Rights to Nature

RIGHTS TO NATURE

Conference & Call for Papers

“Rights to Nature: tracing alternative political ecologies to the neoliberal environmental agenda”.

This is a hybrid academic-activist event that aims to encourage a closer collaboration between scholars and activists working on the neoliberalisation of nature. The conference is sponsored by the GEOFORUM journal.

23rd and 24th June 2016

Keynes Hall, King’s College, University of Cambridge, UK

 

We are looking for activists and scholars engaged in environmental movements in Europe. We are interested in a wide variety of topics, including -but not limited- the privatization of natural resources and public assets, land grabbing, the dismantling of traditional forms of using natural resources, the neoliberalisation of nature (including biodiversity conservation), and expropriation of green spaces in both urban and rural areas. Instances of these movements include anti-fracking and anti-mining movements, housing struggles, anti-biodiversity offsetting initiatives, movements against the privatization of public nature assets, including forests and water, and struggles against gentrification, regeneration, urban redevelopment and/or large infrastructure projects with significant environmental impacts.

We would like to invite you to participate in the conference and also if possible to help us reaching people from outside academia that engage in this kind of work. We have some funding available to pay for travel and accommodation. We would be extremely grateful if you could pass them this information and the preliminary program and call for papers, please.

You can find the call for papers here: http://conservationandtransformation.com/2016/01/27/conference-rights-to-nature-tracing-alternative-political-ecologies-to-the-neoliberal-environmental-agenda/ and here (in the Facebook page you can also find the program): https://www.facebook.com/groups/985735908164832/

Deadline for Abstracts: 27^th March 2016

We would also like to let you know that our goal is to enable an in-depth discussion between scholars and activists and, therefore, this would be a rather small event with a limited number of participants.

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/conference-rights-to-nature-tracing-alternative-political-ecologies-to-the-neoliberal-environmental-agenda

Old Nature

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Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

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Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

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The Arts of Logistics

THE ARTS OF LOGISTSICS

Call for Papers

3^rd and 4^th June 2016

Queen Mary University of London

Keynote Presentations: Deborah Cowen (University of Toronto) and Alberto Toscano (Goldsmiths, University of London)

The so-called “logistics revolution” and its attendant technologies have made possible capitalism’s reproduction and restructuring over the past half century. Among other things, logistics sped up the loading and unloading of ships and helped establish the “global factory,” thereby drastically reducing the labor time required to produce and circulate commodities. This allowed capitalism to expand its economies of scale and relocate manufacturing to wherever worker militancy and the costs of labor were lowest. While the logistics infrastructure has transformed social life the world over, it also has opened up new opportunities for resistance to exploitation. Since the onset of the financial crisis, an array of movements internationally have turned to logistics as a terrain of political struggle, from the work slowdowns of logistics employees to the port and highway blockades of social movements as various as Occupy, the “Boycott, Divest, and Sanction” campaign, and BlackL ivesMatter. Logistics is also increasingly material for art, from representations of global trade in photography and literature to the use of actual shipping containers as performance spaces and pop-up galleries.

“The Arts of Logistics” brings together scholars, activists, and artists from across the humanities and social sciences to interrogate how social movements and the arts respond to a world remade by logistics. Long an important topic for economists, management theorists, and sociologists, logistics is only recently emerging as an object of substantive study by artists and researchers in the humanities. Thus, this conference seeks to further define scholarly, political, and artistic conversations on the nexus of political economy, anti-capitalist struggle, and art.

 

Possible topics participants could engage include the following:

-The politics and aesthetics of mapping logistics or infrastructure – Container art and architecture

-Historical representations of empire, trade, and commodity flows

-The emergence of counter-logistics as an anti-capitalist strategy

-Cultures of surveillance and security

-Labour and consumer activism around the “global factory”

-Data and network visualisation

-Queering logistics

 

We invite proposals for 20-minute papers in a variety of formats. As an interdisciplinary conference, we also welcome practical demonstrations by artists, performances lectures, roundtables, and more.

