‘Think Hope, Think Crisis’: John Holloway at UCL

John Holloway

‘THINK HOPE, THINK CRISIS’: JOHN HOLLOWAY AT UCL

Professor John Holloway, of the Autonomous University of Puebla (see http://www.johnholloway.com.mx/), will be giving a public talk entitled “Think Hope, Think Crisis” at UCL, London, on May 7th.

Professor Holloway is an internationally renowned radical Marxist theorist whose two most recent books, Change the World Without Taking Power (2002) and Crack Capitalism (2010) have had a profound impact in debates over social change in both social movements and universities worldwide. Holloway argues that we need to rethink the concept of revolution in the 21st century, away from the idea of taking power via the state (or indeed any institution) and towards an everyday struggle to bring together our own “power-to-do”.

His talk, which will take place on Wednesday 7th May, 5-7pm in Room G03, 26 Bedford Way, WC1H 0AP, will engage with the potentials for social change in a time of crisis (see abstract below).

For more information please contact sam.halvorsen.10@ucl.ac.uk

Please note, attendance will be on a first come basis (no tickets). We have a capacity of 120, but please arrive early to avoid disappointment.

Abstract for talk:
“At the beginning of his great work The Principle of Hope, Ernst Bloch challenged us to learn hope. Now, sixty years later, his challenge is both more difficult and more urgent than ever. How can we think hope, the radical hope of a different world, in the present situation? And how do we relate it to the present crisis of capitalism? The crisis as rupture of capitalist domination should open the world, but it seems to close it. Think hope, think crisis, but how?”

 

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Organizing for a Post-Growth Economy

Autonomia

ORGANIZING FOR THE POST-GROWTH ECONOMY

ephemera: theory & politics in organization

CALL FOR PAPERS: 15th February 2014: http://www.ephemerajournal.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/papers/EXTENDED_DEADLINE_ephemeraCFP_PostGrowth.pdf

Conference organizers: Ole Bjerg, Christian Garmann Johnsen, Bent Meier Sørensen and Lena Olaison

Conference date: 8-9 of May 2014

Conference venue: Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

 

Perpetual economic growth is an underlying assumption of the contemporary capitalist organization of society. The idea of growth is embedded not only in the corpus of economic thought but also in the institutions of the economy (Binswanger, 2013; Gorz, 2012). More recently, entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity have been seen as possible ways to solve the current economic and environmental crisis as well as to generate growth (Schaper, 2002). This is the case because entrepreneurship and innovation are portrayed as seeds of new initiatives and ideas that will boost economic development while simultaneously reduce its impact on the climate. Such a belief has produced new markets, such as carbon markets, and an emerging ‘climate capitalism’ (Böhm, Murtola and Spoelstra, 2012). At the heart of this logic is a faith in the individual economic actor, not least the entrepreneur, as a gifted individual with unique abilities (Shane, 2003). And it is evident that the current post-crisis discourse keeps its confidence in the emergent socially responsible economic actor who will contribute to the construction of a moral economy’ (Arvidsson, 2013).

This ephemera conference seeks to question the feasibility, moral legitimacy and sustainability of perpetual economic growth. Although contested, current political and popular beliefs tend to hold that the twin crises of economy and ecology are merely temporary, exceptional phenomena and that the global economy will soon bounce back to business as usual. However, others have suggested that we are in the midst of a paradigm shift in the nature of capitalism (Heinberg, 2011). Instead of using our energies to prevent this shift from happening it may be more fruitful to appreciate the opportunities for reflection that are offered by the crisis. On the one hand, we should learn from history and see that the history of capitalism is indeed the history of revolutions. This suggests that we indeed may be at the brink of a new phase in society where we experience a change in the underlying structures. On the other hand, we can explore new forms of economic organization that do not rest upon the condition of growth (Schumacher, 1973; Latouche, 2009; Eisenstein, 2011). Even though the prerequisite of growth has been subjected to criticism within economic theory (Herrera, 2011), we need to further explore its implications. Taken together, the challenge is, in other words, to imagine what a sustainable post-growth economy might look like (Gorz, 1999; Seidl, 2010; Paech, 2012).

