The Creative University – First Call for Papers

THE CREATIVE UNIVERSITY – FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS
Faculty of Education, Office of Teaching and Learning, Waikato University

School of Creative Arts, James Cook University

THE CREATIVE UNIVERSITY CONFERENCE

Hosted by 

Universityof Waikato, Te Whare Wananga O Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

15-16 August, 2012

First Call for Papers

Deadline for submission:  

Abstracts due: May 1^st 2012

Full papers due: July 1st 2012

Education and research have been transformed in the development of knowledge economies. The knowledge, learning and creative economies manifest the changing significance of intellectual capital and the thickening connections between on one hand economic growth, on the other hand knowledge, creativity (especially imagined new knowledge, discovery), the communication of knowledge, and the formation and spreading of creative skills in education. Increasingly economic and social activity is comprised by the ‘symbolic’ or ‘weightless’ economy with its iconic, immaterial and digital goods. This immaterial economy includes new international labour markets that demand analytic skills, global competencies and an understanding of markets in tradeable knowledges. Developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) not only define globalisation they are changing the format, density and nature of the exchange and flows of knowledge, research and scholarship. Delivery modes in education are being reshaped. Global cultures are spreading in the form of knowledge and research networks. Openness and networking, cross-border people movement, flows of capital, portal cities and littoral zones, and new and audacious systems with worldwide reach; all are changing the conditions of imagining and producing and the sharing of creative work in different spheres. The economic aspect of creativity refers to the production of new ideas, aesthetic forms, scholarship, original works of art and cultural products, as well as scientific inventions and technological innovations. It embraces open source communication as well as commercial intellectual property. 

All of this positions education at the centre of the economy/ creativity nexus. But are education systems, institutions, assumptions and habits positioned and able so as to seize the opportunities and meet the challenges? 

This conference investigates all the aspects of education in (and as) the creative economy.The conference objective is to extend the dialogue about the relationship between contemporary higher education and the changing face of contemporary economies. A number of terms describe the nature of the contemporary capitalism of advanced economies: ‘cognitive capitalism’, ‘metaphysical capitalism’, ‘intellectual capitalism’, ‘designer capitalism’. The conference will explore the relationship between the arts and sciences and this new form of capitalism. It will look at the global reach and international imperatives of aesthetic and scientific modes of production, the conditions and character of acts of the imagination in the range of fields of knowledge and arts in this period, and the role of the research university in the formation of the creative knowledge that has a decisive function in contemporary advanced economies.  

Please send title and abstract as an expression of interest to Professor Michael A. Peters: mpeters@waikato.ac.nz

Details at: http://tcreativeu.blogspot.co.uk/p/first-call-for-papers.html

The Creative University: http://tcreativeu.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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Paulo Freire: The Global Legacy

Paulo Freire

PAULO FREIRE: THE GLOBAL LEGACY

A Celebration of Freire’s 91^st Birthday

A major international conference, Hamilton, New Zealand, November 26-28, 2012

A major international conference hosted by the University of Waikato, Te Whare Wananga o Waikato, New Zealand, November 26-28, 2012, will be held at the Novotel Hamilton Tainui Hotel on the banks of the Waikato River, in central Hamilton.

“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

The University of Waikato, Te Whare Wananga oWaikatois delighted to be hosting a major international conference, “Paulo Freire: The Global Legacy” as a retrospective celebration of his work and its legacy and influence across the globe.

The University of Waikato, with a student population of about 13,000 and 2000 academic and support staff, is committed to delivering a world-class education and research portfolio, providing a full and dynamic university experience, distinctive in character, and pursuing strong international links to advance knowledge.

The University works closely with Maori tribes (iwi), particularly Tainui, to make the University accessible to Maori students and to foster an environment of success. http://www.waikato.ac.nz/maori/ & http://www.waikato.ac.nz/about/  &  http://www.waikato.ac.nz/. 

Paulo Freire, one of the greatest educators of all time, was born in Recife, Brazil, on September 19, 1921 and died of heart failure in Sao Paulo, Brazil on May 2, 1997. Freire taught Portuguese in secondary schools from 1941-1947 before becoming active in adult education and workers’ training. He was the first Director of the Department of Cultural Extension of the University of Recife(1961-1964). Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970) is an argument for a system of education that emphasizes learning as an act of culture and freedom. His works became justly famous as he gained an international reputation for his program of literacy education especially for the rural and dispossessed in Northeastern Brazil. He was jailed by the new government after 1964 and was forced into a political exile that lasted fifteen-years, eventually returning to Brazil in 1979. As a living testimony, his many works have been translated into many languages, and have inspired the tradition of critical pedagogy.

