Resilience: International Policies, Practices and Discourses

Marxism Against Postmodernism in Educational Theory

RESILIENCE: INTERNATIONAL POLICIES, PRACTISES AND DISCOURSES

CALL FOR PAPERS

Resilience: International Policies, Practices and Discourses Invites you to Submit your Paper

Resilience: International Policies, Practices and Discourses (http://www.tandfonline.com/resi) creates a platform for dialogue about the processes, spaces, policies, practices and subjectivities through which resilience is seen to operate. As such, this journal draws together academic expertise from disciplines such as international sociology, geography, political theory, development studies, security studies, anthropology and law.

Find out why you should submit your paper to Resilience and read the full call for papers here:  http://explore.tandfonline.com/cfp/pgas/resilience-call-for-papers

You can also visit our Author Services website (http://journalauthors.tandf.co.uk/) for further resources and guides to the complete publication process and beyond.

To keep abreast of Resilience: International Policies, Practices and Discourses, sign up for table of contents alerts: (http://www.tandfonline.com/action/doUpdateAlertSettings?action=addJournal&journalCode=resi20) 

Best wishes and festive greetings,
David Chandler
d.chandler@wmin.ac.uk
Editor, Resilience: International Policies, Practices and Discourses (http://www.tandfonline.com/resi) 

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Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: 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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

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

United States: The Electoral Opening for the Left

Kshama Sawant

UNITED STATES: THE ELECTORAL OPENING FOR THE LEFT

By Jason Netek, Chicago

December 16, 2013 — Socialist Worker (USA) — There is a lot of debate among socialists in the United States about just how to engage in this country’s rigged electoral game, if at all.

In a time when the revolutionary left is numerically small, some socialist groupings have made a fetish out of participating in elections, local and national, in attempts to realise their ambitions of becoming the party of the US working class all by themselves. Others have made a fetish out of not engaging in any kind of electoral work for lack of a viable mass workers’ party or else as a permanent boycott of the objectively pro-capitalist electoral system in the United States.

In the International Socialist Organization (ISO), we have tried to think tactically about our role during elections, given our size and influence, and the strength of the movements at a given moment. The handful of times that we have either run our own members in local campaigns or endorsed a national campaign (as was the case with Ralph Nader in 2000 and 2004), the goal was to try to maintain some kind of left-wing pole of attraction opposed to the Democratic Party, and to keep the movements we’re involved in from being completely overshadowed and subsumed in the tremendous spectacle that is election season in the United States.

Nader’s bid in 2000, giving political expression to the broader global justice movement, had another element to the campaign that the modern left isn’t very used to; it had widespread popular appeal. Nader denounced the two mainstream parties as “Tweedledee and Tweedledum” to stadiums full of enthusiastic people, and in the election, nearly 3 million people voted for him.

With Kshama Sawant’s breakthrough election to the Seattle City Council last month, the question of how and when socialists should consider electoral work has taken on a kind of importance that it has not had for 13 years. Sawant ran as a member of Socialist Alternative and defeated a Democratic Party incumbent with an energetic grassroots campaign that put forward three key demands: a $15-an-hour minimum wage, a rent-control ordinance to make housing more affordable, and a tax on millionaires to fund transit, education and other public services.

One could make the case that these are not explicitly socialist demands, but that misses the point altogether. These demands were an attempt to connect to the mass sentiments of the current period, as well as raise all of our political horizons a little bit. The United States is a country where the general populace has been raised to excuse and even admire the extremely wealthy and to blame themselves for structurally enforced mass impoverishment. The Occupy Wall Street movement shattered the myth of this consensus and raised the issue of inequalities in the distribution of wealth and power in structural terms.

It has been said that what happened in Seattle was that Occupy went to the polls. In Minneapolis, Socialist Alternative’s Ty Moore came within 230 votes of winning a seat on the city council by running a similar campaign.

Given this fact, it is hard to say that what happened in Seattle was an anomaly of the city’s special conditions. These two socialist campaigns are significant in that they have articulated something that many people all over this country are feeling in their guts.

Bill De Blasio, the first Democrat (in alliance with the Working Families Party) to be elected mayor of New York City in more than 20 years, ran a campaign that successfully painted him as a populist-challenger to the pro-Wall Street agenda of previous administrations. Of course, he is already backing away from the promises he made during his campaign, but he’s a Democrat … that’s what they do.

