Anatomy of Failure

The Dodo

ANATOMY OF FAILURE

The Unit for Global Justice, Goldsmiths, and the Collège International de Philosophie, Paris invite you to a book discussion on:

Oliver Feltham’s Anatomy of Failure: Philosophy and Political Action (Bloomsbury, 2013)

Modern liberalism begins in the forgetting of the English Revolution. Anatomy of Failure seeks to right that wrong by exploring the concept of political action, playing its history against its philosophy. The 1640s are a period of institutional failure and political disaster: the country plunges into civil war, every agent is naked. Established procedures are thrown aside and the very grounds for action are fiercely debated and recast.

Five queries emerge in the experience of the New Model Army, five queries that outline an anatomy of failure, isolating the points at which actors disagree, conflict flares up, and alliances dissolve: Who can act? On what grounds? Who is right about what is to be done? Why do we succeed or fail? If you and I split, were we ever united, and to what end? The application of these questions to the Leveller-agitator writings, and then to Thomas Hobbes and John Locke’s philosophies, generates models of political action. No mere philosophical abstractions, the Hobbesian and Lockean models of sovereign and contractual  action have dominated the very practice of politics for centuries. Today it is time to recuperate the Leveller-agitator model of joint action, a model unique in its adequacy to the threat of failure and in its vocation for building the common-wealth. 

 

Discussants

Filippo Del Lucchese, Brunel University, London

Peter D. Thomas, Brunel University, London

Alberto Toscano, Goldsmiths College, London

Respondent

Oliver Feltham, American University of Paris

 

Saturday 22 February 2014

4:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Ben Pimlott Building Lecture Theatre

Goldsmiths, University of London

New Cross, London SE14 6NW

 

The event is supported by:

Collège International de Philosophie, Paris

Unit for Global Justice, Goldsmiths College, London

 

Contact: filippo.dellucchese@ brunel.ac.uk or a.toscano@gold.ac.uk

www.ciph.org

http://www.gold.ac.uk/just- change/

 

**END**

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

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski at Academia: https://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

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

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

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

Surplus: A Symposium on Wealth, Waste and Excess

Crisis

SURPLUS: A SYMPOSIUM ON WEALTH, WASTE AND EXCESS

Surplus: A Symposium on Wealth, Waste and Excess

Starts: Jun 21, 2013 10:00 AM

Finishes: Jun 21, 2013 05:00 PM

Venue: Room B34, Birkbeck Main Building

Booking details: Free entry; booking required

Event description

#surpluswastewealthexcess

Programme

In times of austerity it is especially important to think about surplus.

All civilizations have been built on surplus – an economic, political or cultural capital over and above a minimum which a given society requires to survive. But how is such surplus defined and measured? How is it produced and distributed? What indeed is the relationship between wealth and waste, excess and poverty, scarcity and conflict?

These and other related questions will be addressed at three interconnected roundtables dealing with scarcity, conflict, demography, precarity, rubbish, democracy and protest. The format will enable genuinely cross-disciplinary conversations on some of the most pressing social phenomena of our day, ranging  from mass unemployment (or ‘redundancy’) to the ‘irrational exuberance’ of financial markets; from ‘imperial overstretch’ of American foreign policy to the ‘social explosion’ among marginalised urban populations across the world.

Panelists will include: Eric Swyngedouw, James Meadway, Simon Choat, John Scanlan, Alberto Toscano,  Lisa McKenzie, Danny Dorling,  Joel McKim, Anna Stavrianakis, Sue Branford, Emma M Jones and Esther Leslie.

This event is free – register here

Contact: Julie Eisner – j.eisner@bbk.ac.uk

**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales); and at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo (new remix, and new video, 2012)

‘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

1908, or Class as the Founding Moment of Indian Politics

Aesthetics

1908, OR CLASS AS THE FOUNDING MOMENT OF INDIAN POLITICS

Sociology, Unit for Global Justice invites you to:

1908, or Class as the founding moment of Indian Politics

Saroj Giri is a lecturer in Political Science in the University of Delhi. He has written on contemporary social and political issues in Economic and Political Weekly, Open Democracy, Kafilaand other venues. He recently published an article on communism as a real movement in L’idée du communisme 2 ed. Alain Badiou and Slavoj Zizek

Event Information:

Location: 352, Richard Hoggart Building

Cost: Free

Department: Unit for Global Justice / Sociology

Time: 4 June 2013, 17:00 – 18:30

 

For Further Details

E-mail: a.toscano@gold.ac.uk

 

If you are attending an event and need the College to help with any mobility requirements you may have, please contact the event organiser in advance to ensure we can accommodate your needs.

