Alternatives to Capitalism: Theoretical, Practical, Visionary

1839

ALTERNATIVES TO CAPITALISM: THEORETICAL, PRACTICAL, VISIONARY

From the U.S. Marxist Humanists 

Alternatives to Capitalism: Theoretical, Practical, Visionary

Join us for a discussion on the ongoing work of developing a philosophically grounded alternative to capitalism. It is clear that existing society has little to offer except years and even decades of austerity, reduced living standards, increasing social anxiety, and the continued enrichment of an oligarchic elite. The time has come to create new visions of an alternative that is inherent in the present and in the legacy of Karl Marx. 

Friday, July 13th 6:30pm

Corboy Law Center, Loyola University Chicago

25 East Pearson, Room 211

(1 block E of State, 1 block N of Chicago)

Chair:

Lauren Langman, Sociology, Loyola University

Speakers:

“Resistance versus Emancipation: from Foucault to Marx”

 — Kevin Anderson (USA), author of ‘Marx at the Margins:  On Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Non-Western Societies’

“The Ongoing Relevance of Marxist-Humanism”

— Sandra Rein (Canada), author of ‘Reading Dunayevskaya: Engaging the Emergence of Marxist-Humanism’

Transcending the Opposition Between the Real and the Ideal

— Marilyn Nissim-Sabat (USA), author of ‘Neither Victim nor Survivor: Thinking Toward a New Humanity’

“A Critique of the Situationist Dialectic in the Age of Occupy”

— David Black (Britain), author of ‘1839? The Chartist Insurrection’

“From the Economic Crisis to the Transcendence of Capital”

— Peter Hudis (USA), author of ‘Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism’

Sponsored by Loyola University, Department of Sociology

Co-Sponsored by U.S. Marxist-Humanists, http://www.usmarxisthumanists.org, an affiliate of the International Marxist-Humanist Organization

Email: arise@usmarxisthumanists.org

Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/alternatives-to-capitalism-theoretical-practical-visionary-13-july-chicago

**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

‘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

Marx for Today

Marx for Today

MARX FOR TODAY

Edited by Marcello Musto

After having being sold out as special issue (Nr. 54 – December 2010) of the journal “Socialism and Democracy” already in March 2011, Routledge has published “Marx for Today” as a book:
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415503594/

—
DESCRIPTION

Since the onset of global crisis in recent years, academics and economic theorists from various political and cultural backgrounds have been drawn to Marx’s analysis of the inherent instability of capitalism. The rediscovery of Marx is based on his continuing capacity to explain the present. In the context of what some commentators have described as a “Marx renaissance”, the aim of this book is to make a close study of Marx’s principal writings in relation to the major problems of our own society, and to show why and how some of his theories constitute a precious tool for the understanding and critique of the world in the early twenty-first century.

The book brings together varied reflections on the Marxian oeuvre, drawing on different perspectives and fields, and argues its case in two different parts. The first will encompass such diverse areas and themes as political thought, economics, nationalism, ethnicity, post-capitalist society, freedom, democracy, emancipation, and alienation, showing in each case how Marx has still today an invaluable contribution to make. The second presents a complete and rigorous account of the dissemination and the reception of Marx’s work throughout the world in the last decade. Both parts make a significant contribution to the current research on Marx and Marxisms.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Socialism and Democracy.

—
REVIEWS

“In Marcello Musto, the Marx revival has found an ‘Impressario’ with a range of interests and contacts, a tolerance for differences, and an exquisite taste for only the finest and most provocative of Marxist scholarship. With this volume of exceptionally astute essays (the second for Routledge after Karl Marx’s Grundrisse: Foundations of the critique of political economy 150 years later, and a third is on its way), Musto has set the gold standard for Marxological studies in the modern era. No one who wants to understand why Marx was chosen as the greatest thinker of the last millenium in a BBC poll of its listeners can afford to miss any of Musto’s volumes, including his own remarkably lucid and insightful contributions to each of them. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!” — Bertell Ollman – New York University

“With the relentless globalization of capital in recent decades, a global capitalist economic crisis, and uprisings in Greece, Italy, Spain, the Occupy Movements, and the Arab Uprisings of 2011, Marx has perhaps never been as relevant for the contemporary moment as now. Marcello Musto has orchestrated a series of projects that have ignited the Marx revival and contributed his own scholarship and ideas for making Marx alive for us today. His edited book Marx for Today is an extremely important contribution to the ungoing “Marx renaissance”, and shows how Marx’s work contributes to understanding and engaging key problems of today’s society, and thus how Marx contributes to projects of understanding, critique and transformation of the world in the early twenty-first century.” — Douglas Kellner – UCLA