If growth is intrinsic to the current capitalist organization of society, then we need to ask to what extent it is possible to image a system that does not presuppose perpetual growth. Is economy without growth a contradiction in terms? We can approach the seeming paradox of the post-growth economy by rethinking fundamental economic concepts in today’s capitalist society. Since the value of growth seems to be deeply embedded in many of the most basic economic concepts used today, we therefore need to reconsider from the perspective of a post-growth economy: What is a market without growth? What is the role of entrepreneurship? And consumption? What would constitute organization and work? What is money? And most importantly of all, what is economic growth? These questions may be approached theoretically by analysing their implicit assumptions connected with the paradigm of growth-oriented capitalism (e.g. Daly, 1996), or they may be explored empirically by studying actual practices of alternative economic organization (e.g. North, 2010), such as, for example, slow food movements and direct trade.

The aim of a conference on a post-growth economy is not solely or even primarily to produce new knowledge but instead to think about what to do with the knowledge that we already have. Certainly, the problem of growth is nothing new. Since at least the end of the 1960s, it has been known that the expansion of the capitalist economy would eventually run up against the natural boundaries of earth (Carson, 2000; Measows et al., 1972; Georgescu-Roegen, 1971). The most pressing problem today with regards to sustainability is not that we do not know what to do; rather, the problem is that even though we know very well what to do, we are still not doing it. In other words, we know very know that current level of pollution caused by fossil fuels is not sustainable from a long-term point of view. Yet, by maintaining the current level of production and consumption, we behave as if it is. There is therefore an aspect of cynicism, in Sloterdijk’s sense of the term, which needs to be addressed in relation to sustainability and contemporary capitalism.

The ambition of this conference is thus to bring together researchers, practitioners and activists who share an interest in the issue of economic growth and sustainability. We particularly welcome submissions that explore the paradoxes of a post-growth economy and the interrelated themes of sustainability and entrepreneurship, alongside an exploration of the cultural and political context out of which they have emerged.

 

Possible topics include but are not limited to the following:

* What is post-growth economy?

* What would count as work in a post-growth economy?

* What should management be like in a post-growth economy?

* What is the role of entrepreneurship in a post-growth economy?

* What constitute organization in a post-growth economy?

* What is the role of finance and debt in a post-growth economy?

* What would consumption be like in a post-growth economy?

 

Deadlines, conference fee and further information

The conference takes place at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, 8-9 of May 2014. The conference is organized by the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy. The conference is associated with the Sustainability platform and the Entrepreneurship platform at CBS.

The extended deadline for submitting abstracts is 15 February 2014. The abstracts, of no more than 500 words, should be submitted in the format of a Word document to the mail address: postgrowth2014 AT gmail.com. ephemera encourages contributions in a variety of formats including articles, notes, interviews, book reviews, photo essays and other experimental modes of representation. The conference fee has not been set yet, as it is dependent on the number of participants, but will be kept to a minimum, approximately €100. PhD candidates pay a reduced fee, most likely €50. Further information about the conference can be found on the conference website: http://www.ephemerajournal.org. If you have any queries, you can also contact one of the conference organizers: Ole Bjerg (ob.mpp AT cbs.dk), Christian Garmann Johnsen (cgj.mpp AT cbs.dk), Bent Meier Sørensen (bem.mpp AT cbs.dk), Lena Olaison (lo.mpp AT cbs.dk). Conference participants are encouraged to submit their contributions to the Special Issue on Post-growth economy in ephemera that will be published 2015.

 