First published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/talk-at-goldsmiths-saroj-giri-1908-or-class-as-the-founding-moment-of-indian-politics-4-june-5pm

 

**END**

 

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales); and at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo (new remix, and new video, 2012)

‘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

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 Religion of Capital

Religion

THE RELIGION OF CAPITAL: SOME UNFAITHFUL REFLECTIONS ON WEBER, BENJAMIN AND AGAMBEN

Seminar by Dr Alberto Toscano (Sociology, Goldsmiths), which is part of RUPE Political Theology seminar series 2013

14 March 2013, 05:30 – 19:30

Richard Hoggart Building, Room 141
Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW

This talk will explore the links between political theology and economic theology that can be gleaned from the writings of Max Weber, Walter Benjamin, Giorgio Agamben and others (among whom Marx’s nephew Paul Lafargue, author of the curious drama ‘The Religion of Capital’). The aim of the exercise will be to ascertain the extent to which a confrontation with the real abstractions of capital can serve to problematise the recent centrality ascribed to political theology in general, and sovereignty in particular, as a matrix for social power in our societies. Or, what the abstract domination of capitalist equivalence as ‘the religion of everyday life’ (Marx) may tell us about the continued function of the sovereign decision.

First published in: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/alberto-toscano-the-religion-of-capital-some-unfaithful-reflections-on-weber-benjamin-and-agamben-goldsmiths-14-march

**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales); and at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo (new remix, and new video, 2012)

‘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

Delhi Historical Materialism Conference 2013: Update

Karl Marx

DELHI HISTORICAL MATERIALISM CONFERENCE 2013: UPDATE

The organisers of the Delhi HM Conference (3-5 April 2013) are appealing to supporters and readers of HM for contributions towards the airfares of 2 speakers from abroad whom we’ve got down for our plenary sessions. The rough target is 1200 pounds in total.

Any donations, however small, would be most welcome!  http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/conferences/delhifunds

Please also note that the conference venue has now been shifted to the Convention Centre in JNU. There is an extra conference day as well, 5th April.

Here’s a small sample of what’s on offer from a total of 48 sessions and 3 plenaries:

* Alberto Toscano and Matteo Mandarini,‘The Communist intellectual: Lessons from some Italian debates’;

* Andreas Merkens, ‘Counterhegemony, political education & pedagogy in Antonio Gramsci’;

* João Arsénio Nunes, ‘The revolutionary thought of Alvaro Cunhal’;

* Jeff Goodwin, ‘How kings survived the Arab spring’;

* Gilbert Achcar on the Arab uprising & its aftermath;

* Ajit Zacharias on domestic labor, value of labor-power and poverty;

* Pranav Jani and Nivedita Majumdar on postcolonial theory;

* Teesta Setalvad and Harsh Mander on Gujarat ten years after the genocide;

* Apoorvanand, Ishwar Singh Dost, Kumar Rana and Kamal Chenoy on the crisis of the Indian left;

* Brinda Bose on ‘Queer matriarchies’;

* Jean Dreze on ‘Anarchist thought & the future of the Left’;

* Moinak Biswas on ‘The political film in crisis’;

* Javed Anand on the Muslim Right in India & Pakistan;

* Saroj Giri on Maoists in Nepal;

* A LeftWord Books panel on ‘Communist histories’;

* Soma Marik on Rosa Luxemburg & the party;

* Uday Chandra on the ‘State, popular resistance & “democracy” in the forests of eastern India’;

And loads more including the launch of Vivek Chibber’s new book Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital; films by Kluge and others; books…

Submissions Update: https://rikowski.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/historical-materialism-conference-in-delhi-submissions-update/ 

First published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/delhi-historical-materialism-conference-3-5-april-2013

**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales); and at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo (new remix, and new video, 2012)

‘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

Tragedy as a Political Category

Theatre of Tragedy

TRAGEDY AS A POLITICAL CATEGORY

Tuesday December 4, 16:00-17:45 | Westminster Forum, 5th Floor, Wells Street 

Dr Alberto Toscano, Goldsmiths, University of London

Alberto Toscano is a cultural critic, social theorist, philosopher and translator best known to the English-speaking world for his translations of the work of Alain Badiou, including Badiou’s The Century and Logics of Worlds. He served as both editor and translator of Badiou’s Theoretical Writings and On Beckett.