Bernie Sanders, the nominally independent senator from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats, has said publicly that he would consider running for president in order to ensure that progressive ideas have a hearing in the election. Of course, what Sanders means by “progressive” is a wing of the Democratic Party, as opposed to something fresh, new and genuine. There also is no real reason to believe that this is anything more than posturing in an attempt to grab some headlines. Leftists in Vermont know that what Bernie Sanders really stands for is re-electing Bernie Sanders. Still, it’s telling that the senator feels that he has to do more than just criticize the obstructionist Republicans in Congress in order to maintain his lefty credentials.

What does this all mean? It means that there is a palpable anger with the profound inequalities in this country that didn’t go away just because the Occupy protests dissipated.

For those on the left who are still wondering aloud whether or not that is what is happening, consider that two dozen city councillors just got elected in Ohio on an “Independent Labor Party” ticket. Their purpose was to punish the Democrats for “one too many sellouts” of their labour base.

There is a political shift underway, and it’s time to recognise it. De Blasio is a textbook example of how the establishment parties seek to capitalise on our resentments, Sanders represents some of the perils of supposed “independents” with no real connection to social movements or organisation, while Sawant represents the possibilities for something altogether more meaningful.

Given the scale of the crisis that working people face, there is a serious need for some optimism that our side can fight back not just on the picket lines and in the streets, but even at the ballot box. Every possible political break to the left should be encouraged.

If the union-led revolt against the Democrats in Ohio could be replicated in other places, it could give the whole labour movement a reason to lift their heads. If a few Green or independent candidates could make a splash here and there, it could give every progressive-leaning person a reason to think outside the two-party system.

Most importantly, between now and the 2016 presidential election, we will likely see a higher level in socialist electoral activity, but not all of it will be created equal. Some groups will invariably see this as a moment to run token campaigns in an effort to win over another recruit or two.

For those of us who wish to see a socialist movement that is greater than what we already have, this could be an opportunity for meaningful collaboration on a programmatic basis. A few well-organised socialist campaigns that have roots in workplace and neighbourhood struggles, which can raise relevant demands, could assist in the development of a more significant fighting left — something this country desperately needs.

From LINKS: International Journal of Socialist Review: http://links.org.au/node/3638

LINKS: http://links.org.au

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Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: 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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

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

Fourth International Cultural Difference and Social Solidarity Network Conference

Christmas Time

FOURTH INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL DIFFERENCE AND SOCIAL SOLIDARITY NETWORK CONFERENCE

4th International Conference

Cultural Difference and Social Solidarity Network

Differences, Solidarities and Digital Technologies

Hosted by

Middle East Technical University

Northern Cyprus Campus

Tuesday, 1 July through Friday, 4 July, 2014

The 4th International Conference of the Cultural Difference and Social Solidarity Network aims to examine the influence of the spread and growth of digital technology on constructions, concepts, and perceptions of difference and solidarity. By “digital technology” we mean any combination of electronic devices and digital communication including the devices themselves (from smart phones to servers), software and applications, and communication networks. Approximately two thirds of the world’s population (according to the World Bank) has limited access to digital technologies, yet the remaining one third of the population who use these technologies are arguably reshaping concepts of difference and solidarity that have broad implications for all people, their social and cultural institutions, the environment, economic systems, etc. As an example of an area of contested solidarity and difference within that one third of global users, are the broad claims from academia, the market, and digital technology proponents regarding the use of digital technology and devices to promote solidarities, virtual and real, and create an easing of difference through democratizing constructs such as increased access to the internet and communication devices. Contrary arguments assert that solidarities in a virtual world are not possible; that the democratizing effect of the internet, or even wireless service, is an illusion constructed by large corporations that control many of the on-ramps and consumer interfaces of the web in neoliberal societies; and that the growth of use of digital technologies creates new differences and increasingly solidifies existing ones.

This conference seeks to provide a space for scholars to take stock of the present global context and share knowledge – specific or general, empirical or theoretical, with a view to develop and explore the possible ways of understanding the impact of digital technologies on differences and solidarities. The conference is intended to be interdisciplinary and welcomes papers from scholars whose research crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries. Papers and panels are sought for presentation at parallel sessions where each paper will have a strict maximum of 20 minutes presentation time on panels of 2 papers with 25 minutes per paper discussion time.