Please submit an abstract of 300 words (max) and a short bio of 50 words (max) to both conference organisers: Shane Boyle (m.s.boyle@qmul.ac.uk) and Aylwyn Walsh (awalsh@lincoln.ac.uk) by February 22. Please make sure to include your preferred contact information and specify ‘The Arts of Logistics’ in your subject line. If you are interested in making a proposal that involves multiple contributions or lasts longer than 20 minutes (like a roundtable or screening) please be in touch with the organisers as soon as possible.

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/cfp-the-arts-of-logistics

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

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

Ruth Rikowski at Serendipitous Moments: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/

The End of Progressive Hegemony

Hegemony

THE END OF PROGRESSIVE HEGEMONY: REGRESSIVE TURN IN THE PASSIVE REVOLUTIONS OF LATIN AMERICA

Wednesday 2 December 2015

Evening Guest Lecture in the School of Politics and International Relations,

Queen Mary University of London

The End of Progressive Hegemony: Regressive Turn in the Passive Revolutions of Latin America

Massimo Modonesi, Professor of Sociology, UNAM, Mexico City

The experience of the so-called progressive governments in Latin America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela) seems to have entered an impasse that some authors have labelled the end of a cycle. Starting from their characterization as passive revolutions we can analyse the current processes of these governments according to a shared, defining feature: the relative loss of hegemony, that is to say of the capacity to construct cross-class consensus. This loss is traceable to a shift from a progressive profile to a more regressive one in these governments and their actions, perceptible as much in new equilibriums in their constituent blocs and social alliances, as in their public policy orientation and relationships to social movements. In the short term horizon, it does not appear that there will be an imminent break with the political-institutional order and a return of the Right, but  there is an observable conservative turn in the region ̵ 1; more perceptible in some countries (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Ecuador) than in others (Venezuela and Bolivia). On the other hand, alongside this emerging context of an offensive by the national and international Right within Latin America, there is also a clear reactivation of protest on the part of popular actors, organizations and movements; they are emphasizing their antagonistic profile once again, against the grain of the subordination they experienced during the progressive cycle of Latin American passive revolutions.

What: Lecture on the present state of progressive governments in Latin America, and the simultaneous reactivation of the Right and popular social movements of the Left.

When: Wednesday 2 December 2015, 18:00-20:00

Where: David Sizer Lecture Theatre (Francis Bancroft), Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Campus

Massimo Modonesi is a Professor of Sociology at the Autonomous National University of Mexico / Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City. He is an editor of arguably the most important sociological journal in Latin America, Observatorio social de América Latina (OSAL), and sits on the editorial board of the leading leftist magazine in Mexico, Memoria. Modonesi is also an authority on the political writings of Antonio Gramsci, and an expert in both contemporary Marxist theory and socio-political movements and the Left in twentieth and twenty-first century Latin America. He is the author of Subalternity, Antagonism, Autonomy (Pluto, 2013), as well as several influential books in Spanish.

Attendance is free of charge, but please register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/massimo-modonesi-the-end-of-progressive-hegemony-tickets-19634320782

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/lecture-at-qmul-december-2-the-end-of-progressive-hegemony-regressive-turn-in-the-passive-revolutions-of-latin-america-massimo-modonesi

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Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

Ruth Rikowski at Serendipitous Moments: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/

Mediated Cities

The City

MEDIATED CITIES

Mediated Cities Book Series

Open Call for Contributions
Intellect Books will launch its Mediated Cities book series April 01-03, 2016 with three books.

Digital Futures and the City of Today:  New Technologies and Physical Spaces. ISBN: 978-1-78320-560-8
Filming the City: Urban Documents, Design Practices & Social Criticism Through the Lens. ISBN: 978-1-78320-554-7
Imaging the City: Art, Creative Practices and Media Speculations. ISBN: 978-1-78320-557-8

This is a call for chapter contributions for the following book in the series from the perspective of all disciplines that engage with issues of the city, its design, mediation, representation and experience.

Contributions are welcome from urban design, planning, cultural studies, digital art, emerging technologies, social media, film, photography  etc.

The next book in the series will be drawn from the conference: Digital-Cultural Ecology and the Medium-Sized City.

