now

·           Détournement, plagiarism, and recuperation

·           Spectacular and anti-spectacular aesthetics

·           The uses and abuses of psychogeography

·           Punk and art writing

Please submit proposals of no more than 250 words for papers or presentations of 20 minutes to Sam Cooper at situ.aesthetics@gmail.com by 16th March 2012.

For further information: http://situationist-aesthetics.blogspot.com

**END**

 

‘Maximum levels of boredom

Disguised as maximum fun’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub,Bangor, northWales)  

 

‘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

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

Historical Sociology, Historical Materialism and International Relations

Sociology

HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY, HISTORICAL MATERIALISM AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

CALL FOR PAPERS
Spectrum Journal of Global Studies
Conference on:
Historical Sociology, Historical Materialism and International Relations

November 1-3, 2012
Middle East Technical University
Department of International Relations
Ankara – Turkey

The discipline of International Relations (IR) known as an “ American” social science has in the last decade or so been discovering the importance of alternative forms of explaining international relations. More so than any other field of social science, IR has been dominated by positivist conceptions of scientific inquiry. However recent approaches in the philosophy of sciences as well as the sociological turn in IR has changed the boundaries, assumptions and methodologies of our discipline.  Critical realism as an alternative to positivist as well as post-positivist understandings of social science is increasingly becoming the dominant form of philosophyzing about IR.

Historical sociological approaches are taking over the static, a-historical forms of theorizing. Marxist social theory has become more and more relevant to explain the current of changes in the international system. Internationalisation of capitalism has made the concerns of Marxism increasingly relevant to understand and explain the “international”. Recent controversies on the relation between the state system and capitalist mode of production have made important contributions to understand the link between what is traditionally understood from international relations and capitalist relations of production. These efforts have to go on as there are yet many other untouched aspects of international relations that require deconstruction and de-reification. This conference attempts to further our understanding of the links between historical sociology, critical realism and Marxism. Empirical works combining the insights of Marxist historical sociology and historical materialism with that of international relations is particularly welcome. We are extending an invitation to all researchers to present research that address the following issues and similar topics:

    • How does a historical materialist geopolitics address the traditional issues of IR?
    • Geopolitics of state formations
    • What is the relation between the state system and capitalism?
    • In what ways does critical realism help Marxism to analyse the international?
    • What are the limits and the potentials of he theory of combined and uneven development to explain the international?
    • Historical materialist analysis of international law
    • Contemporary forms of imperialism
    • International State Apparatuses and their role in the reproduction of capital
    • Marx’s method and the world market

We hope to see both individual papers and panels discussing these themes from different disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives.

We encourage scholars from all around the world to participate in this exciting attempt to link our conceptions of praxis and change with that of what constitutes the “international”.

Most papers presented in the conference will later be published in a special issue of the Spectrum journal or in a separate book.

We look forward to welcoming you all at METU in Ankara.
Key note speakers for the conference will later be announced.

For more information and to submit your papers and panel proposals, please contact spectrumconference@spectrumjournal.net

**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

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

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

For A People’s Britain, Not A Bankers’ Britain

Socialism and Hope

FOR A PEOPLE’S BRITAIN, NOT A BANKERS’ BRITAIN

A Morning Star Conference

Called by the paper’s Readers’ and Supporters’ Groups, the Morning Star conference aims to bring together a broad range of activists from the labour, democratic, anti-cuts and progressive movements to build a serious strategy to resist attacks on the living standards and rights of the working class majority in the UK.

 

Date: Saturday 31st March 2012
Time: 10:30am – 4:45pm
Venue: Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, London, EC2M 4QH
Cost: Individuals £5; non waged/concessions £2; delegates £10.

 

Speakers from significant trade unions and campaign organisations, supportive MPs amongst others will take part in what promises to be a fascinating programme.

To attend please RSVP to conference.morningstar@gmail.com.

For more information have a look at the conference flyer or contact chief conference organiser Graham Stevenson graham_stevenson@yahoo.co.uk.

See: http://www.cwu.org/morning-star-conference-for-a-peoples-britain-not-a-bankers-britain.html

**END**

 

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

‘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

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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

Oxford Radical Forum 2012

Oxford

OXFORD RADICAL FORUM 2012

OXFORD RADICAL FORUM 2012: 2 – 4  MARCH 2012

http://orf2012.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/events/179785195464536/

>> Speakers from the Middle East & North Africa Revolutions >>
>> Skype Link-up with Occupy Wall St. Activists >>
>> Terry Eagleton on his New Book: Why Marx was Right >>

…and much more at this year’s…

>>OXFORD RADICAL FORUM >>
>>2 – 4  MARCH 2012>>

In the last year, as the global economic crisis has deepened, we have seen revolutions sweep dictators from power across the Middle East and North Africa and resistance to austerity spread across Europe and the US with the Occupy Movement. There have been a number of general strikes in Greece and mass strikes in Britain.

This year’s Oxford Radical Forum (ORF) will be held from 2-4th March. This will be the fifth anniversary of the forum, run by students, lecturers and local activists based in the city. This year it is bigger than ever, with almost thirty sessions over a host of colleges and venues during the weekend.

The forum opens with ‘the MENA Revolutions: One Year On’, with Nadine El-Enany (activist from Cairo), Gilbert Achcar (SOAS), Anne Alexander (Cambridge) and Firoze Manji (Pambazuka Press). This will be followed by a discussion between Terry Eagleton and Alex Callinicos on ‘Why Marx was Right’.

Over the weekend, we will bring together Occupy activists from New York via live link-up with activists from Occupy London, for reflections on how the movement has changed politics and on how it can develop. International perspectives will also be brought by sessions on political struggle from Latin America to the Eurozone to China. A meeting on sexual liberation will be joined by Ghassan Makaram, a Lebanese LGBTQ activist. On Saturday, Greg Philo will join Moshe Machover and Daphna Baram for a meeting on Palestine and the Media.

This year’s line-up also reflects rising levels of resistance to austerity in Britain. We will bring together trade unionists from public and private sectors, students and community activists. Our session on the future of education will discuss this government’s decision to withdraw its Higher Education Bill with John Holmwood (Campaign for the Public University) and others. We will also have important sessions on ‘Defending the Right to Protest’, ‘Race, Racism and Resistance’, and even ‘Radical Science’.

As always the event is entirely FREE, but we welcome and encourage donations towards the costs of putting on the Forum.

We hope you will join us at the event. Spread the word!

Further information on speakers and timetables will be available and updated here:
http://orf2012.wordpress.com/

Contact Us: 2012oxfordradicalforum@gmail.com
Twitter: @orf2012
#oxfordradicalforum

Facebook (event): http://www.facebook.com/events/179785195464536/
Facebook (group): http://www.facebook.com/groups/10571655629/

**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  

‘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