“The ruling doxa wants us to believe that Marx belongs to yesterday. The truth of the matter is that his analysis, his theories and his indignation are relevant today, as much, and perhaps more so, than in his own times. This brilliant collection of essays edited by Marcello Musto shows us why”. — Michael Löwy – CNRS (French National Center of Scientific Research)

—

CONTENTS

1. Introduction, Marcello Musto.

Part 1: Re-reading Marx in 2010

2. Not Just Capital and Class: Marx on Non-Western Societies, Nationalism and Ethnicity, Kevin B. Anderson.

3. The Myth of Twentieth-Century Socialism and the Continuing Relevance of Karl Marx, Paresh Chattopadhyay.

4. Change the System, Not Its Barriers, Michael A. Lebowitz.

5. Emancipation in Marx’s Early Work, George Comninel.

6. Revisiting Marx’s Concept of Alienation, Marcello Musto.

7. Marx and the Politics of Sarcasm, Terrell Carver.

8. The ‘Lesser Evil’ as Argument and Tactic, from Marx to the Present, Victor Wallis.

9. In Capitalist Crisis, Rediscovering Marx, Rick Wolff.

10. Universal Capitalism, Ellen Meiksins Wood.

Part 2: Marx’s Global Reception Today

11. Marx in Hispanic America, Francisco T. Sobrino.

12. Marx in Brazil, Armando Boito and Luiz Eduardo Motta.

13. Marx in the Anglophone World, Paul Blackledge.

14. Marx in France, Jean-Numa Ducange.

15. Marx in Germany, Jan Hoff.

16. Marx in Italy, Gianfranco Ragona.

17. Marx in Russia, Vesa Oittinen.

18. Marx in China, Daping Hu.

19. Marx in South Korea, Seongjin Jeong.

20. Marx in Japan, Hiroshi Uchida.

—

A 20% discount flyer for universities and/or libraries is available from marcello.musto@gmail.com.

A library recommendation form is available at the following location – see: http://www.routledge.com/resources/librarian_recommendation/9780415503594 for more details. You can fill this out for your own librarian and forward the link to interested parties who would like to see your book appear in their libraries as well.

And in case a colleague would like to review the book: A review copy request form can be found at the following here: http://www.routledge.com/resources/review_copy_request/9780415503594   

 

**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

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

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

 

 

 

Performance and Labour Symposium

Aesthetics

PERFORMANCE AND LABOUR SYMPOSIUM

Call for Papers – Performance and Labour Symposium
3rd November – University College London
Supported by CRMEP, Kingston and the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art, UCL

Keynote Speaker: Randy Martin (Tisch School of the Arts at NYU)

 

This symposium is an interdisciplinary event that will address performance in an expanded sense and as a form of labour. This means considering performance as an activity and a practice that takes place both within and outside the realm of art. The symposium will interrogate the physical and intellectual experiences of viewing and producing performances; these questions will be raised across the fields of art history, philosophy, performance studies, political economy, theatre and dance. Addressed in this expanded way, the aim of the symposium is to investigate the histories of mass performances and social choreographies in political contexts, to situate performance as a form of praxis and to interrogate the language of performance as a managerial strategy within late capitalism.

We invite papers on collective performance; reproductive labour and performance; aesthetics; the political economy of performance; histories of performance; divisions of labour and cultures of management within performance.

 

Collectivity and Mass Performance

Whilst theatre by its very nature generally tends to be thought of as a collective performance, the histories of performance art are overwhelmingly oriented towards a singular performer rather than a mass, or collective, and are therefore theorised through the body, rather than bodies. What are the political implications of this occlusion of histories of collective performance? How might this be negotiated by socially engaged or mass performance art? What is the pedagogy of performance?

 

Performance, Experience and Emancipation

This session aims to raise questions about the aesthetics of performance. Can we think about the aesthetic of performance as anemancipatory, transformative process for performers, rather than an experience directed towards an audience? What forms of aesthetic analyses are capable of theorising performance as a transformative experience? In thinking about our current moment, how have restrictions upon protest, gatherings, and occupations through the use of injunctions and dispersal orders implicated the possibilities of an emancipatory politics of collective movement?