For details: http://architecturemps.com/bristol-uk/

ABSTRACT DEADLINE: 15th NOVEMBER, 2015

This conference is organised by the journal Architecture_MPS, Intellect Books, the University of the West of England and the Centre for Moving Image Research. The publication series is a joint AMPS / Intellect Books initiative. See: http://architecturemps.com/publications-2/

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Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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Rules for the World Market

RULES FOR THE WORLD MARKET

Professor Paul Cammack

Tuesday, 27 October 2015, 5-7 PM

Room G3 (SOAS Main Building)

Discussant: Dr Alessandra Mezzadri (SOAS)

Abstract: It is too often forgotten that some of the first calls for structural adjustment from the late 1970s on came from the OECD and the World Bank, and were directed towards the advanced Western economies. These organizations urged them to reform their welfare regimes and to open their economies to exports from the newly industrialised countries in particular. This paper characterises them primarily as producers of rules for the world market, and follows the evolution of the ‘world market project’ through to the present, with reference to the successive conjunctures of 1989-91 and 2008-2009. The principal focus is on the promotion of competitiveness, and the reform of labour markets and social protection. It is argued that the project is best understood as centrally concerned with the development of capitalist relations of production on a global scale.

Professor Paul Cammack received his PhD from the University of Oxford. He was until recently a faculty member in the Department of Asian and International Studies at City University of Hong Kong, China where he taught Global Political Economy. Professor Cammack has recently published “World Market Regionalism at the Asian Development Bank” in the Journal of Contemporary Asia and a series of Working Papers on the multilateral development banks and the Global Financial Crisis. Professor Cammack’s research interests include the response of multilateral development banks to the financial crisis, the political economy of Latin America, Marxism, south-south cooperation and the politics of development.

ALL WELCOME, NO NEED TO BOOK.

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/professor-paul-cammack-rules-for-the-world-market-soas-ocober-27

We Are the Crisis

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Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

Ruth Rikowski at Serendipitous Moments: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/

Contradictions: A Journal for Critical Thought

CONTRADICTIONS: A JOURNAL FOR CRITICAL THOUGHT

Call for Papers
A New Journal
Kontradikce /Contradictions: A Journal for Critical Thought

We are seeking submissions of scholarly articles and theoretical essays that skirt the disciplinary boundaries of political philosophy, social theory, and cultural critique. This peer-reviewed journal, based in Prague, aims to critically revive and update Central and Eastern European traditions of radical thought, bringing them to bear on the historical present and bringing them into international discussions of the theoretical problems involved in emancipatory social change.

The journal is therefore especially interested in 1) articles that delve into the often overlooked or forgotten history of radical left thought in our part of the world and assess this legacy’s contemporary significance; 2) articles that describe and develop related and parallel traditions of thought originating in other regions, bringing these traditions into conversation with the traditions of Central and Eastern Europe; 3) articles that analyze Soviet-type societies and their troubled relationship to historical and contemporary movements for social emancipation; and 4) articles that critically engage with the ideological assumptions and social conditions of “post-communism,” that is, of the discursive association of the communist project with Soviet-type societies and, thus, with a “failed” and irretrievable past.

With these thematic problems in mind, we ask what specific contributions to critical social theory can arise out of the post-Communist experience—that is, out of the historical conflation of communism (the idea and project) with Communism (the party and party-run states) and the subsequent de-legitimation of the former along with the latter. Our focus is thus both geographically specific and global, as we aim to bring together the specific intellectual legacy of those parts of Europe formerly under Communist Party rule with w orldwide reflections of the “fall” of communism as a leading political and intellectual force. Out of this situation, we ask what new visions can emerge.

The journal will be published once a year as a double issue in multilingual format, with one part in English and one part in Czech and Slovak. Submissions are welcome in any of these three languages (English, Czech, or Slovak).

The first issue, with a submission deadline of October 31, 2015, will focus thematically on assessing the current moment and the state of critical social—and in particular Marxist—thought a quarter century after the fall of governments in Central and Eastern Europe that officially sanctioned Marxism while also constraining its development as a tradition of social critique. Submissions are encouraged, but not required, to take this focus into account.