References

Arvidsson, A. (2013) ‘The potential of consumer publics’, ephemera, 13(2): 367-391.
Binswanger, H.C. (2013) Die Wachstumsspirale: Geld, Energie und Imagination in der Dynamik des Marktprozesses. Marburg: Metropolis-Verlag.
Böhm, S., AM Murtola and S. Spoelstra (2012 eds.) ‘The atmosphere business’, ephemera, 12(1/2): 1-11.
Carson, R. (2000) Silent Spring. London: Penguin.
Daly, H. (1996) Beyond growth: The economics of sustainable development. Boston: Beacon Press.
Eisenstein, C. (2011) Sacred economics: Money, gift, & society in the age of transition. Berkeley, Calif.: Evolver Editions.
Georgescu-Roegen, N. (1971) The entropy law and the economic process. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
Gorz, A. (1999) Reclaiming work: Beyond the wage-based society. Cambridge, UK; Malden, MA: Polity Pressl.
Gorz, A. (2012) Capitalism, socialism, ecology. New York: Verso.
Heinberg, R. (2011) The end of growth: Adapting to our new economic reality. Forest Row: Clairview.
Herrera, R. (2011) ’A critique of mainstream growth theory: Ways out of the neoclassical science (-fiction) and toward marxism’, in P. Zarembka and R. Desai (eds.) Revitalizing marxist theory for today’s capitalism (research in political economy, Vol 27). Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Latouche, S. (2009) Farewell to growth. Cambridge, MA: Polity.
Measows, D., H. Meadows, D.L. Meadows, J. Randers and W.W. Behrens III (1972) The limits to growth: A report for THE CLUB OF ROME’S project on the predicament of mankind. New York: Universe Books.
North, P. (2010) Local money: How to make it happen in your community. Totnes: Transition Books.
Paech, N. (2012) Befreiung vom Überfluss: auf dem Weg in die Postwachstumsökonomie. München: oekom verlag.
Schumacher, E.F. (1973) Small is beautiful: A study of economics as if people mattered. London: Vintage.
Shane, S. (2003) A general theory of entrepreneurship. The individual-opportunity nexus, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Seidl, I. (2010) Postwachstumsgesellschaft: neue Konzepte für die Zukunft. Marburg: Metropolis.

 

Website: http://www.ephemerajournal.org/content/organizing-post-growth-economy

 

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2014 IPPE Annual Conference

Jacques Ranciere

2014 IIPPE ANNUAL CONFERENCE

The Crisis: Scholarship, Policies, Conflicts and Alternatives

The International Initiative for the Promotion of Political Economy

Fifth Annual Conference in Political Economy

September 16 – 18, Naples, Italy
The deadline for submission of proposals for papers and panels is 1 April 2014

Call for Papers: http://iippe.org/wp/?page_id=1943

Call for Papers

The economic crisis that started in 2007 has become the deepest global contraction since the Great Depression, and the economic recovery has been the slowest and weakest on record. The costs of the crisis include a wave of unemployment that may take another decade or longer to clear, and higher taxes and reduced public services for working people, such as healthcare and education, in order to bail out wealthy bankers and bondholders. A whole generation, especially the youth, has been blighted by the crisis, which has had devastating consequences for hundreds of millions of people across the world. Protests and violent conflicts have flared up on several continents, in particular in Southern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, which may develop into larger scale conflicts. From the viewpoint of political economy, the current strategy of ‘adjustment within neoliberalism’ is economically inconsistent, socially dysfunctional and politically intolerable:

* It is built on the premise that neoliberal capitalism is intrinsically stable, even though every finance-driven expansion since the 1970s has ended in a crisis requiring a large state bail-out. In other words, neoliberalism is dynamic only between crises, and it depends in boom and recession on extensive, supportive government intervention.

* It is built on a misguided position on the role of the government in the economy, which assumes that massive fiscal spending is appropriate to support finance in crises, while it is never appropriate for governments to spend even much smaller amounts to protect employment, incomes, living standards and public services, either in better times when obtaining government revenue would be easier or – even – as a more effective response to crises.

* It is also built on the notion that economic and social provision should be subjected to the self interests of the financial system, an unacceptable proposition in itself that becomes absurd when the financial system has clearly demonstrated that it has become highly dysfunctional under neoliberalism.

 

The Fifth Annual Conference in Political Economy will examine the global crisis from the complementary angles of scholarship, policies, conflicts and alternatives. Papers on all aspects of poitical economy are welcome, while those on these topics are especially encouraged.

Practical Information

IIPPE welcomes the submission of (a) proposals for panels (or streams of panels) and (b) proposals for individual papers (which IIPPE will group into panels).

All proposals can be submitted to either the Working Group coordinators or directly to the Conference Programme Committee, as indicated on the application form (see below). Any papers or panels which cannot be accepted by the Working Groups will be forwarded for further consideration by the Programme Committee, without prejudice.

Each proposal must be submitted through this application form (if your browser has problems with this link, please contact Niels Hahn,nh40@soas.ac.uk).