Initial starting points for paper topics on the 2014 conference theme are listed below. We will also consider papers on themes from previous conferences and/or previous participants who have on-going research on broader areas of difference and solidarity. All papers/presentations should in some way connect to, or address, Cultural Difference and Social Solidarity:

Social media:

Identity

Economy

Politics

Law

War

Governments

Revolutions

Displacement

Sex

Bullying

Religion

Technology and hegemonies

 

Academia and technology:

New disciplines e.g. Digital humanities

Academic freedom

Discrimination

Discourse

Exploitation

Inclusive/exclusive methodologies

 

Electronic production:

Mining, manufacture, distribution, retail

E-waste

Passive and active digital media

Ethics and digital technology

Art and Culture

Digital geography

Digital nativism

New media subjectivity

Gaming

Digital literacy

Epistemology

Experience

 

These themes are not exhaustive and the organizers will consider other papers relevant to the conference subject of Digital Technologies and Cultural Difference and Social Solidarity. We expect to publish a post-conference edited book, derived from the papers presented and organized around themes that reveal themselves during the conference.

There will be two keynote plenary sessions with speakers to be announced. Reflecting the conference theme in the context of the conference venue, one of these sessions will focus on aspects of these themes in Cyprus.

Abstracts may be submitted anytime until March 31, 2014

Notification of abstract acceptances and rejections is on a rolling basis (within 3 weeks of submission)

Online conference registration open from March 17, 2014 to May 30, 2014

Conference Fees to be paid by May 30, 2014

The conference language is English and all papers and presentations should be in English.

The conference fee is 395 Euros (295 Euros for post-grad students and non-participants).

This fee includes:

Registration:

Transfers to and from ErcanAirport in the TurkishRepublic of Northern Cyprus to METU-NCC Campus

4 nights at Campus Guest House with breakfast

4 lunches

2 Sunset Dinners (all drinks included)

1 Dinner Banquet (non-alcoholic drinks included)

Guided Historic/Cultural Excursion

Abstracts of no more than 350 words may be submitted online only, to: http://www.differenceandsolidarity.org/

For any questions or concerns please see our website, including the FAQ page, or contact the conference organizers at the email address below.

Conference Organisers:

Scott H. Boyd

Middle EastTechnicalUniversity – Northern Cyprus Campus

Paul Reynolds

EdgeHillUniversity

info@differenceandsolidarity.org

Digitisation Perspectives

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Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: 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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

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

Rouge Forum Conference 2014

Red

ROUGE FORUM CONFERENCE 2014

THE ROUGE FORUM CONFERENCE 2014

The Struggle for Social Justice Inside and Outside the Classroom
JUNE 5-7, 2014
DENVER, CO, USA
Keynote Speaker: David Barsamian
Location: Metropolitan State University of Denver in Downtown Denver, CO
Conference website: http://rougeforumconference.wordpress.com/

 

The Rouge Forum Dispatch

Rouge Forum Dispatch: Happy Holidays and Don’t Forget to “Read Marx and Make Class War!” (E. Wayne Ross)–is updated here: http://www.richgibson.com/blog/

 

Best wishes to Our Side

Rich Gibson

 

**END**

Teaching Marx

 

 

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: 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

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

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

Marxism Against Postmodernism in Educational Theory

Laddism and Higher Education

Laddism

LADDISM AND HIGHER EDUCATION

A Society for Research into Higher Education event

Date – 7 February 2014 ; 10.30 – 16.30

Venue – SRHE, 73 Collier Street, London N1 9BE

Network – Student Experience Network (SEN)

A one-day SEN symposium discussing masculine behaviours and student culture.

The Student Experience Network of the SRHE is holding a one day symposium on laddism and Higher Education. Its focus is on the intersection of such masculine behaviours with student culture, minorities, lived experience, and the night-time economy, all areas which also inform and shape pedagogical identities. The day has been organised following the NUS’ 2013 report on lad culture in higher education, That’s What She Said and is thus orientated towards asking how the HE sector should respond to research findings and what further research is necessary.