Articles are welcome in the following categories:

· “Studies” and “essays”: These may be articles of a more or less traditional academic character, but with an emphasis on the social significance of the material presented and on original and provocative argumentation. But we also welcome more essayistic contributions that break with some of the conventions of scholarly form. We are interested in rigorously theoretical essays, works of high scholarly value but which might not find a place in other scholarly journals. In this kind of writing, insightful generalization and shrewd observation will be given more weight than an exhaustive accounting for “existing literature” or a detailed description of research methodology. In other words, we have in mind essays that continue in the genre of most classic works in the modern history of ideas, from Rousseau’s Discourses through Benjamin’s “Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” and Karel Kosík’s Dialectics of the Concrete. More traditionally scholarly articles should be about 4000-9000 words long. Essays can range from 3000 to 10,000 words.

· “Translations” and “materials”: Here we include important contributions to Central/Eastern European social thought that can be brought to international attention in English translation; internationally important works in new Czech or Slovak translations; and previously unpublished or long-unavailable “materials,” accompanied by annotation that presents the materials’ significance to contemporary readers (these may be submitted in English, Czech, or Slovak). 3000-10,000 words.

· “Reviews” of recent publications in critical social thought. Reviews may be brief (500-2000 words) or may constitute longer “review studies” (2000-5000 words).

Send all submissions to jgrimfeinberg@gmail.com.
Further information available on www.facebook.com/kontradikce.
First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/new-journal-contradictions

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Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

Ruth Rikowski at Serendipitous Moments: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/

The Mont Pelerin Plague? Revisiting and Rethinking Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism

THE MONT PELERIN PLAGUE? REVISITING AND RETHINKING NEOLIBERALISM

Call for Papers

Association of American Geographers Conference

2016

San Francisco, 29 March – 2 April 2016

 

The Mont Pelerin Plague? Revisiting and Rethinking Neoliberalism

Organizers

Kean Birch (York University, Canada)

Simon Springer (University of Victoria, Canada)

 

Outline

From its initial conceptualization in Mont Pelerin in 1947, neoliberalism has now become a ubiquitous term. In geography, and elsewhere, it is used to theorize everything from the development of ecosystem services through urban regeneration to financialization (Springer, Birch & MacLeavy 2016). Across a range of disciplines it is conceptualized in various ways as, for example, a geographical process; a form of governmentality; the restoration of elite class power; a discourse; a political project of institutional change; a set of transformative ideas; a development policy paradigm; a radical political slogan; an epistemic community or thought collective; an economic ideology or doctrine; a particular form of violence; and so on. Such variety and diversity in intellectual analysis (i.e. an explanatory framework) and substantive topic (i.e. a thing to explain) have produced a glut of concepts, theories, and analyses. While this medley might be seen as a necessary – and fruitful – outcome of such a hybrid and heterogeneous process, it also has the potential side-effect of leaving us more confused than enlightened. It is increasingly difficult, on the one hand, to parse or synthesize this intellectual (yet often contradictory) abundance and, on the other hand, to apply it to policy or practical issues facing diverse communities, societies, organizations and individuals around the world. It also risk becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, where despite our hesitancies, we come to believe that there really is no alternative. A body of literature is emerging that is critical of current conceptions and understandings of neoliberalism, highlighting these issues (e.g. Boas & Gans-Morse 2009; Barnett 2009; Weller and O’Neill 2014; Flew 2014; Birch 2015; Venugopal 2015).

 

Questions

It is time to take stock of what we are left with by adopting neoliberalism as a key spanner in our analytical toolkit. Consequently, the aim of this session is to revisit and rethink neoliberalism as an abstract concept and as an empirical object. We invite contributors to critically revisit dominant conceptions of neoliberalism, to rethink how we use neoliberalism as an analytical and methodological framework, and to offer new ideas about how to productively (re)conceptualize neoliberalism. Below we outline some broad questions that contributors might like to consider engaging, although others are welcome:

1. How conceptually useful has neoliberalism been in geography?
2. How has the concept of neoliberalism evolved over the last two decades?
3. How are we plagued by neoliberalism, or are we plagued by its ongoing prioritization?
4. Does neoliberalism represent the most useful or critical way of understanding the current state of the world?
5. Does neoliberalism need updating as a critical concept in ways that take us beyond hybridity and variegation?
6. What is missing from debates on neoliberalism in contemporary geographical scholarship?
7. What makes neoliberalism such a popular analytical framework in geography?
8. Are there alternative ways to conceptualize neoliberalism?
9. Are we in need of finding alternative conceptions that break with the language of ‘neoliberalism’ altogether?
10. What might new visions beyond neoliberalism yield in terms of our collective political future?