Alberto Toscano’s own work has been described both as an investigation of the persistence of the idea of communism in contemporary thought and a genealogical inquiry into the concept of fanaticism. He is the author of The Theatre of Production (2006), and his book Fanaticism: The Uses of an Idea was published in 2010. Toscano has published numerous articles on contemporary philosophy, politics and social theory. In an article on the Tarnac 9 case,written for The Guardian in December 2009, Toscano argues that society is losing its ability to distinguish between vandalism and terrorism.

A senior lecturer in sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London, Toscano is a member of the editorial board of the journal Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory.

The seminar will be followed by refreshments

Link: http://www.gold.ac.uk/sociology/staff/toscano/

First published in: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/tragedy-as-a-political-category-csd-seminar-with-alberto-toscano-tuesday-december-4

**END**

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

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

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

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

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

 

Glenn Rikowski’s paper, Critical Pedagogy and the Constitution of Capitalist Society has been published at Heathwood Press as a Monthly Guest Article for September 2012, online at:

http://www.heathwoodpress.com/monthly-guest-article-august-critical-pedagogy-and-the-constitution-of-capitalist-society-by-glenn-rikowski/

Heathwood Press: http://www.heathwoodpress.com 

Tragedy

Understanding the Financial Crisis: Sociology, Political Economy and Heterdox Economics

Crisis Theory

UNDERSTANDING THE FINANCIAL CRISIS: SOCIOLOGY, POLITIAL ECONOMY AND HETERODOX ECONOMICS

BSA Presidential Event, together with FESSUD and the British Library

‘Understanding the financial crisis: sociology, political economy and heterodox economics’

British Library Conference Centre, London

Monday 8 October 2012; 10am – 4.10pm

 

The BSA President, Professor John Holmwood, announces a one-day seminar  on the financial crisis, organised in collaboration with Dr Andrew Brown of FESSUD (an EU 7th Research Framework Programme funded project on ‘Financialisation,  Economy, Society and Sustainable Development’ hosted at Leeds University Business School).

 

Speakers include:

Andrew Brown (Leeds University Business School)

Mathew Bond (London South Bank University)

Julie Froud (Manchester Business School)

Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra (LSE)

Malcolm Sawyer (Leeds University Business School)

David Spencer (Leeds University Business School)

Alberto Toscano (Goldsmiths University of London)

Zsuzsanna Vargha (LSE)

 

The financial crisis of 2008 has been longstanding in its consequences and seemingly intractable in its resolution. It is widely understood to have arisen from the de-regulation of financial institutions and the emergence of increasingly complex financial instruments as well as a culture of risk associated with high rewards. The crisis took the discipline of economics by surprise leading to the Queen’s question of why there had been a failure to predict it. One response from a seminar organised by the BritishAcademy concluded that it was “principally a failure of the collective imagination of many bright people, both in this country and internationally, to understand the risks to the system as a whole”  (http://media.ft.com/cms/3e3b6ca8-7a08-11de-b86f-00144feabdc0.pdf). The present seminar is an exercise in alternative imaginations, both in accounting for the crisis and in providing alternatives.

 

Further information: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/events/bsa-presidential-event.aspx)

Direct link to online booking: http://portal.britsoc.co.uk/public/event/eventBooking.aspx?id=EVT10239).

 

**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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

 

 

Studies in Social and Political Thought Annual Conference – Power and Resistance

Werner Bonefeld

STUDIES IN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THOUGHT ANNUAL CONFERENCE – POWER AND RESISTANCE

June 15-16, 2012
University of Sussex, Brighton

Keynote Speakers:
Werner Bonefeld (York)
Alberto Toscano (Goldsmiths)

While governments around the world have initiated austerity measures on a grand scale and have even been ousted in favour of technocratic administrations, pockets of sustained resistance continue to manifest themselves. Whether it is the populist Occupy movement, ultra-left theorists of Communisation, anti-cuts protesters, or even the rioters who took to the streets of London and beyond, the struggle against the apparent status quo continues. When taken in the light of the Arab Spring, questions must be asked in regards to the relationship between resistance and revolution. These movements managed to turn a tide of resistance into a force for revolution. Is this a paradigm-shift in the way this relationship must be thought?