The conference is aimed at experienced and new researchers, policy-makers and practitioners from all around the world who engage with Freire’s work in any of the following broad themes that the conference will be organized around:

·      Globalization

·      De-colonisation

·      Indigenous cultures

·      Cultural studies

A Stream in Portuguese is planned for Portuguese speaking delegates to present and discuss their research in Portuguese. Abstracts will be available in both English and Portuguese. Dr Ana Ratto, from  Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil, who is Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Education at University of Waikato, in 2012 is coordinating this stream which will take place on Tuesday 27 November 2012.

 For further information, contact ratto.ana@gmail.com

**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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

What is Radical Philosophy Today?

Radical Philosophy

WHAT IS RADICAL PHILOSOPHY TODAY?

The Program Committee for the Tenth Biennial Radical Philosophy Association Conference announces an extension of the deadline for submissions to April 16, 2012.

CALL FOR PAPERS

THE TENTH BIENNIAL RADICAL PHILOSOPHY ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE AND THE 3OTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RPA

What is Radical Philosophy Today?
Canisius College, Buffalo, New York
October 11-14, 2012

Call for Papers:

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO APRIL 16, 2012 

The Radical Philosophy Association Conference Program Committee invites submissions of talks, papers, workshops, roundtable discussions, posters, and other kinds of conference contributions for its tenth biennial conference, to be held at the Canisius College, Buffalo, New York, October 11-14, 2012. 

In the spirit of collaboration, and in the recognition that radical philosophy is often done outside traditional philosophical settings, we invite submissions not only from philosophers inside and outside the academy, but also from those who engage in theoretical and/or activist work in other academic disciplines – such as ethnic studies, women’s studies, social sciences, and literary studies – and from those engaged in theoretical and/or activist work unconnected to the academy.

We especially welcome contributions from those often excluded from or marginalized in philosophy, including persons of Africana, Latin American (Americana), Indigenous, or Asian descent or traditions, glbt persons, persons with disabilities, poor and working class persons.

Conference Theme

‘What is Radical Philosophy Today?’ The adjective ‘radical’ is used in many different ways politically and philosophically. It is especially important to explore some of these various meanings as the Radical Philosophy Association looks back on thirty years of intellectual and political activism and advocacy on behalf of justice and liberation and forward to the future through and beyond our current crises.

It seems to many that the world faces several deep problems. How does specifically ‘radical’ philosophy help us to understand and address them? For example, capitalism demands and enforces increasing gaps between the wealthy and the middle class and the poor worldwide. Oppressive systems of class, race, gender, heteronormativity, and able-bodiedness continue to function, defining people and their lives in harmful and de-humanizing ways. Violence continues to deform people’s lives and possibilities by permeating our everyday experience and invading our consciousness, making us both less aware of it and thus more accepting of it.

For these reasons and many more, we invite submissions that answer (or raise) questions about the nature of radical philosophy and its roles in understanding and responding to current crises. 

What is radical theory? How can radical theory be made more effective in responding to crises? What philosophies/philosophers are radical?

What is radical practice? What does one have to do/be to be radical? Is being radical important? Do some forms of radical practice need to be criticized?

What is radical identity? How does one think radically about identities of race, gender, nationality, citizenship, able-bodiedness, sexuality, etc.? What constitutes a radical identity? How do individuals in groups historically labeled or excluded by race, gender, nationality, etc., redefine, refute, or revolt against the western histories of those categories?

What radical responses are needed to address the crises in economics worldwide? What place does class (and class analysis) have in discussions of radical ideas, radical politics, or radical critiques of the political economy? How does one radically rethink the concept of class in light of current crises?

How does one think radically about democracy or statehood/nationhood? What is radical political engagement? What does radical philosophy have to say about current protest movements in theUSand worldwide?

What is radical art, radical expression, a radical style? How can such aesthetic categories and concerns contribute to changing/transforming the world?

What is radical pedagogy? How can teachers help to radically change the world in positive ways?

We thus invite submissions for the Tenth Biennial Conference of the Radical Philosophy Association: ‘What is Radical Philosophy Today?’