 

Abstract Submission

If you would like to participate in the session, please submit an abstract (250 words max) by 19 October 2015 to bothkean@yorku.ca and springer@uvic.ca. If you would like to participate in other ways (e.g. discussant) then please feel free to contact us as well.

Please note: once you have submitted an abstract to us, you will also need to register AND submit an abstract on the AAG website. The AAG abstract deadline is 29 October 2015 to: http://www.aag.org/cs/http://www.aag.org/cs/annualmeeting/how_to_submit_an_abstract

 

See: http://www.politicalgeography.org/2015/09/24/cfp-aag-2016-the-mont-pelerin-plague-revisiting-and-rethinking-neoliberalism/

 

Neoliberalism

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

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

Ruth Rikowski at Serendipitous Moments: http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/

Housing by Choice, Housing by Force: Homes, Conflict and Conflicting Interests

Ideal Home?

HOUSED BY CHOICE, HOUSED BY FORCE – HOMES, CONFLICT AND CONFLICTING INTERESTS

Interdisciplinary – International Conference

Details:  http://architecturemps.com/cyprus

The need to be housed is basic and yet, the forces that produce it in any city of the world multiple, contradictory and often conflictive.

Whilst inherently complicated in any context, housing delivery is even more difficult in sites of inherent social, cultural, political and economic sensitivity such as the one that hosts this event, Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus.

Taking as its starting point the social, political, cultural and economic complexity of its host city – the world’s last remaining divided capital – this conference seeks to understand the range of conflicting interests and factors that shape the housing of our towns and cities in both normal and extreme scenarios.

It is interested in cases from around the world, from politically charged environments of military conflict zones to the socially conflictive contexts of developer led gentrification. It welcomes resident perspectives and planner led solutions, sociological analysis and ideas for inclusionary design.

It seeks to better understand how we safeguard the right to choose appropriate housing for all our citizens; how we ensure residents have a voice in design and development; how we guarantee adequate housing is always an option; and how we overcome conflicts and conflicting interests to do this.

Location: University of Cyprus; The Cyprus Institute, Cyprus.

Dates: 21 – 22nd January, 2016

Abstract Deadline: 01st October, 2015

Details:  http://architecturemps.com/cyprus

 

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

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Post-Socialist Economies, Nationalistic Conflicts and Labour in Central-Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union

POST-SOCIALIST ECONOMIES, NATIONALISTIC CONFLICTS AND LABOUR IN CENTRAL-EASTERN EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION

One Day Workshop at Middlesex University, Hendon, London NW4 4BT

Hosted by the Business School and the Post-Socialist Labour Studies Group.
Friday May 29 2015, from 9.30am to 6pm

For further information, and to register at the workshop, please contact:
Claudio Morrison (c.morrison@mdx.ac.uk) or Elena Karoullas (E.Karoullas@mdx.ac.uk)

A workshop is jointly sponsored by the Royal Economic Society and the London Region of BUIRA (British Universities Industrial Relations Association) will be held under the auspices of the Post Socialist Labour Studies Group at Middlesex University on Friday May 29th 2015. The workshop focuses on ethno-national conflicts in post-socialist and post-soviet states and the political economy of the region, explorin g links between emergent neoliberal forms of capitalism and the rise of radical nationalism. Guest speakers will include practitioners in labour and industrial relations and economic policy from the region as well as academic specialists and labour representatives from countries gravely affected by present and past conflicts such as Ukraine, Russia, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Confirmed participant speakers include:
Dr Claudio Morrison (LWO, Middlesex University); Professor Martin Upchurch (LWO, Middlesex University); Professor John Grahl (Economics, Middlesex University); Dr Daryna Grechyna (Economics, Middlesex University); Kiril Buketov (IUF Uniting Food, Farm and Hotel Workers Worldwide); Volodymyr Ishenko (Center for Social and Labour Research, Kiev); Goran Markovic (East Sarajevo University, Sarajevo Plenum); Filip Ilkowski (Institute of Political Science, Warsaw) Petr Bizyukov (Centre for Social and Labour Rights, Moscow); Veronika Biziukova (Levada analy tical centre, Moscow); Professor Vera Trappmann (University of Leeds) Dr. Jelena Timotijevic (University of Brighton); Dr Jan Fidrmuc (Economics, Brunel University).