Alongside these movements and despite the optimism generated by them, the power of the governments to crush, de-legitimise, and ignore opposition appears to remain. Some critics blame a lack of coherent message and agenda; others say that the forces of opposition are not dealing with the reality of the situation. This critique, however, does not have the last word. These forms of resistance, in their many guises, challenge the state’s belief that it has a monopoly on reality. They challenge the very legitimacy of the state to disseminate the status quo and, therefore, represent a radical alternative even if they do not, or cannot, dictate what the alternative may be. What role do the concepts of power and resistance play in our analysis of the current situation? Do they require a reassessment or does the contemporary conjuncture simply represent a reassertion of the same old forces in a different guise?

Power is one of the core concepts of social and political thought. Yet there is plenty of disagreement about what is, how it functions and how it should be contested. Our present conjuncture is witnessing many different manifestations of power and resistance. However, there is a lack of serious theoretical engagement with the current situation. We are seeking papers that engage theoretically with the current situation, and which emphasise the central roles of the concepts of power and resistance. Possible theoretical frameworks include, but are not limited to, theories of biopolitics, instrumental reason, critical theory, post-colonialism, discourse and democratic theory, structuralism and post-structuralism, recognition, soft-power, hegemony, world-systems, sovereignty, legality, and legitimacy.

Programme:

Day 1: June 15, 2012 (All talks unless otherwise noted will be held in Fulton 107)

9-10 – Registration

10-1045 – Gianandrea Manfredi (Sussex), Understanding the structural form of resistance and the processes by which resistant social spaces are negated

1045-1130 – Jeffery Nicholas (Providence College/CASEP London Metropolitan University), Reason, Resistance and Revolution: Occupy’s Nascent Democratic Practice

1130-1215 – Svenja Bromberg (Goldsmiths), A critique of Badiou’s and Ranciere’s notion of emancipation

1215-1315 – Lunch

1315-1400 – Khafiz Tapdygovich Kerimov (American University in Bulgaria), From Epistemic Violence to Respecting the Differend: The Fate of Eurocentrism in the Discourse of Human Sciences

1400-1445 – Marta Resmini (KU Leuven), Participation as Surveillance? Counter-democracy versus Governmentality

1445-1515 – Coffee Break

1515-1600 – Alastair Gray (Sussex), Activity Without Purpose: Parrhesia, The Unsayable and The Riots

1600-1645 – Zoe Sutherland (Sussex) & Rob Lucas (Independent Researcher) – A Theory of Current Struggles

1645-1700 – Coffee Break

1700-1900 – Keynote: Werner Bonefeld (York) (Fulton Lecture Theatre A)

Day 2: June 16, 2012 (All talks unless otherwise noted will be held in Fulton 102)

1045-1145 – Registration

1145-1230 – Sarit Larry (Boston College), The Status of Vagueness: Mythical Events and the Israeli Social Justice Movement

1230-1315 – Mehmet Erol (York), Bringing Class Back In: The case of Tekel Resistance in Turkey

1315-1430 – Lunch

1430-1515 – Torsten Menge (Georgetown Univesity), A deflationary conception of social power

1515-1600 – Sarah Burton (University of Cambridge), Reimagining Resistance: misrule and the place of the fantastic in John Holloway’s anti-power

1600-1645 – Jorge Ollero Perán & Fernando Garcia-Quero (University of Granada), Can ethics be conceived as an economic institution? An interdisciplinary approach to the critique of neoliberal ethics

1645-1700 – Coffee Break

1700-1900 – Keynote: Alberto Toscano (Goldsmiths) (Arts A1)

Please email ssptconference2012@gmail.com to register and check http://ssptjournal.wordpress.com for more information. There will be a £15 conference fee (£7.50 for one-day) payable in cash on the day to help cover expenses.