Note that an individual can normally only present only one paper at the conference, although multiple co-authorship is allowed. Please contact Al Campbell (al@economics.utah.edu) if there is a pressing case for someone to present more than once. On the Conference Programme onlythe designated presenter will be listed, and co-authors will only be listed on those papers submitted and posted on the IIPPE site.

The deadline for submission of proposals for papers and panels is 1 April 2014. Successful submissions will be confirmed by 1 May 2014. The deadline for registration for the Conference is 15 May 2014. The deadline for the submission of full papers, which will be posted on the IIPPE website, is 1 September 2014.

If you have any questions concerning your submission, please contact Al Campbell  (al@economics.utah.edu).

Local Organising Committee:

Pietro Masina (pietro.masina@gmail.com)

Michela Cerimele (michela.cerimele@gmail.com)

Lorenza Monaco (l_monaco@soas.ac.uk)

Conference Programme Committee:

Alfredo Saad Filho (as59@soas.ac.uk),

Al Campbell (al@economics.utah.edu)

Niels Hahn ( (nsc.hahn@gmail.com)

 

IIPPE: http://iippe.org/wp/

 

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

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Confronting Crisis: Left Praxis in the Face of Austerity, War and Revolution – Historical Materialism Toronto Conference – Call for Papers

Education Crisis

CONFRONTING CRISIS: LEFT PRAXIS IN THE FACE OF AUSTERITY, WAR AND REVOLUTION – HISTORICAL MATERIALISM TORONTO CONFERENCE – CALL FOR PAPERS

CALL FOR PAPERS

Confronting Crisis: Left Praxis in the Face of Austerity, War and Revolution
Historical Materialism Conference
York University, Toronto, Canada
May 8-11th, 2014

 

Confronted with a global context of austerity, exploitation, imperialist aggression, ongoing colonialism, and ecological crises, the world has been witness to growing social and political struggles over the past decade. A wide range of rural- and urban-based labour and social movements have fought back against the current ‘Age of Austerity,’ while new modes and geographies of resistance against dispossession and tyranny continue to inspire social change in the Global South. Against this backdrop, the 2014 Historical Materialism conference at Toronto’s YorkUniversity invites proposals for papers, panels, and other kinds of conference participation that can contribute to a collective discussion on how to extend and revitalize Left critique and praxis in the current conjuncture.

We particularly encourage submissions that address the challenges and contradictions facing global anti-capitalist theory and action in the present. Some of the questions the conference strives to address include:

(Theme 1) What are the ideological blind spots of Left thought and practice, and how might they be redressed?

(Theme 2) How does the present historical moment challenge our understanding of the making of the modern global working class?

(Theme 3) How can Marxist theory be transformed to integrate an understanding of corporeality, identity and subjectivity in its analysis of capitalism and class politics?

(Theme 4) How might historical materialist theory account for the co-constitutive relationship between race, class, gender and sexuality, and what are the implications of such analysis for Left praxis?

(Theme 5) What are the contributions of anti-colonial struggles for internationalist Left politics and praxis today?

(Theme 6) What contributions and challenges do struggles for indigenous self-determination make to Marxist thought and vice versa?

(Theme 7) How can we read Marxist texts politically in the current conjuncture?

(Theme 8) What is the role of space, land, and urbanization in the development and crisis of imperialist, neo-colonial capitalism?

(Theme 9) What is the role of different modes of organization (e.g. parties, unions, student and social movements), and what challenges do they face in the fight against austerity?

(Theme 10) How might we conceptualize new modes of resistance, including the recent upsurge of revolutionary and counter-revolutionary currents, in the Global South?

(Theme 11) What is the specific role of spatial organization in the institution, reproduction and transformation of forms of imperialist, neo-colonial domination and relations of war?

(Theme 12) What are the contributions and challenges of anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist politics to existing ecological crises?

(Theme 13) How can historical materialism assist us in understanding the dynamics of agrarian change under contemporary capitalism, particularly the global food crisis?

(Theme 14) How might historical materialist theory account for the dialectics of the rural and urban geographies of accumulation, domination, and resistance?

(Theme 15) What roles might culture, art and aesthetics play in confronting the crisis of capitalism and building Left movements?