Directions to the Hendon Campus
http://www.mdx.ac.uk/get-in-touch/directions-london
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1577293192531879/

 

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/post-socialist-economies-nationalistic-conflicts-and-labour

Modernism

 

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

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Powers and the Limits of Property

Detroit

POWERS AND THE LIMITS OF PROPERTY

A workshop hosted by the Centre for Philosophy and Critical Thought and the Unit for Global Justice, Goldsmiths, University of London

11 June 2015, RHB 142 (10-4) & RHB 308 (4.30-6.45), Goldsmiths, New Cross SE14 6NW
Contemporary philosophy has undertaken sustained interrogations of its relationship to law and, to a lesser extent, capital. This has been less true of its questioning of its relationship to the crucial nexus of law and capital: property. Inversely, while critical legal theory has appropriated a welter of concepts and methods from contemporary philosophy, it has often avoided a sustained critical appraisal of the images of law within philosophy itself, and of the place of property within these.
Responding to a resurgent critical interest in the question of property, and especially to contemporary inquiries into the logics of dispossession that subtend capitalism, this workshop will stage a trans-disciplinary dialogue on the legal and philosophical powers – as well the limits and impasses – of property.
Speakers: Étienne Balibar (Kingston), José Bellido (Kent), Brenna Bhandar (SOAS), Robert Nichols (Humboldt), Alain Pottage (LSE), Stella Sandford (Kingston), Bev Skeggs (Goldsmiths), Alberto Toscano (Goldsmiths), Eyal Weizman (Goldsmiths), Mikhaïl Xifaras (Sciences Po), Hyo Yoon Kang (Kent)
Organised by Brenna Bhandar (Senior Lecturer in the School of Law, SOAS) and Alberto Toscano (Co-Director, Centre for Philosophy and Critical Thought and Unit for Global Justice, Goldsmiths)
All welcome. For further information, contact a.toscano@gold.ac.uk

See: http://www.gold.ac.uk/sociology/research-centres/cpct/

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/powers-and-limits-of-property-centre-for-philosophy-and-critical-thought-goldsmiths-11-june-10-6.45

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Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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Decolonizing the Mind Summer School

The Black Rock

DECOLONIZING THE MIND SUMMER SCHOOL

What is the Decolonizing The Mind Summer School?

From July 19th – July 31st the first edition of the Decolonizing The Mind Summer School will be held in Amsterdam.

The DTM Summer School is an intensive two-week course on the subject of Decolonizing The Mind. The course takes on two interrelated topics:

• The theoretical framework and methodology of Decolonizing The Mind (knowledge production and the mechanisms of colonizing the mind).
• Decolonial thinking and the discourse of liberation in social movements in different regions of the world.

 

What is the program?

In the two weeks there are ten sessions (morning lectures and afternoon interactive sessions) devoted to the following topics:

Session 1: Sandew Hira, director of the International Institute for Scientific Research in Holland, gives an overview of decolonial thinking in the last few decades in the academia (postcolonial studies, national liberation discourses, ethnic studies etc.) and the methodology of developing a theoretical framework for DTM based on decolonial concepts.

Session 2: Professor Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Professor and Head of the Archie Mafeje Research Institute at the University of South Africa, takes on the issue of nationalism and anti-colonial struggles in Southern Africa, including the question of land.

Session 3: Roberto Hernández, lecturer at the San Diego State University in California USA, deals with the persistence and resurgence of indigenous movements, knowledges and practices, which will be the basis for a rethinking of social struggles over land, natural resources and cultural renewal.

Session 4: Stephen Small, professor in the Department of History at the University of Amsterdam, and Associate Professor of African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, will go into the different discourses in the Civil Rights Movement in America.