 

*****END*****

 

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

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

 

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

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

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

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

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

Power and Resistance – Studies in Political Thought Annual Conference 2012

Crisis

POWER AND RESISTANCE – STUDIES IN POLITICAL THOUGHT ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2012

Studies in Social and Political Thought Annual Conference – Power and Resistance

June 15-16, 2012

Universityof Sussex, Brighton

Keynote Speakers: 

Werner Bonefeld (York)

Alberto Toscano (Goldsmiths)

While governments around the world have initiated austerity measures on a grand scale and have even been ousted in favour of technocratic administrations, pockets of sustained resistance continue to manifest themselves. Whether it is the populist Occupy movement, ultra-left theorists of Communisation, anti-cuts protesters, or even the rioters who took to the streets ofLondonand beyond, the struggle against the apparent status quo continues. When taken in the light of the Arab Spring, questions must be asked in regards to the relationship between resistance and revolution. These movements managed to turn a tide of resistance into a force for revolution. Is this a paradigm-shift in the way this relationship must be thought?

Alongside these movements and despite the optimism generated by them, the power of the governments to crush, de-legitimise, and ignore opposition appears to remain. Some critics blame a lack of coherent message and agenda; others say that the forces of opposition are not dealing with the reality of the situation. This critique, however, does not have the last word. These forms of resistance, in their many guises, challenge the state’s belief that it has a monopoly on reality. They challenge the very legitimacy of the state to disseminate the status quo and, therefore, represent a radical alternative even if they do not, or cannot, dictate what the alternative may be. What role do the concepts of power and resistance play in our analysis of the current situation? Do they require a reassessment or does the contemporary conjuncture simply represent a reassertion of the same old forces in a different guise?

Power is one of the core concepts of social and political thought. Yet there is plenty of disagreement about what is, how it functions and how it should be contested. Our present conjuncture is witnessing many different manifestations of power and resistance. However, there is a lack of serious theoretical engagement with the current situation. We are seeking papers that engage theoretically with the current situation, and which emphasise the central roles of the concepts of power and resistance. Possible theoretical frameworks include, but are not limited to, theories of biopolitics, instrumental reason, critical theory, post-colonialism, discourse and democratic theory, structuralism and post-structuralism, recognition, soft-power, hegemony, world-systems, sovereignty, legality, and legitimacy.

 

Programme:

June 15, 2012

9-10 – Registration

10-1045 – Gianandrea Manfredi (SussexUniversity): Understanding the structural form of resistance and the processes by which resistant social spaces are negated

1045-1130 – Jeffery Nicholas (Providence College/CASEP (London Metropolitan University): Reason, Resistance and Revolution: Occupy’s Nascent Democratic Practice

1130-1215 – Svenja Bromberg (Goldsmiths), A critique of Badiou’s and Ranciere’s notion of emancipation

1215-1315 – Lunch

1315-1400 – Khafiz Tapdygovich Kerimov (American University in Bulgaria), From Epistemic Violence to Respecting the Differend: The Fate of Eurocentrism in the Discourse of Human Sciences

1400-1445 – Jorge Ollero Perón & Fernando Garcia-Quero (University of Granada), Can ethics be conceived as an economic institution? An interdisciplinary approach to the critique of neoliberal ethics

1445-1530 – Marta Resmini (KU Leuven), Participation as Surveillance? Counter-democracy versus Governmentality

1530-1600 – Coffee Break

1600-1645 – Alastair Gray (University of Sussex), Activity Without Purpose: Parrhesia, The Unsayable and The Riots

1645-1730 – Zoe Sutherland (University of Sussex) & Rob Lucas (Independent Researcher) – A Theory of Current Struggles

June 16, 2012

945-1045 – Registration

1045-1130 – Sarit Larry (Boston College), The Status of Vagueness, Mythical Events and the Israeli Social Justice Movement

1130-1215 – Mehmet Erol (York), Bringing Class Back In: The case of Tekel Resistance in Turkey

1215-1315 – Lunch

1315-1515 – Keynote: Alberto Toscano (Goldsmiths)

1515-1530 – Coffee Break

1530-1615 – Torsten Menge (GeorgetownUniversity), A deflationary conception of social power

1615-1700 – Sarah Burton (University of Cambridge), Reimagining Resistance: misrule and the place of the fantastic in John Holloway’s anti-power

1700-1900 – Keynote: Werner Bonefeld (York)

 

Please email ssptconference2012@gmail.com  to register and check ssptjournal.wordpress.com  for more information.

There will be a £15 conference fee (£7.50 for one-day) payable in cash on the day to help cover expenses.