 

The organizing committee specifically welcomes panel proposals that directly address the above questions. To make a submission for a panel, please include a working title and an abstract of no more than 300 words for the panel, along with the individual paper titles and abstracts of no more than 300 words. Please make sure to also include the names, email addresses and academic affiliations of all panelists.

For individual submissions, please include a working title, an abstract of no more than 300 words, as well as your name, email address and academic affiliation.

We strongly encourage all submissions to identify 1-2 themes from the above list that best describe the paper/panel topic.

The deadline for all submissions is January 10th, 2014.

For individual papers, please submit to: https://docs.google.com/ forms/d/1QDnUr_ NghgWxR9cYjGDg1T9njEUQa_ UHCZR85Nn_OPA/viewform  

For panel proposals, please submit to: https://docs.google.com/ forms/d/ 1A4xJHI1PMmgVzXzgP0P2nkr8joDrV bKIO-DOAzEM2Z8/viewform  

Please be advised that we cannot accommodate requests to present on a specific date or time slot and expect participants to be available for the full three days of the conference. The organizing committee also reserves the right to re-arrange panel proposals, if necessary.

For more information please contact historicalmaterialismt oronto@gmail.com or visit http://hmtoronto.org/.

 

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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

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

Marx Communnale: The Crisis of World Capitalism and the Left Alternative

Capitalist Crises

MARX COMMUNNALE: THE CRISIS OF WORLD CAPITALISM AND THE LEFT ALTERNATIVE

Seoul, South Korea
May 10 – 13, 2013

After the collapse of Soviet Russia and the Eastern bloc in 1989-91, there was a resurgence of a triumphalist end-of-history ideology, marked by neoliberal globalization on the one hand and the disarray of global Left forces on the other. However, the confidence in capitalism was misplaced: the financial crisis that erupted in 2007 shows no sign of abating, while social polarization, unemployment and severe climate change continue apace. There has also been a magnificent flowering of resistance, as seen in the Occupy movements, the Arab spring and worldwide anti-austerity protests.

In this context, the Korean internationalist Left is hosting the sixth biannual Marx Communnale conference, May 10-13, 2013, in Seoul, South Korea. This is more than an academic conference: over 30 leftist political organizations are participating. Themed The Crisis of World Capitalism and the Left Alternative, Marx Communale invites scholars and activists from around the world to speak on crises of the market, production and daily life, as well as the immense, inspiring efforts to build resistance across the globe. We hope to contribute to newly-emerging renaissance in Marxist theory and practice.

To register, email your presentation title, abstract and brief biographical details (name, email, affiliation) to marxcommunnale@gmail.com. The deadline is March 31.

More information can be found at the Marx Communnale website.

If you have specific questions, please contact Greg Sharzer, conference representative, at gsharzer@gmail.com

First published in: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/call-for-papers-the-crisis-of-world-capitalism-and-the-left-alternative-seoul-10-13-may

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Never Waste A Crisis

Crisis

NEVER WASTE A CRISIS

CALL FOR PAPER PROPOSALS

Never Waste a Crisis. Strategies of Representing and Managing Crisis after the Crash

1-2 November, 2012, Midland Hotel, Morecambe

Deadline for paper proposals: 17 June, 2012, to be sent to a.kutter@lancaster.ac.uk

Workshop organised by CPERC, Sociology Department, Lancaster University, within the frames of Bob Jessop’s ESRC professorial fellowship and the project “Great Transformations. A Cultural Political Economy of Crisis Management”  

The North Atlantic Financial Crisis that surfaced in 2007/08 and subsequent efforts at crisis management have produced unstable constellations. Whereas the financial sector has been rescued with large injections of capital but minor structural adjustments, the symptoms in many economies of ‘epic recession’ and fiscal crisis remain. Among political and economic elites, such finance-centred crisis management remains largely unchallenged. At the same time, the economic and social costs of the austerity packages and of a finance-dominated economy more generally have spurred contestation from various quarters. The workshop on ‘Strategies of Representing and Managing Crisis after the Crash’ seeks to explore the politics (broadly interpreted) of this constellation. Papers in the workshop will review different agents’ strategies of tackling the North Atlantic Financial Crisis through discursive construction, contestation, and policy-making. We encourage the submission of papers that highlight the discursive and semiotic of economic and political processes or that situate the analysis of crisis discourse in broader questions of political economy.