 

Performance and the Commodity Form

Whilst the commodity form and the labour internal to it within art forms such as painting, sculpture and photography have been well examined – mainly through concepts such as reproducibility, technique and craft – performance art has frequently been neglected within this discussion. Many artists during the 1960s used performance as way to escape the increasing commodification of the visual arts and the rapid expansion of the art market.  But how can we relate the past aspirations of performance as an anti-commodity to the status of performance art today? How does performance circulate and re-produce itself on the art market and how can we conceptualise the labour internal to its production?

 

We ask for abstracts no longer than 500 words, papers are to be 20 minutes in length.

Please send your abstract proposals to performanceandlabour@gmail.com by 23rd of July. 

The conference will take place on Saturday 3rd November 2012 at University College London.

This symposium is organised by Larne Abse Gogarty and Josefine Wikström with support from the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Kingston University London, and the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art, History of Art Department, University College London.

 

**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)

 

‘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, north Wales)  

 

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

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

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

London Conference in Critical Thought – Call for Papers

Critique

LONDON CONFERENCE IN CRITICAL THOUGHT – CALL FOR PAPERS

Call for Papers for London Conference in Critical Thought 2012
29th and 30th of June, 2012
Birkbeck College, University of London

Abstracts need to be submitted until 19th of February to londoncriticalconference@gmail.com with the Stream name in the subject line.

Stream/Panel: Thinking Egalitarian Emancipation
Stream Organisers: Matthew Cole, Svenja Bromberg

In light of the current state of the situation—the rapid increase in socio-economic inequalities, the crisis of state sovereignty, the broader crisis of global financial capitalism, and the lack of a radical counter-praxis on the Left—this stream/panel attempts to think political/social/economic emancipation through the ideal of egalitarianism. Given the unipolarity of capitalist realism, there is a desperate need for an intervention that breaks this ruse of the one-all, that forces us to think an other, an outside, or a beyond. The idea of egalitarian emancipation stands opposed to both the state of nature as well as the capitalist state. Contemporary social theory must reassess, rethink and reinvent the problems, solutions, paradoxes and attempted syntheses in order to move past the plateau of late Twentieth century post-structuralism. We aim to think the primacy of egalitarianism as an emancipatory force against the inherent stratification of the capitalist world. We aim to think the possibility of a novel foundation or grounding beyond the ‘post’.

Stream/panel papers could address the following topics and questions:

    • Revival of a dead concept: How to think emancipation in the contemporary conjuncture of late-capitalism?
    • Demos [the commons, common people] and kratos [power]: What does it mean to take power under the guise of ‘the common’?
    • Politics beyond the state, beyond class ‘relations’, beyond capitalism: Revolution or Reformation?Full Communism or …? Dealing with emancipation’s Marxian legacy.
    • The subject after post-structuralism [or, Human all too inhuman]: How may we think a subject for egalitarian emancipation? What are the implications of this for race, sex, gender, etc.?
    • Relation of freedom and emancipation: What are the implications of egalitarian emancipation forthe social contract? [or, must we force [wo]man to be free?]
    • Emancipation in practice: What do we learn from contemporary struggles about the possibility and implications for theorizing this concept today?

Relevant thinkers include Badiou, Rancière, Balibar, Laclau, Fanon, Agamben, Nancy, Frankfurt School, Zizek, De Beauvoir and many others.

**END**

‘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

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

Spaces of Capital, Moments of Struggle: Eighth Annual Historical Materialism Conference

World Crisis

SPACES OF CAPITAL, MOMENTS OF STRUGGLE: EIGHTH ANNUAL HISTORICAL MATERIALISM CONFERENCE

Central London

10–13 November 2011

The ongoing popular uprisings in the Arab world, alongside intimations of a resurgence in workers’ struggles against ‘austerity’ in the North and myriad forms of resistance against exploitation and dispossession across the globe make it imperative for Marxists and leftists to reflect critically on the meaning of collective anticapitalist action in the present.

Over the past decade, many Marxist concepts and debates have come in from the cold. The anticapitalist movement generated a widely circulating critique of capitalist modes of international ‘development’. More recently, the economic crisis that began in 2008 has led to mainstream-recognition of Marx as an analyst of capital. In philosophy and political theory, communism is no longer merely a term of condemnation. Likewise, artistic and cultural practices have also registered a notable upturn in the fortunes of activism, critical utopianism and the effort to capture aesthetically the workings of the capitalist system. 