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS

In keeping with the spirit of radical thinking embodied by the RPA, we encourage submissions that employ formats and media that challenge the standard conference presentation. For instance, we urge presenters to use formats that allow for greater interaction between participants and audience (e.g. presenting an outline, rather than reading a paper) and that emphasize collective inquiry (e.g. organizing a workshop).

Please note that participants will be selected for at most one presentation (talk, workshop, poster session, etc.) during the conference; submissions should be presented with this in mind. (This limit does not include chairing sessions.)

Please submit all the information requested:

For an individual talk/paper/workshop/poster/performance or other type of individual presentation:

Name, address, email, affiliation (independent scholar, activist, educator, etc.), of presenter

Nature (talk, workshop, etc.) and title of proposal

Abstract of 250-500 words

Equipment needs

For a group panel/workshop/poster/performance or other type of group presentation (note: maximum three panel participants not including chair):

Name, address, email, affiliation of the group’s contact person and of each participant

Nature (panel, workshop, etc.) and title of proposal

Abstract of 250-500 words for group proposal

Titles and abstracts of 250-500 words for each paper (if applicable)

Equipment needs

 

Panel chairs: If you would be willing to serve as a panel session chair, please indicate this on your submission form. Session chairs are responsible for introducing participants in panel sessions and ensuring that each presenter gets her or his fair share of the available time.
Mailing Address for Submissions:

Please submit paper, workshop, poster, and other proposals as an email attachment (.doc) to rpa2012meeting@gmail.com .  NOTE: Please do NOT submit complete papers.

EXTENDED DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: APRIL 16, 2012

For further information, contact members of the Program Committee:

Melissa Burchard mburchar@unca.edu (chair); Tommy Curry t-curry@philosophy.tamu.edu; Gertrude Postl postlg@sunysuffolk.edu; Devin Shaw devinzshaw@gmail.com; Sarah Tyson sarah.tyson@vanderbilt.edu; Scott Zeman scott.zeman@vanderbilt.edu

The local organizer of the conference is Tanya Loughead tanya.loughead@canisius.edu

Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/what-is-radical-philosophy-today-buffalo-ny-11-14-oct.-submissions-deadline-extended-to-16-april

 

**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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

What is the Way Forward? Forum for Promoting 3-19 Comprehensive Education – Volume 54 No.1 (2012)

Education Crisis

WHAT IS THE WAY FORWARD? FORUM FOR PROMOTING 3-19 COMPREHENSIVE EDUCATION – VOLUME 54 NO.1 2012

Just published online at
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/forum/content/pdfs/54/issue54_1.asp
[printed copies will be posted mid-April]

FORUM: for promoting 3-19 comprehensive education
Volume 54 Number 1, 2012, ISSN 0963-8253

WHAT IS THE WAY FORWARD?

Clyde Chitty. Editorial. What is the Way Forward?

Caught in the (Education) Act: tackling Michael Gove’s education revolution. Report on 19th November 2011 Conference

Clyde Chitty. A Divided Education System

Melissa Benn. Putting the Alternative Case: a twenty-first-century vision forEngland’s schools

Stephen Ball. Show Me the Money! Neoliberalism at Work in Education

Richard Hatcher. Gove’s Offensive and the Failure of Labour’s Response

Terry Parkin. Do We Need a Middle Tier in Education?

Bernard Barker.ComprehensiveSchools and the Future

Tim Brighouse. Decline and Fall: are state schools and universities on the point of collapse?

Susan Hallam. Streaming and Setting in UK Primary Schools: evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study

Brian Matthews. The Labour Party and the Need for Change: values, education and emotional literacy/intelligence

Clive Griggs. Privatisation in Education: further reflections

Lottie Hoare. Margaret Miles: the educational journey of a comprehensive school campaigner

Paul Dash.SecondaryModernSchool Education: an essay in subjugation and repression

Paul Pettinger. The Evidence Base on the Effects of Policy and Practice in Faith Schools

Theo Creber. The Intersection of Community, Culture and Learning Processes within the Setting of a Chinese Complementary School

BOOK REVIEWS
School Wars: the battle for Britain’s education (Melissa Benn), reviewed by Clive Griggs, Bernard Barker and Derek Gillard
Assessing Children’s Learning (Mary Jane Drummond), reviewed by Michael Armstrong
Education for the Inevitable: schooling when the oil runs out (Michael Bassey) reviewed by Colin Richards
Politics and the Primary Teacher (Peter Cunningham), reviewed by Derek Gillard
To Miss With Love (Katharine Birbalsingh), reviewed by Patrick Yarker

Access to the full texts of articles is restricted to those who have a Personal subscription, or those whose institution has a Library subscription.