For information about travel and accommodation see:  http://www.sussex.ac.uk/aboutus/findus

 

**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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

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

Marxism in Culture – Programme for Summer Term 2012

North Atlantic Oscillation

MARXISM IN CULTURE – PROGRAMME FOR SUMMER TERM 2012

Friday 18 May

Forgotten Futures: Municipal Cinema as the People’s Cinema?

Elizabeth Lebas (Middlesex University)

Friday 01 June

Damien Hirst: The Capitalist Sublime?

Luke White (Middlesex University)

Friday 15 June

Fashion and Materialism

Ulrich Lehmann (University for the Creative Arts)

Friday 29 June

Book Launch of Steve Edwards’ (Open University) Martha Rosler, The Bowery in two inadequate descriptive systems – published by Afterall

All seminars start at 5.30pm, and are held in the Court Room (unless otherwise indicated) at the Institute of Historical Research in Senate House, Malet St, London. The seminar closes at 7.30pm and retires to the bar.

Organisers: Matthew Beaumont, Dave Beech, Alan Bradshaw, Warren Carter, Gail Day, Steve Edwards, Larne Abse Gogarty, Owen Hatherley, Esther Leslie, David Mabb, Antigoni Memou, Chrysi Papaioannou, Nina Power, Dominic Rahtz, Pete Smith, Peter Thomas & Alberto Toscano.

For further information, contact Warren Carter, at: w.carter@ucl.ac.uk or Esther Leslie at: e.leslie@bbk.ac.uk

Soft Coda, by North Atlantic Oscillation, from their ‘Fog Electric’ album: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkAhSSeR8j0 

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‘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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

The Elgar Companion to Marxist Economics

Global Economy

THE ELGAR COMPANION TO MARXIST ECONOMICS

http://www.e-elgar.com/bookentry_main.lasso?id=13550

The Elgar Companion To Marxist Economics
Edited by Ben Fine, Professor of Economics and Alfredo Saad-Filho, Professor of Political Economy, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK with Marco Boffo, PhD candidate,  School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK

January 2012
432 pp
Hardback 978 1 84844 537 6
Hardback £135.00 on-line price £121.50

Series: Elgar original reference

Description

This Companion takes stock of the trajectory, achievements, shortcomings and prospects of Marxist political economy. It reflects the contributors’ shared commitment to bringing the methods, theories and concepts of Marx himself to bear across a wide range of topics and perspectives, and it provides a testimony to the continuing purpose and vitality of Marxist political economy.

Contents

Contributors include: G. Albo, R. Albritton, D. Ankarloo, S.J. Ashman, A.J. Ayers, R. Balakrishnan, J. Banaji, S. Bisnath, M. Boffo, T.J. Byres, A. Campbell, P. Cerni, P. Chattopadhyay, S. Clarke, A. Colás, G.C. Comninel, M. Di Meglio, P.L. dos Santos, G. Duménil, B. Fine, J. Ghosh, G. Hoe-Gimm, H. Goodacre, B. Gruffydd-Jones, B. Harriss-White, K. Hart, M. Itoh, H. Jeon, B. Jessop, D. Johnston, R. Kiely, S. Knafo, D. Laibman, D. Lévy, D. Lo, T. Marois, P. Masina, S.D. Mavroudeas, D. Milonakis, S. Mohun, S. Newman, P. Patnaik, U. Patnaik, L. Pradella, H. Radice, A. Saad-Filho, S. Savran, G. Slater, T. Smith, E. Swyngedouw, B. Tinel, A. Toscano, J. Weeks, E. Wood, A. Zack-Williams, P. Zarembka, Y. Zhang

Further information

This Companion takes stock of the trajectory, achievements, shortcomings and prospects of Marxist political economy. It reflects the contributors’ shared commitment to bringing the methods, theories and concepts of Marx himself to bear across a wide range of topics and perspectives, and it provides a testimony to the continuing purpose and vitality of Marxist political economy.

As a whole, this volume analyzes Marxist political economy in three areas: the critique of mainstream economics in all of its versions; the critical presence of Marxist political economy within, and its influence upon, each of the social science disciplines; and, cutting across these, the analysis of specific topics that straddle disciplinary boundaries. Some of the contributions offer an exposition  of basic concepts, accessible to the general reader, laying out Marx’s own contribution, its significance, and subsequent positions and debates with and within Marxist political economy. The authors offer assessments of historical developments to and within capitalism, and of its current character and prospects. Other chapters adopt a mirror-image approach of pinpointing the conditions of contemporary capitalism as a way of interrogating the continuing salience of Marxist analysis.