The eighth annual Historical Materialism conference will strive to take stock of these shifts in the intellectual landscape of the Left in the context of the social and political struggles of the present. Rather than resting content with the compartmentalisation and specialisation of various ‘left turns’ in theory and practice, we envisage the conference as a space for the collective, if necessary, agonistic but comradely, reconstitution of a strategic conception of the mediations between socio-economic transformations and emancipatory politics.

For such a critical theoretical, strategic and organisational reflection to have traction in the present, it must take stock of both the commonalities and the specificities of different struggles for emancipation, as they confront particular strategies of accumulation, political authorities and relations of force. Just as the crisis that began in 2008 is by no means a homogeneous affair, so we cannot simply posit a unity of purpose in contemporary revolutions, struggles around the commons and battles against austerity. 

In consideration of the participation of David Harvey, winner of the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize, at this year’s conference, we would particularly wish to emphasise the historical and geographical dimensions of capital, class and struggle. We specifically encourage paper submissions and suggested panel-themes that tackle the global nature of capitalist accumulation, the significance of anticapitalist resistance in the South, and questions of race, migration and ecology as key components of both the contemporary crisis and the struggle to move beyond capitalism.

There will also be a strong presence of workshops on the historiography of the early communist movement, particularly focusing on the first four congresses of the Communist International.

The conference will aim to combine rigorous and grounded investigations of socio-economic realities with focused theoretical reflections on what emancipation means today, and to explore – in light of cultural, historical and ideological analyses – the forms taken by current and coming struggles.

Deadline for registration of abstracts: 1 May 2011

See: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/conferences/8annual/submit

Preference will be given to subscribers to the journal and participants are expected to be present during the whole of the event – no tailor-made timetabling for individuals will be possible, nor will cameo-appearances be tolerated.

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

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

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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Dispersing / Remaking Power: Autonomy, the State and Latin American Movements

Lost

DISPERSING/REMAKING POWER: AUTONOMY, THE STATE AND LATIN AMERICAN MOVEMENTS

A CONVERSATION WITH RAUL ZIBECHI

Friday, November 12, 2010
2-4 pm in Room 6112.04 (Sociology Department Lounge)
CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue @ 34th Street

Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Place, Culture, Politics
Hosted by the Militant Research Group (CUNY)

Raul Zibechi is a life long militant, journalist and writer.  His works deal primarily with social movements in Latin America, and those movements in particular who are creating alternatives and dignity through the horizontal construction of new territories and with the creation of other powers.  In 2003 he won the Jose Marti Award for his writing on Argentina, including the book, Genealogy of a Rebellion: Argentina, A Society in Movement.

Zibechi is the author of six additional books, including Territories in Resistance: Political Cartography on the Urban Latin Americ an Periphery  (2008); Autonomies and Emancipations (2008); A Horizontal View: Social Movements and Emancipation (1999), The Youth Rebellion of the 1990s, Social Networks and the Creation of an Alternative Culture (1997) and The Streams When They Run Low, the Challenges of Zapatismo (1995). His writing addresses questions of power, the creation of other territories, and reconceptualization of social movements as more creative relationships, and less oppositional forces.  Zibechi’s writing has appeared in journals throughout the world, from Pagina 12 and MU in Argentina to Socialism and Democracy, Monthly Review, and Counterpunch in the US, The Guardian in the UK and La Jornada in Mexico. He is the editor of the weekly Brecha, in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Dispersing Power (2006/2010) is his first book translated into English: “Dispersing Power, like the movements it describes, explores new ways of doing politics beyond the state, gracefully mapping the “how” of revolution, offering valuable lessons to activists and new theoretical frameworks for understanding how social movements can and do operate independently of state-centered models for social change.” (From the back cover, AK Press).

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

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

Wavering on Ether: http://blog.myspace.com/glennrikowski

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

Power and Education – Volume 2 Number 2 (2010)

Deadwing

POWER AND EDUCATION – VOLUME 2 NUMBER 2 (2010)

Just published at:
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/power/content/pdfs/2/issue2_2.asp

POWER AND EDUCATION
Volume 2 Number 2 2010       ISSN 1757-7438

ARTICLES

John Preston. Concrete and Abstract Racial Domination

Damien Page. Power and Resistance in Further Education: findings from a study of first-tier managers

Shirley R. Steinberg, with Joe L. Kincheloe. Power, Emancipation, and Complexity: employing critical theory

Alan Cottey. The Shadow of the Bomb: a study of degree-level nuclear physics textbooks

Laurette Bristol. Practising in betwixt Oppression and Subversion: plantation pedagogy as a legacy of plantation economy in Trinidad and Tobago

Katherine R. Evans, Jessica Lester & Amy D. Broemmel. Talking Back to Scripted Curricula: a critical performance ethnography with teachers’ collective narratives

James Avis. Education, Governance and the ‘New’ Professionalism: radical possibilities?