PERSONAL SUBSCRIPTION Subscription to the three printed 2012 issues (including online access to all available past issues) is available to private individuals at a cost of US$70.00 (approximately £44.00). If you wish to subscribe you may do so immediately at www.wwwords.co.uk/subscribeFORUM.asp

LIBRARY SUBSCRIPTION (campus-wide access). If you are working within an institution that maintains a library, please urge your Librarian to take out a Library subscription so we can provide full access throughout your institution. Detailed information for libraries can be found at http://www.symposium-books.co.uk/downloads/SYM-BOOKS-Rate-List-2012.pdf

For all editorial matters, including articles offered for publication, please contact the Editor, Professor Clyde Chitty, 19 Beaconsfield Road, Bickley, BromleyBR1 2BL, United Kingdom(clydechitty379@btinternet.com).

In the event of problems concerning a subscription, or difficulty in gaining access to the journal articles on the website, please contact the publishers at support@symposium-books.co.uk
 

**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  

‘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

Antonio Negri: Modernity and Multitude

Antonio Negri

ANTONIO NEGRI: MODERNITY AND THE MULTITUDE

Just out from Polity Press:

Antonio Negri: Modernity and the Multitude
by Timothy S. Murphy

The Italian philosopher and militant Antonio Negri has been a provocative and controversial figure for over forty years. He has been a professor of law at the University of Padua, a labor organizer in the Veneto, a political prisoner in Rome, a member of Italian parliament, a political refugee in Paris and most recently, as a consequence of the success of his book Empire (written in collaboration with American Michael Hardt), an internationally influential theorist of globalization. He has written over forty other books, which have been translated into dozens of languages, and his work has challenged orthodoxy in intellectual history, political science, labor relations, theology, and literary and cultural studies.

This book is the first comprehensive study of Negri’s work in any language. It follows the development of Negri’s critical framework and theoretical innovations from his early work as a historian of legal philosophy in the Fifties, through his period of intense and unconventional leftist activism during the Sixties and Seventies and his imprisonment and exile during the Eighties and Nineties, culminating in a clear, thorough and evenhanded account of his important contributions to the emerging study of – and struggle over – globalization. The book also includes discussions of Negri’s critics and the reception of his work at each stage.

“Murphy’s book provides a thorough and thoughtful engagement with Negri’s work, covering everything from the early works on Hegel and Kant to the recent political debates on Empire. Besides covering works that have yet to be translated into English, its principal strength is the way in which it synthesizes politics and philosophy, demonstrating how Negri engages politics through philosophy and vice versa. It is no exaggeration to say that this book will fundamentally change the debate on Negri’s work.” — Jason Read, University of Southern Maine

“Sympathetic but not uncritical, carefully exploring the interplay of text and context, Tim Murphy’s book promises to become the standard introduction to this exciting and controversial thinker.” — Steve Wright, Monash University

“Murphy’s book is remarkable, at once an overview of Negri’s work while also providing a detailed analysis of its mainsprings. There has been nothing like this book, written in English of course, but with a mastery of the Italian source material, and with an ear deeply attuned to the thought of a truly great and creative Marxist thinker.” — Kenneth Surin, Duke University

 

Original source: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/out-now-antonio-negri-modernity-and-the-multitude

 

***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  

‘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

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

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

For a Public University – Call for Papers

Universities

FOR A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY – CALL FOR PAPERS

Call for Papers – For a Public University

The transformation of Higher Education in the UK is at full speed. The cuts in government funding and the simultaneous increase in tuition fees of up to £9000 per year have dramatic implications. While universities emphasise the need to attract private finance, students are pushed towards courses with direct employment possibilities. At the same time, employers ask for closer co-operation with universities not only in relation to research but also in terms of the development of teaching curricula. The main focus is clear; education should be directed towards business interests in order to strengthen the UK economy.