This volume will inform and inspire a new generation of students and scholars to become familiar with Marxist political economy from an enlightened and unprejudiced position, and to use their knowledge as both a resource and gateway to future study.

Full table of contents
Contents:

Introduction
Ben Fine and Alfredo Saad-Filho

1. Accumulation of Capital
Paul Zarembka

2. The Agrarian Question and the Peasantry
Terence J. Byres

3. Analytical Marxism
Marco Boffo

4. Anthropology
Keith Hart

5. Capital
Jayati Ghosh

6. Capitalism
Ellen Wood

7. Centrally Planned Economy
Dic Lo and Yu Zhang

8. Class and Class Struggle
Utsa Patnaik

9. Classical Political Economy
Hugh Goodacre

10. Combined and Uneven Development
Samantha J. Ashman

11. Commodification and Commodity Fetishism
Robert Albritton

12. Competition
Paresh Chattopadhyay

13. Consumerism
Paula Cerni

14. Contemporary Capitalism
Greg Albo

15. Crisis Theory
Simon Clarke

16. Dependency Theory
John Weeks

17. Ecology and the Environment
Barbara Harriss-White

18. Economic Reproduction and the Circuits of Capital
Ben Fine

19. Exploitation and Surplus Value
Ben Fine

20. Feminist Economics
Radhika Balakrishnan and Savitri Bisnath

21. Feudalism
George C. Comninel

22. Finance, Finance Capital, and Financialisation
Thomas Marois

23. Friedrich Engels
Paresh Chattopadhyay

24. Geography
Erik Swyngedouw

25. Global Commodity Chains and Global Value Chains
Susan Newman

26. Globalisation and Imperialism
Ray Kiely

27. International Political Economy
Alejandro Colás

28. Karl Marx
Lucia Pradella

29. Knowledge Economy
Heesang Jeon

30. Labour, Labour Power, and the Division of Labour
Bruno Tinel

31. Labour Theory of Value
Ben Fine

32. Market Socialism
Makoto Itoh

33. Marx and Underdevelopment
Mauro di Meglio and Pietro Masina

34. Marxism and History
George C. Comninel

35. Method of Political Economy
Branwen Gruffydd-Jones

36. Mode of Production
Jairus Banaji

37. Money
Paulo L. dos Santos

38. Neoliberalism
Gérard Duménil and Dominique Lévy

39. Neoclassical Economics
Dimitris Milonakis

40. Neo-Ricardianism
Sungur Savran

41. New Technology and the ‘New Economy’
Tony Smith

42. Political Science
Alison J. Ayers

43. Population and Migration
Deborah Johnston

44. Productive and Unproductive Labour
Simon Mohun

45. Race
Alfred Zack-Williams

46. Radical Political Economy in the United States
Al Campbell

47. The Rate of Profit
Simon Mohun

48. The Regulation Approach
Stavros D. Mavroudeas

49. Rent and Landed Property
Erik Swyngedouw

50. The Social Structures of Accumulation Approach
Stavros D. Mavroudeas

51. Socialism, Communism and Revolution
Al Campbell

52. Sociology
Alberto Toscano

53. The State
Bob Jessop

54. ‘Transformation Problem’
Alfredo Saad-Filho

55. The Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism
David Laibman

56. Transnational Corporations
Hugo Radice

57. Unemployment
Gary Slater

58. Value Form Approach
Samuel Knafo

59. Vladimir I Lenin
Prabhat Patnaik

60. The Welfare State
Daniel Ankarloo

61. World Economy
Gong Hoe-Gimm

References

Index

 

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‘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

The Uses and Abuses of Abstraction

Abstraction

THE USES AND ABUSES OF ABSTRACTION

A Talk by Alberto Toscano

Details: http://complit.as.nyu.edu/object/complit.ne.022712

 

Monday, February 27th, 6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.

NYU, New York

 

Public Lecture

 

Alberto Toscano

The Uses and Abuses of Abstraction

A talk from the Comparative Literature Graduate/Faculty Seminar Series

Location: 13-19 University Place, Great Room

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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