Andrew Lambirth. Class Consciousness, Power, Identity, and the Motivation to Teach

BOOK REVIEWS

Habermas, Honneth and Education: the significance of Jürgen Habermas’s and Axel Honneth’s critical theories to education (Rauno Huttunen), reviewed by Mark Murphy

Racially Equitable Teaching: beyond the whiteness of professional development for early childhood educators (Mary E. Earick), reviewed by Laurie Carlson Berg

Going Beyond the Theory/Practice Divide in Early Childhood Education: introducing an intra-active pedagogy (Hillevi Lenz Taguchi), reviewed by Barbara McNeil

Reflexive Research and the (Re)Turn of the Baroque (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the University) (Cate Watson), reviewed by Ian Stronach

Access to the full texts of current articles is restricted to those who have a Personal subscription, or those whose institution has a Library subscription. However, all articles become free-to-view 18 months after publication.

PERSONAL SUBSCRIPTION (single-user access). Subscription to Volume 3, 2011, which includes not only full access to the articles in Volume 3, Numbers 1-3, but also ALL back numbers (including those of 2010) is available to individuals at a cost of US$50.00. If you wish to subscribe you may do so immediately at www.wwwords.co.uk/subscribePOWER.asp

LIBRARY SUBSCRIPTION (institution-wide access). If you are working within an institution that maintains a Library, please urge them to take out a subscription so that we can provide access throughout your institution; details of subscription rates and access control arrangements for libraries can be found at www.symposium-journals.co.uk/prices.html

For all editorial matters, including articles offered for publication, please contact the journal’s Editor, Dr Michael Watts (michael.watts@wwwords.eu)

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

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 at MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon Profile: https://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/

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

Wavering on Ether: http://blog.myspace.com/glennrikowski

The Privatization of Public Space? Resisting Enclosure

Privatization

THE PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC SPACE? RESISTING ENCLOSURE

Neoliberalism continues to transform public space in geographically uneven and variegated ways, with far reaching and profound consequences.  On the first day, the conference will provide context for various means of privatization and elaborate on language and visions for discussing this issue.  On the second day, workshops will bring together students, activists, artists, and organizations engaged in imagining and practicing new and creative means of resistance to the new round of enclosures taking place on a global scale.

Day 1 Conference: Wednesday, April 21, 2010 Elebash Recital Hall, CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York City

9:00 a.m. Introduction and Welcome – Setha Low, President; William P. Kelly; and Provost Chase F. Robinson of CUNY Graduate Center

9:30 – 11:00 a.m.
Privatization of Public Space: Historical and Contemporary New York City – with Sharon Zukin, Gregory Smithsimon, Andrew Newman

Break

11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Reconsidering Privatization: Neoliberal Strategies, Securitization and Privacy – with Kevin Ward, Setha Low, Kurt Iveson

1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Lunch

2:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Beyond Public and Private: Privatization and the Global Fiscal Crisis – with Neil Smith, Katherine Verdery, Bill McKinney

Break

4-5:30 Visions of the Future: Race, Class and Gender – with Mindy Fullilove, David Harvey, Cindi Katz

5:30-6:00 p.m.

Wrap up and further discussion

6:00-7:00 p.m. Reception

Day 2 Workshops: Thursday, April 22, 2010 Rooms 5414 and 5409 (5th Floor) CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York City

To RSVP for Day 2, find us on Facebook (search “resisting enclosure”) or RSVP by sending an email to resistingenclosure@riseup.net! RSVP is not require d for entrance but helps us make sure we accommodate everyone! (Please include any special needs information.)

9:00 a.m.  Registration

9:30 a.m. Opening discussion, with David Harvey

10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Workshop 1:  Anti-Gentrification and Community Self-Determination, with CAAAV’s Chinatown Tenants Union and Picture the Homeless Workshop 2:  Artistic Interruptions in Everyday Life, with Dara Greenwald, Manu Sachdeva, Jeff Stark and Jordan Seiler

12:00 – 1:00 p.m. Lunch (on site)

1:15 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.

Workshop 3:  Neoliberalism, Securitization and Enclosures in South Asia, with Ahilan Kadirgamar, Biju Mathew, Preeti Sampat and Saadia Toor

Workshop 4: The University and the Commons, with Silvia Federici, Malav Kanuga, Mary Taylor and the Coalition to Preserve Community

3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
“Asking We Walk”: Collective Theorizations/Mapping Emancipations?