One outcome is that Higher Education is increasingly commodified as universities exist in the shadow of the market. The space for critical thinking about society has been eroded; students’ ability-to-learn gives way to consumers’ ability-to-pay. Academics have themselves become subject to the charge of irrelevance unless direct policy-relevance is embraced. The critical theoretician is cast adrift as indolent and idle in the race to inform statesmen, to become prophets for science, to make profits for business.

This workshop has the purpose to analyse the underlying dynamics of the transformation of Higher Education in and beyond the UK, to reflect on the social function of Higher Education, as well as develop alternative ways of thinking about how best to deliver Higher Education in the future. The goal is to re-assert ways in which Higher Education can be retained as a public good, available to all.

Papers are invited for the following themes: 

–    Analyses of the current transformation of Higher Education; 

–    Discussions about the social function of Higher Education; and

–    Interventions on how to organise the future of Higher Education.

This one-day workshop is jointly organised by the Local UCU Association at Nottingham University and the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ). It will be held at NottinghamUniversity on Friday, 15 June 2012.

All paper proposals should be sent to Andreas Bieler at Andreas.Bieler@nottingham.ac.uk by no later than Friday, 27 April. 

The maximum number of workshop participants will be 25 people, 10 to 12 paper givers plus additional participants.

People who want to participate without giving a paper should also contact Andreas Bieler at: Andreas.Bieler@nottingham.ac.uk as soon as possible. There is no registration fee and two coffee breaks and lunch are provided free of charge by the organisers.

 

Original source: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/cfp-for-a-public-university-nottingham-15-june-2012  

 

***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  

‘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

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

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

The Post-Colonial State – Tariq Amin-Khan

THE POST-COLONIAL STATE – TARIQ AMIN-KHAN

Global Capitalism

 

http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415891592/ New book on the Post-Colonial State: Tariq Amin-Khan, The Post-Colonial State in the Era of Capitalist Globalization: Historical, Political and Theoretical Approaches to State Formation. New York: Routledge, 2012. ISBN 978-0-415-89159-2.  State formation in post-colonial societies differed greatly from the formation of the Western capitalist state. The latter has been extensively studied, while a coherent grasp of the post-colonial state – despite the recent ethnographical explorations – has remained elusive. Amin-Khan provides a critical, historical and contemporary understanding of post-colonial state formations in Asia andAfrica, and articulates how this process differed for Latin American states.  A common signifier of the post-colonial state is the retention of the unitary colonial state structure by its ruling classes. This legacy has reinscribed the colonial-era social relations in post-colonial societies, and consolidated the power of the ‘overdeveloped’ civil and military bureaucracy. At the same time, the US was able to remove ‘nationalist’ leadership in Africa and Asia to create client post-colonial states that have remained beholden to Western states, transnational corporations and international financial institutions. The analysis of these developments shows that the vast majority of post-colonial states have remained proto-capitalist – with feudal landholders and bureaucratic elite having a stranglehold on state power. In contrast, those few countries (India, South Africa and others) that have emerged as capitalist post-colonial states have been able to partly shake off the colonial legacy and loosen the noose of imperialist domination. The final two chapters ground theory by concretely analyzing the nature and development trajectories of the states of India and Pakistan as two distinct examples respectively of capitalist and proto-capitalist states – which can be generalized as the two state forms prevalent in post-colonial societies.

Original source: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/now-out-tariq-amin-khan-the-post-colonial-state-in-the-era-of-capitalist-globalization

**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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Machiavelli, Marxism, and the Revolutionary Tradition

MACHIAVELLI, MARXISM, AND THE REVOLUTIONARY TRADITION
In the frame of Historical Materialism Conference, London, 8-9 November 2012:

Machiavelli, Marxism, and the Revolutionary Tradition

In a letter to Engels of 1857, Marx calls Machiavelli’s Florentine Histories a “masterpiece.” Praising his powerful historical sensibility, Marx explicitly recognises the importance of Machiavelli’s theories on social conflict, the political meaning of a citizen’s army, and the connection between the productive forces and social relations. Machiavelli has never ceased to be a reference for the Marxist and revolutionary tradition.

Explicitly, as a grounding stone of their thought, for philosophers such as Antonio Gramsci and Louis Althusser, more implicitly for political and intellectual authors such as Kamenev, Bakunin, Lenin, Horkheimer, Macek, Lefort, Merleau-Ponty, Arendt, and Weil.