Emerging Themes from That’s What She Said with a discussion on further research and actions
Isabel Young (co-author of report), seconded by Kelly Temple (NUS)

This presentation reports on a research project, funded by the National Union of Students, which sought to explore women students’ experiences of ‘lad culture’ in educational, social and personal spheres. The project consisted of two parts: (1) a thematic literature review covering areas such as gender and education, cultural studies and policy sociology; and (2) in-depth qualitative research using focus groups and semi-structured interviews with a sample of 40 women students, focusing on their experiences of teaching and learning, extra-curricular activities, social life, and sex and relationships. The findings of this research show that although ‘laddism’ is only one of a variety of potential masculinities, there exists at least a significant minority of women students who find ‘lad cultures’ problematic, citing issues such as misogynist ‘banter’, objectification of women and sexual pressure and harassment. This presentation explores some of the key themes to have emerged from the report, including the evolution of ‘laddism’ and its existence as a behavior; the connection between night economies and the propagation of ‘lad culture’; intersections between gender, race, (dis)ability, sexuality and ‘lad culture’, and more. It will conclude by looking ahead to further research possibilities and actions around the impact of ‘lad culture’ in higher education and more broadly.

Isabel Young has a BA in Sociology and an MA in Gender Studies from the University of Sussex. Her research has explored BAME women’s experiences of anti-Muslim racism, constructions of sexual violence on Facebook ‘banter’ sites, and most recently, the impact of ‘lad culture’ on women students in higher education. She has worked with Survivor’s Network, Woman’s Hour and UK Uncut on the issues of VAWG and the cuts. Isabel currently runs a community programme for migrant mothers as part of the Arbour’s Migrant Women’s Mentoring and Social Inclusion project based in East London.
isabelkayoung@gmail.com

Kelley Temple is the NUS National Women’s Officer. She blogs at: http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/blogs/blog/kelleytemple/
kelley.temple@nus.org.uk

Degrees of Laddishness: Laddism in Higher Education
Professor Carolyn Jackson and Dr. Stephen Dempster
This paper provides insights into how laddism is understood, perpetuated, legitimated and challenged among undergraduates in two British universities. We explore the perceived benefits of subscribing to laddish masculinities, and also the costs of laddishness for male and female students in both student social life and teaching/learning environments. We discuss the ways that laddishness can be problematic for men as well as women, but argue that viewing laddishness as existing in a continuum of potential masculine subject positionings not only enables a more sophisticated understanding of laddishness, but also may suggest strategies through which more extreme laddism might be challenged.
Carolyn Jackson is a Professor in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University, and Co-Director of the Centre for Social Justice and Wellbeing in Education. She has published widely on gender issues in education. Her books include Lads and Ladettes in School: Gender and a Fear of Failure (2006), and Girls and Education 3-16: Continuing Concerns, New Agendas (2010, co-edited with Carrie Paechter and Emma Renold). She is currently engaged in two projects exploring laddism in higher education.
c.jackson2@lancaster.ac.uk
Dr. Steven Dempster is a Research and Teaching Associate in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University and the Dean of one of Lancaster’s undergraduate colleges.  Steve has published a number of papers on laddism in higher education and is currently working on a further project on laddism in HE, an evaluation of enhancement of teaching and learning in Scottish HEIs, and a study of the impact of the Harry Potter franchise on boys’ literacies.
s.dempster@lancaster.ac.uk

Chanting Students
Dr. Matthew Cheeseman

I began researching and collecting examples of student chanting in 2005 and have found them a stimulating way of thinking about students and their experience of higher education. Far from simple, chants are both verbal forms and performances, full of contradictory meanings and creadings. In this paper I look at how they are received by others and how they operate as expressions of student identity and enactments of ‘lad culture’. Using data collected following an ethnographic methodology, I attempt to situate chanting within larger and no less contradictory performances (such as being a student) and explain its relationship to a language that has become a totemic within the United Kingdom: banter.

Dr. Matthew Cheeseman is a Research and Teaching Associate at the University of Sheffield. He works between English Literature, Folklore, Creative Writing, Music and Education. Alongside Dr. Camille Kandiko, he convenes the Student Experience Network for the SRHE, arranging approximately three symposiums a year. He blogs at http://www.einekleine.com.

Round table on Students’ Union responses, programmes and strategies alongside thoughts on further research.
Abigail Burman, Sophie van der Ham and Kelly Temple

Abigail Burman is an American undergraduate at the University of Oxford. During her time at university she’s served as her college’s Equal Opportunities Officer, focusing on issues of violence and harassment and helped form the first University-wide campaign against sexual violence.