Session 5: Jaya Mehta, senior economist and an activist associated with the Joshi-Adhikari Institute for Social Studies in India, traces the development path traversed by India and China in the transformation from predominantly agrarian economies to industrialised countries that are well integrated into the world economy. She focuses on the philosophy behind the policies of different actors.

Session 6: Abulkasim Al-Jaberi, journalist and activist in Holland, analyzes the effect of the US invasion of Iraq in relation to the historic events unfolding today including the Arab spring and the emergence of ISIS.

Session 7: Arzu Merali, head of the research section of the Islamic Human Rights Commission in London UK, highlights the rise of Islamic political movements in Iran and Turkey – two key players in the Middle East – in their successes and failures.

Session 8: Jeanne Henriquez, independent scholar and activist from Curacao in the Caribbean, deals with the legacy of slavery in the Caribbean and the new social movements associated with it including the movement for pan-Africanism and reparations.

Session 9: Selim Nadi, member of the first decolonial party in France – Parti des Indigènes de la République – goes into the process that Western Europe is going through of a painful confronting with its colonial past right in the heart of the empire. European societies now have to deal with a new generation of young activists who are trying to politicize the postcolonial situation of their countries.

Session 10: Sandew Hira and Ramon Grosfoguel, are giving a lecture in the form of a debate on two discourse of liberation: Marxism and decolonial thinking. They take into account the analysis of the different regional experiences as have been covered in the previous lectures.

 

Other information

The Decolonizing The Mind Summer School is organized by the International Institute of Scientific Research (IISR) headed by director Sandew Hira.

The fee for the Summer School is € 1,000.

If paid before April 1st 2015, then the fee is € 900.

This fee does not include lodging, food and transport.

Download the full 16-page brochure here: http://www.decolonizingthemind.org/download/DTMSM2015Brochure.pdf

Download the application form here: http://www.decolonizingthemind.org/download/DTMSM2015ApplicationForm.doc.

Website: http://www.decolonizingthemind.org

Contact email: info@decolonizingthemind.org

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/first-edition-of-the-decolonizing-the-mind-summer-school-in-amsterdam-july-2015

**END**

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

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski?ev=hdr_xprf

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/

World Society, Planetary Natures: Crises and Sustainability in the Capitalocene and Beyond

The World Society Foundation

WORLD SOCIETY, PLANETARY NATURES: CRISIS AND SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CAPITALOCENE AND BEYOND

CALL FOR PAPERS

World Society, Planetary Natures: Crisis and Sustainability in the Capitalocene and Beyond

Binghamton University, July 10-11, 2015

An international conference sponsored by the World Society Foundation

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

• Christian Parenti
• Harriet Friedmann
• Larry Lohmann
• Doug Henwood
• Tony Weis
• Sasha Lilley
• Jason W. Moore

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS IS EXTENDED TO MARCH 15, 2015

TO SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACT, PLEASE REGISTER HERE: http://goo.gl/forms/fLL348cSPG

Since 2008, a broad consensus has emerged among scholars of global change: ours is an era of “converging crises.” Popularly expressed in the language of “triple crisis” – climate, energy, and finance – there is considerable uncertainty as to how these crisis-tendencies fit together, and if they are nearly so independent as the language of convergence suggests. If many scholars view the unfolding turbulence of the 21st century as an era of multiple crises, others have turned towards a different way of seeing crisis. This emerging alternative seeks to unify dimensions of human and extra-human natures in the world history of the present – as in the distinctive approaches of the Anthropocene and world-ecology perspectives. Through this different way of seeing, a crucial question has taken shape: Are we living the Age of Humans (the Anthropocene) or the Age of Capital (Capitalocene)?

World Society, Planetary Natures seeks to bring together scholars of global social change and global environmental change in the pursuit of new syntheses of “political economy” and “political ecology,” broadly conceived. The conference therefore privileges a double engagement: 1) with the core concerns of world-historical and global studies; and 2) with a broader multi-disciplinary community focused on global environmental change, past and present.