In this panel, we will explore the connection between Machiavelli’s thought and the Marxist and revolutionary tradition. The proposed panel combines a historical perspective with a theoretical approach. It aims to examine the theoretical problems Machiavelli raised, problems critical not only for the early modern age but for all subsequent Western revolutionary political theory and philosophy. It aims also to analyse the influence of Machiavelli’s thought on individual Marxist and revolutionary thinkers.

Paper proposals (between 200 and 300 words), in English, French, or Italian are welcome in any of the following axes:

* Social conflict, class conflict, tumult, and revolution.

* The verità effettuale della cosa: Machiavelli’s ontological realism.

* Grounding on the void: the origin of politics and constituent power.

* Citizen’s army and popular order.

* History as a battlefield: historiography as a political theory.

* Materialism, Machiavellianism, and Marxism.

*Politics and economy in Machiavelli’s thought.

* Plebs, people, multitude, class, proletariat: a Machiavellian perspective on the revolutionary tradition.

* Theory and practice of dictatorship.

Paper proposals should be submitted by registering at: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/conferences BEFORE 26 April 2012 and sent, together with a short CV, to the panel organizer, Filippo Del Lucchese (Brunel University – London) at the following email address: filippo.dellucchese@brunel.ac.uk

The expected presenting time will be around 30-40 minutes per speaker, depending on the exact number of papers. The official language of the Historical Materialism Conference is English.

Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/machiavelli-marxism-and-the-revolutionary-tradition-cfp-for-panel-at-london-hm-conference-8-9-november  

**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

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

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 http://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

Lateral

Lateral

LATERAL

Issue 1 of Lateral now online:

http://culturalstudiesassociation.org/lateral/issue1.html

 Lateral is the publishing platform for the Cultural Studies Association (CSA). Its aims are to support, leverage, and organize the capacities of those affiliated with CSA to develop critical forms of publishing that are commensurate with innovative approaches to knowledge making, political intervention, and material forms of cultural expression. Lateral focuses on providing a place of experimentation in the range of material forms so that the knowing, feeling, sensibility ascribed to the cultural can find an elastic and sustainable outlet for expression. In short, Lateral is interested in recasting both the form and content of what cultural studies can be. Lateral is an online and open access journal published under the Creative Commons license. Lateral is organized in research threads; Issue 1 consists of four threads: Theory and Method, Mobilisations, Interventions and Cultural Policy, Universities in Question and Culture Industries. Patricia Ticineto Clough, Randy Martin and Bruce Burgett compose its curatorial board; design editor is Jamie “Skye” Bianco.

 

Contents of Issue 1:

Introduction (mashup by Erin R. Anderson)

 

Theory and Method (edited by Patricia Ticineto Clough)

The Humanities and the University in Ruins (by John Mowitt)

Ante Anti-Blackness: Afterthoughts (by Jared Sexton)

With responses by Morgan Adamson, Adam Sitze and Christina Sharpe

 

Mobilisations, Interventions, Cultural Policy (edited by Emma Dowling)

Urban Interventions/Interventi Urbani (by Alexander Dellantonio)

Postcool: the question of collective organization in postcolonial capitalism as challenged by a small militant group in the Raval, Barcelona (by Francesco Salvini)

nanopolitics: a first outline of our experiments in movement (by the nanopolitics group)

With responses by Gavin Grindon, Begüm Özden Firat and Sandro Mezzadra

 

Universities in Question (edited by Randy Martin and Bruce Burgett)

Countermapping the University (by the Countermapping Queen Mary Collective – Manuela Zechner, Tim Stallmann, Maria Catalina Bejarano Soto, Liz Mason-Deese,  Rakhee Kewada, Bue Rübner, Mara Ferreri, and Camille Barbagallo)

Interview Countermapping Queen Mary Collective

The Map | The Game ( Countermapping Queen Mary Collective/Interaction design by Erin R. Anderson)

Lateral Moves – Across Disciplines (by Miriam Bartha, Bruce Burgett, Randy Martin, Diane Douglas, and Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren)

 

Culture Industries edited by Jaafar Aksikas, Stefano Harney and Toby Miller

Towards a Cultural Study of the Culture Industries: A Research Resources Guide/ Chart

“Nothing gold can stay”: Labor, Political Economy, and the Birmingham Legacy of the Culture Industries Debate (by Sean Andrews)