Sophie van der Ham completed a BA in English literature and linguistics at the University of Amsterdam & Edinburgh. She came to the University of Sussex to study an MA in Gender Studies and co-chaired the Women’s Group on campus. She was elected welfare officer at the University of Sussex Students’ Union and is carrying on the zero tolerance to sexual harassment and discrimination campaign that was started by the previous welfare officer. The campaign has been mentioned by The Guardian and aims to work constructively with the University in introducing a sexual violence policy.

The day will conclude with a general discussion, with the option to splinter into smaller groups in order to discuss research strands.

Laddism

**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: 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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

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

The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire

Neoliberalism

THE MAKING OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF AMERICAN EMPIRE

By Sam Gindin and Leo Panitch

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NEW FROM VERSO

http://www.versobooks.com/books/1527-the-making-of-global-capitalism

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WINNER OF THE 2013 DEUTSCHER MEMORIAL PRIZE

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“Lucid and indispensable guides to the history and practice of American Empire.”

– Naomi Klein, award winning journalist and author of THE SHOCK DOCTRINE

“The most important leftist book of the year, and probably the decade.”– THE STRANGER

—————————— —–

The all-encompassing embrace of world capitalism at the beginning of the twenty-first century was generally attributed to the superiority of competitive markets. Globalization had appeared to be the natural outcome of this unstoppable process. But today, with global markets roiling and increasingly reliant on state intervention to stay afloat, it has become clear that markets and states aren’t straightforwardly opposing forces.

In this groundbreaking work, Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin demonstrate the intimate relationship between modern capitalism and the American state. THE MAKING OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM identifies the centrality of the social conflicts that occur within states rather than between them. These emerging fault lines hold out the possibility of new political movements that might transcend global markets.

THE MAKING OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM, through its highly original analysis of the first great economic crisis of the twenty-first century, identifies the centrality of the social conflicts that occur within states rather than between them. These emerging fault lines hold out the possibility of new political movements transforming nation states and transcending global markets.

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“Combining the ferocity of investigative reporters, sophisticated skills in interpreting the historical archive, and a profound grasp of theory, Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin provide an astonishingly illuminating account of the making of global capitalism through the organization of a global financial system under US hegemony since World War II. If we are, as it seems, destined to live under the dictatorship of the world’s central bankers then it is vital for everyone to know how this came about and what the current fault lines might be that hold out prospects for strong anti-capitalist struggles to emerge. A must read for everyone who is concerned about where the future of capitalism might lie.”

– David Harvey, CUNYGraduateCenter, author of A BRIEF HISTORY OF NEOLIBERALISM

“Left-leaning intellectuals examine the exceptional role of the United States in the development of global capitalism …. [a] densely detailed work.”– KIRKUS REVIEW

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Sam Gindin is the former Research Director of the Canadian Autoworkers Union and Packer Visiting Chair in Social Justice at YorkUniversity. Among his many publications, he is the author (with Greg Albo and Leo Panitch) of IN AND OUT OF CRISIS: THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL MELTDOWN and LEFT ALTERNATIVES.

Leo Panitch is Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy and Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at YorkUniversity. Editor of THE SOCIALIST REGISTER for 25 years, his many books include WORKING CLASS POLITICS IN CRISIS, A DIFFERENT KIND OF STATE, THE END OF PARLIAMENTARY SOCIALISM, and AMERICAN EMPIRE AND THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF GLOBAL FINANCE.

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Paperback / ISBN: 9781781681367 / $19.95 / £12.99 / $22.95CAN / 464 pages

Also available as an Ebook

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For more information on THE MAKING OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF AMERICAN EMPIRE or to buy the book visit: http://www.versobooks.com/books/1527-the-making-of-global-capitalism

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Visit Verso’s website for information on our upcoming events, new reviews and publications and special offers: http://www.versobooks.com

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**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: 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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

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

Journal of Labor Sciences

Work

JOURNAL OF LABOR SCIENCES

I would  like to divulge the table of contents of the first number of the Labor Sciences Journal, a new academic/activist journal founded by DIEESE – the Inter-Union Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies in Brazil. The titles of the articles are below, in Portuguese and English, as well as the link to access them. It’s an excellent resource for scholars of labor in Latin America.