The conference pursues three major goals. First, we encourage a serious intellectual cross-fertilization between scholars engaged in the study of global social change and those engaged in the study of global environmental change. Second, the conference will facilitate a sustained exploration of the relations unifying the differentiated moments of 21st century crisis. These include not only the “triple crisis” argument, but comprise a wide range of crisis tendencies – such as food, inequality, employment, and social reproduction – as well as to the emergent possibilities of “commoning.” Third, the conference welcomes creative elaborations of globalization – in its manifold historical and contemporary expressions – as “ways of organizing nature.” In contrast to seeing neoliberalism as acting upon global natures, this alternative encourages a view of globalization as developing through the web of life. Such an alternative rethinks aspects of recent (and longue durée) world history as new human-environment configurations in which humans make environments, and environments enter into the constitution of power, re/production, and inequality. This entails the socio-ecological reconstruction of taken for granted “social” phenomena, such as the Washington Consensus, financialization, the European Union, or the rise of the BRICS. To investigate, analyze, and narrate historical change as if nature matters – as producer no less than product of capital and power – implies a much more decisive shift than commonly recognized: in our theoretical frames, methodological choices, and narrative strategies.

TO SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACT, PLEASE REGISTER HERE: http://goo.gl/forms/fLL348cSPG

We welcome papers, panels, and proposals related – but not restricted to – the following topics:

• The Financialization of Nature: Commodities, Carbon markets, Conservation, etc.
• One, Two, Many “Sovereignties”: Food, Land, Energy, and Beyond
• Planetary Urbanization
• Cheap Labor, Unpaid Work, and the Crisis of Human Natures
• Green Catastrophism and the Theory of Global Crisis
• Narratives of Nature, Crisis, and Capitalism
• Modernity and Climate Change
• Scientific Revolutions and Capitalist Natures
• Class Dynamics of Agro-Ecological Change, North and South
• Crises: Social, Ecological, or World-Ecological?
• Ecology and Imperialism
• The ‘Long’ Green Revolution: Renewal or Demise?
• Culture as Ecology
• Green Keynesianism and the Myth of Sustainability
• Industrialization and the Production of Nature
• Anthropocene or Capitalocene?
• New (and Old) Practices of Commoning
• World-Literature and World-Ecology
• Value, Nature, and Ontological Politics
• Environmental Histories of Capital, Empire, and Commodities
• Commodity Frontiers, Past and Present
• The Environment-Making State
• Markets, Trade, Investment: Does Nature Matter?
• Nature as Accumulation Strategy
• Crises of Social Reproduction
• Neoliberalism’s Crises… or Not?
• Surplus Humanities
• Climate and Capitalism: Two Crises or One?
• Nature and Hegemony
• Ecological Exhaustion and War

We welcome proposals for individual papers as well as paper sessions and panel discussions. TO SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACT, PLEASE REGISTER HERE: http://goo.gl/forms/fLL348cSPG

Inquiries may be sent to: planetarynatures@gmail.com.

Venue: The conference will be held 10-11 July, 2015 at Binghamton University (USA). As a family friendly conference we are able to extend conference pricing for food and lodging to participant families, and we are arranging childcare for those who may need it.

Travel grants: The World Society Foundation sponsors a small number of travel grants for postgraduate students, young researchers, and for participants from Africa, Asia, Latin-America and Eastern Europe (ISA country categories B and C). Travel grants will be allocated on the basis of a competitive assessment of full papers (of about 8.000 words) submitted. Deadline for submission of papers for travel grants is March 15, 2015. Applicants receiving travel grants will be notified before 15 April, 2015.

Publication: Outstanding conference papers will be published in a conference volume.

Conference Sponsorship: The main sponsor of the conference is the World Society Foundation (Zurich, Switzerland). In addition the conference is co-sponsored by the Department of Sociology, University of Neuchâtel, the Department of Sociology, Binghamton University, the World-Ecology Research Network. For more information on the World Society Foundation and its activities, please check out the web site: http://www.worldsociety.ch/.

Organizing Committee: Christian Suter, Université de Neuchâtel; Diana C. Gildea; Jason W. Moore, Binghamton University

KRISIS

**END**

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

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski?ev=hdr_xprf

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.co.uk/