Distributed Centralization: Web 2.0 as a Portal into Users. Lives (by Robert W. Gehl) 

 

Design: Erin R. Anderson

Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/issue-1-of-lateral-now-online

 ***End***

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Historical Sociology and International Theory – BISA Workshop

Luddites

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY & INTERNATIONAL THEORY – BISA WORKSHOP

BISA working group on Historical Sociology and IR
Centre for Advanced International Theory, University of Sussex

The Historical Sociology of International Theory
One day workshop
Thursday 13th September 2012

The discipline of International Relations is home to a wide range of theoretical approaches and its history is characterized by (metaphorical) debates and competition between these theories. This theoretical pluralism R11; deplored by some and celebrated by others – does not only concern the substantive claims of particular theories but also the conception of theory itself. This refers us back to debates in the philosophy of social science. What counts as theory, what role theory can and should play and how it best fulfils this task is not a settled question in IR.

Moreover, inasmuch as the emergence and development of different theories is strongly influenced by their historical and sociological context, the same is true for conceptions of theory itself. Hence, the  considerable recent changes within the international system – from the end of bipolarity, through the ideological hegemony of market democracy, radical fluctuation in the world economy, to open challenges to the institution of sovereignty – can be expected to affect the conception of theory (and consequently the development of theories) itself. This workshop seeks to explore the ways in which time and place impact on the conception of international theory and to develop an understanding of the nature of international theory and its implications at the beginning of the 21st century.

To this end, we invite papers that analyze the emergence, development, change and implications of conceptions of international theory from a historical sociological perspective. We are particularly, but not solely, interested in contributions that:

·  Reflect on the connection between time, place and conceptions of theory;
·  Provide an historical and sociological account of the development of conceptions of international theories;
·  Explore the implications of recent changes in the international system for conceptions of international theory;
·  And, conversely, investigate the impact of conceptions of international theory on our understanding of the broader historical and sociological context.

Those interested in presenting papers at the workshop should send brief abstracts (no more than 200 words) to: cait@sussex.ac.uk. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 13th June 2012.

BISA: http://www.bisa.ac.uk/

**END**

Luddites

‘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

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

New Articles and Features from U.S. Marxist-Humanists

Raya Dunayevskaya

NEW ARTICLES AND FEATURES FROM U.S. MARXIST-HUMANISTS

http://www.usmarxisthumanists.org/

FEBRUARY 2012

Richard Greeman, “Russia: the Return of the Revolution”

D. Beltaigne, “Why John Brown? Why Now?”

Richard Abernethy, “David Cameron’s Attack on Health and Safety”

Peter Hudis and Sasha Lilley, “Rosa Luxemburg’s Legacy” (audio)

Paulo Morel, “Discussion Article: Is Newt Gingrich an ‘Invented’ Idiot?”

David Black, “The Elusive ‘Threads of Historical Progress’: The Early Chartists and the Young Marx and Engels”

George Karavas, Dave Eden, Sandra Rein, and Kevin Anderson, “Review Symposium on Marx at the Margins”

Ayob Rahmani, “Interview with Kevin Anderson”

The Letters of Rosa Luxemburg, edited by Annelies Laschitza, George Adler, and Peter Hudis – Links to reviews in International Socialist Review and Rain Taxi Review of Books

Marx at the Margins: On Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Non-Western Societies, by Kevin Anderson – Links to reviews in Radical Philosophy Review and Workers’ Liberty

U.S. MARXIST-HUMANISTS IS PART OF THE INTERNATIONAL MARXIST-HUMANIST ORGANIZATION. The IMHO seeks to work out a unity of theory and practice, worker and intellectual, and philosophy and organization. We aim to develop and project a viable vision of a truly new, human society that can give direction to today’s many freedom struggles. We ground our ideas in the totality of Marx’s Marxism and Raya Dunayevskaya’s body of ideas and upon the unique philosophic contributions that have guided Marxist-Humanism since its founding in the 1950s.

AFFILIATES
U.S. Marxist-Humanists – http://www.usmarxisthumanists.org – arise@usmarxisthumanists.org
The Hobgoblin Collective, UK – http://www.thehobgoblin.co.uk  – hobgoblinlondon@aol.com

EVENTS IN YOUR AREA:
Please let us know if you would be interested in receiving information about Marxist-Humanist events in your city, region, or country.

 

**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

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