Cordially, Professor Dr. Sean Purdy
Departamento de História
Universidade de São Paulo

CONTENTS:

-Strikes and the gender question: a panorama of the work stoppages motivated by questions related to women between 1983 and 2011

-Apprenticeship as an instrument for the implementation of the fundamental human right to professionalization

-Gender Assymmetries In The Brazilian Labor Market: Crisis And Public Policies

-Juridical Forms of the Reduction of the Workweek in Brazil

-Labor As Seen By Social Anthropology

-Labor, industry and strategies of development

-Modern Times: a reading of labor through images

-The recent evolution of the Brazilian labor market from the perspective of the concept of the industrial reserve army

Barbara Weinstein: The Discourse of Technical Competence: Strategies of Authority and Power
in Industrializing Brazil

http://rct.dieese.org.br/rct/index.php/rct/issue/view/2/showToc

**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: 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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

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

Deconstruction as a Method of Political Analysis

Fear of a Blank Planet

DECONSTRUCTION AS A METHOD FOR POLITICAL ANALYSIS

Presenter	Dr Lasse Thomassen
Date	12/03/2014
Venue	Queen Mary, University of London

The course consists of a one-day workshop for research students and young researchers. The aim of the workshop is to examine deconstruction as a method for political analysis. We read examples of deconstructive analyses by Jacques Derrida and discuss the methodological implications of deconstruction as well as the philosophical assumptions behind it. Deconstruction is often used in literature, cultural studies and philosophy, but is little used as a method for political analysis. The workshop examines the usefulness of deconstruction for the study of politics not only by reading about deconstruction, but also by seeing how it can be put to use in the analysis of texts.

The workshop consists of three two-hour sessions led by Dr Lasse Thomassen (Queen Mary, University of London). The three sessions are organised around readings from Jacques Derrida, with each session focusing on an example of a deconstructive reading while also examining wider methodological issues arising from deconstruction.

The first session examines the question of method and relates it to a piece by Derrida on the category of ‘the event’. To help think about method and the event, we introduce the notion of iterability. In the second session, we together deconstruct a text written by Habermas, and co-signed by Derrida, on Europe. This session continues the reflection on deconstructive concepts and deconstruction as a method by looking at the logic of the example. The third session examines Derrida’s writings on hospitality as a way of reflecting on the relationship to ‘the other’, a theme already broached in the second session. In this final session we look at the role played by the pair conditional/unconditional in Derrida’s rethinking of concepts like hospitality.

At the end of the course, the participants will have knowledge of the philosophical assumptions behind deconstruction, the implications of deconstruction for questions surrounding the use of methods in the social sciences and humanities, the politics of deconstruction, and the use deconstruction for concrete political analysis.

Further details and registration: http://www.ncrm.ac.uk/training/show.php?article=4719

**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: 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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

Cinematicity: City and Cinema After Deleuze

Gilles Deleuze

CINEMATICITY: CITY AND CINEMA AFTER DELEUZE

Call for Papers: Cinematicity: City and Cinema after Deleuze

Organizers: David B. Clarke, Marcus A. Doel, Richard G. Smith

This session of the Royal Society of Geographers & Institute of British Geographers Annual International Conference 2014, focuses on the ‘co-production’ of filmic and urban space. That term, as it features in the conference theme, relates to knowledge – proposing that ‘new encounters are disrupting conceptions of where knowledge resides.’ Engaging Deleuze’s discussions of cinema, this session questions the framing of co-production in terms of dwelling. The reciprocal presupposition of cinema and city would seem, rather, to embody a sense of becoming. Thus, Deleuze’s conceptions of the cinemas of the movement-image and time-image recall Lewis Mumford’s claim that, ‘In the city, time becomes visible.’ How does cinema think the city, and vice-versa, to generate new, transformative senses of cinematicity? Contributions exploring the connections between cinematic and urban space are invited, potentially including work on early cinema and living pictures; considerations of specific cities, films or genres; conceptions of city and cinema as spiritual automata; and a multiplicity of other creative conceptualizations of cinematicity.