Speakers include so far: Colin Hay (tbc), David Howarth, Brigitte Young 

For more details and updates see: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/cperc/events/seminars.htm and 

http://www.lancs.ac.uk/cperc/research/great_transformations.htm 

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‘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

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Value, Money and Crisis: A Workshop on the Work of Hans-Georg Backhaus

Money

VALUE, MONEY AND CRISIS: A WORKSHOP ON THE WORK OF HANS-GEORG BACKHAUS

The Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London invites you to:

Value, Money and Crisis: A Workshop on the Work of Hans-Georg Backhaus

Presentations by Riccardo Bellofiore and Tommaso Redolfi Riva, responses by Chris Arthur and Werner Bonefeld

4 June 2012
Room 137, Richard Hoggart Building, Goldsmiths, University of London
4-6 pm
All welcome

Hans-Georg Backhaus is one of the most provocative thinkers of the Frankfurt School. Together with Helmut Reichelt, Alfred Schmidt, and Hans-Jürgen Krahl, he was at the origin of the Neue Marx-Lektüre. Building on Adorno’s critical sociology, Backhaus has been engaged in a problematization of the Marxian critique of political economy which takes seriously its roots in Hegel’s Logic. Questioning orthodox Marxism and Engels’s legacy, he has advanced a whole-scale reconstruction of Marxian theory, confronting the inconsistencies in Das Kapital, and rescuing Marxism as a critical theory of society. The most important of his essays were collected in Dialektik der Wertform: Untersuchungen zur marxschen Okonomiekritik (The Dialectic of the Value Form: Investigations into Marx’s Critique of Economics) by the German publisher Caira. Very few of them are available in English, but the seminal contributions (in particular his 4-part Materials for the Reconstruction of Marx’s Theory of Value) have now been published in Italian under the editorship of Bellofiore and Redolfi Riva. At the core of Backhaus’s reconstructive project is the uniqueness of Marx in building the only monetary theory of value available to us, together with a full recognition of the fetish character and the displaced/perverted nature of contradictory capitalist reality. Backhaus’s contributions put the question of the ‘constitution’ of capitalist social ‘objectivity’ once again on the agenda of Marxian theory and politics. They are essential today for anyone preoccupied with building an analysis of the crisis – one that would not only depart radically from mainstream economic theory, but go far deeper than Neo-Ricardianism and Keynesianism.

Riccardo Bellofiore has published books on Marx, Luxemburg, Minsky, Napoleoni, globalization, and the current economic crisis. With Giovanna Vertova he has a FB page, Economisti di classe. He teaches at the University of Bergamo, Italy.

Tommaso Redolfi Riva studied Philosophy and History of Political Economy in the Universities of Pisa and Florence. Together with Riccardo Bellofiore he is the editor of Hans Georg Backhaus, Dialettica della forma di valore, Roma, 2009.

Chris Arthur is the author of The New Dialectic and Marx’s Capital.

Werner Bonefeld teaches at theUniversity ofYork. He recently edited Subverting the Present, Imagining the Future: Insurrection, Movement, Commons.

 

Further information: http://www.gold.ac.uk/sociology/calendar/?id=5410

 

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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  

 

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The Crisis and the Left

Crisis Theory

THE CRISIS AND THE LEFT

The Crisis and the Left: Dispatches from the Socialist Register, with Frances Fox Piven

Sunday May 6, 4 PM at LeftWords Festival

Ryerson Student Centre, 55 Gould Street, Toronto

Frances Fox Piven, author of Who’s Afraid of Frances Fox Piven? The Essential Writings of the Professor Glenn Beck Loves to Hate, and David McNally author of Global Slump: The Economics and Politics of Crisis and Resistance join Leo Panitch and Greg Albo to launch the latest issue of the Socialist Register.