Please send abstracts of no more than 200 words by 14th February to: d.b.clarke@swansea.ac.uk

Annual International Conference 2014: http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Annual+international+conference.htm

Contact:
David B. Clarke
Centre for Urban Theory
Department of Geography
Swansea University
Swansea SA2 8PP, UK
Tel. +44(0)1792 602317
E-mail: d.b.clarke@swansea.ac.uk

**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: 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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

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

Royal Geographical Society & Institute of British Geographers Annual International Conference 2014

The Island

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY & INSTITUTE OF BRITISH GEOGRAPHERS ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2014

Call for Papers: RGS–IBG Annual International Conference 2014, London, 26–29 August 2014

Session: Anti Production & Co. Unthinking capitalist realism (Perish the thought)
Organizers: Marcus A. Doel, David B. Clarke, and Richard G. Smith
Sponsor: History and Philosophy of Geography Research Group (HPGRG)

Expected format: Two 100-minute sessions, comprising eight 20-minute papers (inc. 5-minutes each for Q&A), and two 20-minute discussants

“It cannot be stressed enough: THERE IS NEVER ANYTHING TO PRODUCE” (Jean Baudrillard, The Ecstasy of Communication)

The advent of the term ‘co-production’ should be a cause for concern for all Left-leaning Geographers. With its conjoining of a generalized busyness on the one hand (production) and a harmonious coming together on the other hand (co-), the term’s dissimulation and occlusion of the agonistic division of labour and the expropriation of the commons seems perfectly attuned to the ideological obfuscation of capitalist realism, zombie neoliberalism, and objective violence. Since everything is supposedly produced (made to appear, manufactured, assembled, fabricated, and constructed), we are all seemingly compelled to produce together; and we are all ostensibly in it together (humans and nonhumans, producers and consumers, dead labour and living labour, and so on and so forth). Such is the fantastical and phantasmagorical meaning of ‘co-production’ – an assembling assembly, toiling away for the common good. This session will challenge this cozy, heart-warming, and peaceable notion of ‘creative togetherness’ by welcoming a return of the ideologically repressed: the dis- and the de- against the co-, and the se- and the re- against the pro- (disjointure and deconstruction; seduction and sedition; reduction and retraction; et cetera).

We would welcome papers that challenge the notion of ‘co-production,’ particularly with reference to:
* Capitalist realism
* Zombie neoliberalism
* Objective violence – symbolic and systemic
* Anti-production and general economy
* Seduction and the mirror of production
* The violence of critical theory and fatal theory
* Being forced to think otherwise
* Deconstruction and poststructuralism
* Revolutionary and counter-revolutionary theory
* Schizoanalysis and psychoanalysis
* Commonization of knowledge production
* The destruction of meaning
* Uncreative thinking
* Interpassivity and desubjectification

Please send a proposed title, an abstract (up to 200 words), and your contact details to Marcus Doel, Swansea University (m.a.doel@swansea.ac.uk), by 25th January 2014.

Marcus A. Doel, David B. Clarke, and Richard G. Smith
Centre for Urban Theory
Department of Geography
College of Science
Swansea University
Singleton Park
Swansea SA2 8PP
United Kingdom
Tel. +44(0)1792 513090
E-mail: m.a.doel@swansea.ac.uk
Twitter: @MarcusDoel

“Through the mirror of production the human species comes to consciousness in the imaginary’” (Jean Baudrillard, The Mirror of Production)

Further details about the Annual Conference can be found at <http://www.rgs.org/AC2014> and about HPGRG at: <http://hpgrg.org.uk/>.

 

**END**

 

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: 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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

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

‘Big Data’ in Education and Learning Analytics

Neoliberalism

‘BIG DATA’ IN EDUCATION AND LEARNING ANALYTICS

CALL FOR PAPERS

Forms of analysis in education – statewide and global systems – are increasingly governed by the huge size of data sets in the order of exabytes (EB 1018 1 EB = 1000000000000000000B = 1018bytes = 1000 petabytes=I billion gigabytes) that present problems of data capture, storage, analysis and presentation. Data sets have grown in size because information is collected by ubiquitous information-sensing mobile devices, aerial sensory technologies and global digital systems. Serious questions emerge concerning who should own and have access to these big data initiatives, Another issue concerns the fact that we know little about ‘underlying empirical micro-processes that lead to the emergence of the[se] typical network characteristics of Big Data’.[1] Some analysts are suggesting that big data in online learning will provide the predictive tools they need to improve learning outcomes for personalized learning: ‘By designing a curriculum that collects data at every step of the student learning process, universities can address student needs with customized modules, assignments, feedback and learning trees in the curriculum that will promote better and richer learning.’[2]

This special issue of Policy Futures in Education (www.wwwords.co.uk/PFIE) will investigate big data in education and learning analytics. Possible topics include:

– Big data and education policy
– Big data and the implications for education research
– Big data and edu-business
– Big data and schooling in democracies
– Big data and knowledge production
– Big data and school systems
– Big data and the purposes of schooling

‘It is not new that educational institutions collect and analyse data for predicting and intervening in children’s educational performance…What is new is digitising, meta-tagging and aggregating that data with many other data sets, making possible new connections, predictions and diagnoses.’ Understanding Education through Big Data, Lyndsay Grant, October 25, 2013 (hdmlcentral.net/blog/lyndsay-grant/understanding-education-through-big-data)

‘The emerging research communities in educational data mining and learning analytics are developing methods for mining and modeling the increasing amounts of fine-grained data becoming available about learners.’ Coursera – Ryan Baker

‘Big data is the foundation on which education can reinvent its business model and build the coalition of governments, businesses, and social entrepreneurs that can bring together the evidence, innovation and resources to make lifelong learning a reality for all. So the next educational superpower might be the one that can combine the hierarchy of institutions with the power of collaborative information flows and social networks.’ Big Data and PISA, Andreas Schleicher, Deputy Director and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the OECD’s Secretary-General (oecdeducationtoday.blogspot.co.nz/2013/07/big-data-and-pisa.html)

Editors: Michael A. Peters (mpeters@waikato.ac.nz); Robert Lingard (r.lingard@uq.edu.au), Tina Besley (t.besley@waikato.ac.nz) and Jillian Blackmore (jillian.blackmore@deakin.edu.au).

Please send expressions of interest including a title, abstract and key texts to one of the editors by April 4, 2014. Deadline for full papers is October 10, 2014 for publication in late 2015. The Journal’s information for authors can be found at www.wwwords.co.uk/pfie/howtocontribute.asp

Notes
[1] C. Snijders, U. Matzat & U.-D. Reips (2012) ‘Big Data’: big gaps of knowledge in the field of Internet, International Journal of Internet Science, 7, 1‑5. http://www.ijis.net/ijis7_1/ijis7_1_editorial.html
[2] http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2013/08/15/why-big-data-not-moocs-will-revolutionize-education

 

**END**

 

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: 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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

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

Materialisms Old and New – London Reading Group

Aesthetics

MATERIALISMS OLD AND NEW – LONDON READING GROUP

Dear All

The ‘Materialisms Old and New’ reading group organise regular meetings to discuss both old and new materialist understandings of markets, rationalities, agency, contingency, power and governance. This is not a lecture course so we will be mixing up the texts and approaching key or interesting readings in an informal and flexible way, with a brief introduction by one of the group. The next two meetings in the new year are: 

6. Thursday 30 January 2014 Michael Callon et al – Acting in an Uncertain World: An Essay on Technical Democracy – introduced by Michele Ledda (University of Westminster).

7. Wednesday 19 March 2014 William Connolly – The Fragility of Things: Self-Organizing Processes, Neoliberal Fantasies, and Democratic Activism – introduced by David Chandler (University of Westminster).

Meetings are open to all and take place 6.30-8.00pm, Westminster Forum, Department of Politics and International Relations, 5th Floor, 32-38 Wells Street, London, W1T 3UW (5 minutes from Oxford Circus tube). If you would like to be added to the working group mailing list, please contact David Chandler at d.chandler@wmin.ac.uk. 

Sponsored by the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster and the Centre for Media & Culture Research, London South Bank University

Best wishes,
David Chandler

David Chandler, Professor of International Relations, Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Westminster, 32-38 Wells Street, London, W1T 3UW. Tel: ++44 (0)776 525 3073. 

Journal Editor, Resilience: International Policies, Practices and Discourses:  http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/resi20
Book series Editor, Routledge Studies in Intervention and Statebuilding:  http://208.254.74.79/books/series/RSIS/

Book series Editor, Routledge Advances in Democratic Theory:  http://www.routledge.com/books/series/RADT/  
Amazon books page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/David-Chandler/e/B001HCXV7Y/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0  

Personal website: http://www.davidchandler.org/  

**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: 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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

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