Reception to follow at the Ryerson Student Centre

Consider attending the LeftWords Festival all day: http://mayworks.ca/calendar.html#6

For more information: frederick.peters1968@gmail.com
+1.416.580.4630

**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

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

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

Europe in Crisis

Eurozone Crisis

EUROPE IN CRISIS

PERG Workshop – Europe in Crisis

Thursday, 19 April, 9.30 -17.00

JG 1008 (John Galsworthy building), Kingston University, Penrhyn Road

Europeis in a crisis. An international financial crisis has laid bare the fundamental flaws in the construction of the European economic policy regime. Monetary integration without fiscal and social integration has not only resulted in a mediocre economic performance, falling wage share and persistent imbalances, but has also left the peripheral countries without protection against the crisis. Rather than using fiscal policy to counteract a Great Depression in the European South, fiscal policies are firmly put into austerity mode. If the subprime financial crisis was not sufficient to lead to a new Great Depression, austerity might do so. The workshop will discuss the causes of the crisis in Europe, the present economic policy and strategies to deal with the crisis, and progressive alternatives forEurope.

9.00 Registration and coffee

9.30 Introduction

10.00-12.00 Roots of the crisis

–         E. Stockhammer, Kingston University: Rebalancing the Euro area: inflationary or depressive

–         D. Gabor, University of West England: The Missing Link: European bank funding strategies and ECB’s crisis policies

–         J. Grahl, Middlesex University: The First European Semester: an incoherent strategy.

12.00-13.20 Lunch

13.20 -15.20 EU Economic Policy

–         T van Treeck, IMK: Reducing Economic Imbalances in the Euro Area: Some Remarks on the Current Stability Programs

–         J Weeks, SOAS: Crisis Scams in Italy, Spain and the UK: Triumph of Ideology over Reality

–         T. Evans, Berlin School of Economics and Law: The crisis in the euro area

15.40-17.00 Progressive strategies for Europe

–         D. Sotiropoulos, Kingston University: The fundamental problem of Euro zone and the problem with ‘fundamentals’: an alternative (Marxian) approach to European economic policy context

–         R. Hyman, LSE, and R. Gumbrell-McCormick, Birkbeck: European Trade Unions: Responses to the Crisis

 

Political Economy Research Group (PERG)

The Political Economy approach highlights the role of effective demand, institutions and social conflict in economic analysis and thereby builds on Austrian, Institutionalist, Keynesian and Marxist traditions. Economic processes are perceived to be embedded in social relations that must be analysed in the context of historical considerations, power relations and social norms. As a consequence, a broad range of methodological approaches is employed, and cooperation with other disciplines, including history, law, sociology and other social sciences, is necessary. (http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/research/perg )

MA Economics (Political Economy) at Kingston University

http://www.kingston.ac.uk/postgraduate/booklets/FASS/political-economy-MA.pdf

MA Politics, Philosophy, Economics at Kingston University

http://www.kingston.ac.uk/postgraduate/booklets/FASS/PoliticsPhilosophyEconomics.pdf

 

**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

 

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

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

 

**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

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

Origins of the Current Crisis: Consequences and Political Alternatives

Crisis Sublime

ORIGINS OF THE CURRENT CRISIS: CONSEQUENCES AND POLITICAL ALTERNATIVES

Two-day seminar in Helsinkiand Tampere:

with

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

PART I

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

Origins of the Current Crises

Opening words: Antti Ronkainen

PART II

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

Consequences and Political Alternatives

Opening words: Juha Koivisto

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

**END**

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

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

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

Andrew Kliman at Bookmarks Bookshop

Andrew Kliman

ANDREW KLIMAN AT BOOKMARKS BOOKSHOP

PRESENTS

The Failure of Capitalist Production
with Andrew Kliman
5 March, 6.30pm £2* (refreshments inc)

The recent financial crisis and Great Recession have been analysed endlessly but this is the first book to conclude, on the basis of in-depth analyses of official US data, that Marx’s crisis theory can explain these events.

Kliman’s conclusion is simple but shocking: short of socialist transformation, the only way to escape the stagnant, crisis-prone economy is to restore profitability through full-scale destruction of existing wealth, something not seen since the Depression of the 1930s.

Venue: Bookmarks Bookshop, 1 Bloomsbury Street, WC1B 3QE
*£2 redeemable against any purchase on the night

Please contact us to reserve a place, 020 7637 1848: events@bookmarks.uk.com

Liberate Your Mind!
Bookmarks Bookshop
1 Bloomsbury Street
London
WC1B 3QE
020 7637 1848
http://www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk

Follow us on twitter: @bookmarks_books

See our book of the month on the website!

**END**

 

‘Maximum levels of boredom

Disguised as maximum fun’

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

 

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

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

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

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