5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Recept ion

Free and Open.  Food and refreshments will be provided.

Sponsors:
Public Space Research Group at the Center for Human Environments, Center for Place, Culture, and Politics, Ph.D. Programs in Earth and Environmental Sciences and Sociology, Doctoral Students’ Council, SpaceTime Research Collective (STRC) and the South Asia Solidarity Initiative (SASI)

Organized by:
Setha Low, The Graduate Center, CUNY; Kevin Ward, University of Manchester; Lalit Batra, Doctoral Student in Earth and Environmental Sciences; Fiona Jeffries, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Center for Place, Culture and Politics; Erin Siodmak, Doctoral Student in Sociology; Laurel Mei Turbin, Doctoral Student in Earth and Environmental Sciences

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 at MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

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

Privatization

Wavering on Ether: http://blog.myspace.com/glennrikowski

The Emancipated Spectator – Jacques Ranciere

Jacques Ranciere

THE EMANCIPATED SPECTATOR – JACQUES RANCIERE

NEW TITLE: THE EMANCIPATED SPECTATOR

JACQUES RANCIÈRE

Published 25 January 2010

————————

“Ranciere’s writings offer one of the few conceptualizations of how we are to continue to resist.”  Slavoj Zizek

“Ranciere is an heir to Foucault.”  Alain Badiou

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AUTHOR EVENTS IN LONDON:

3rd February 2010: ICA / Jacques Ranciere in conversation with Kodwo Eshun, Otolith Group / For more details and to book click here:: http://www.ica.org.uk/The%20Image%20in%20Question+23536.twl

4th February 2010: Whitechapel Gallery / Big Ideas: Jacques Ranciere in conversation with Adrian Rifkin and Andrea Phillips / For more details and to book click here: http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/shop/product/category_id/22/product_id/437?session_id=126278107878a96fc6fd05d128adaed940ce9e71eb1

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“Every spectator is already an actor in her story; every actor, every man of action, is the spectator of the same story.”

A ‘68er whose radical ardour remains undimmed, Jacques Ranciere is one of the most influential and compelling thinkers of our age in France since Foucault and Deleuze, lauded by both art theorists and artists.

Now this leading theorist of the art world returns with the follow-up to his acclaimed manifesto for contemporary art and film, THE FUTURE OF THE IMAGE which located art firmly in relation to politics.

Theorists of art and film commonly depict the modern audience as passive consumers. In response, both artists and thinkers have sought to transform the viewer of art or the spectator into someone involved in the drama before them – seeking to ‘emancipate’ the spectator and make them politically active.

For example, the influential curator of the Tate Britain’s recent exhibition ‘Altermodern’, Nicholas Bourriaud, has championed the notion of a more socially engaged art, where the public are encouraged to participate in an event or artwork. We have seen the influence of such ideas in such projects as Antony Gormley’s ‘One & Other’ that took place on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.

Ranciere turns these ideas over and argues that “Being a spectator is not some passive condition that we should transform into activity. It is our normal situation.” For Ranciere, there is no privileged starting point in art but we should reassess the relations between seeing, doing, speaking: emancipation means blurring these boundaries.

Looking over the tradition of critical art and what the desire to insert art into life has achieved, Ranciere asks, ‘has the militant critique of the consumption of images and commodities has become, ironically, a sad confirmation of its omnipotence?’

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Praise for Jacques Ranciere

“His art lies in the rigor of his argument – its careful, precise unfolding – and at the same time not treating his reader, whether university professor or unemployed actress, as an imbecile.” Kristin Ross

“It’s clear that Jacques Ranciere is relighting the flame that was extinguished for many—that is why he serves as such a signal reference today.” Thomas Hirschhorn

“In the face of impossible attempts to proceed with progressive ideas within the terms of postmodernist discourse, Ranciere shows a way out of the malaise.” Liam Gillick

Praise for HATRED OF DEMOCRACY

“A piercing essay on the definitions and redefinitions of the term “democracy” … the present catastrophe in Iraq provides more than ample proof of Ranciere’s bold assertion that we need to rethink the relationship between democracy and power before setting in motion any more wars in the name of “freedom”.” Times Higher Educational Supplement

“This tastily sardonic essay is partly a scholarly sprint through the history of political philosophy, and partly a very enjoyable stream of insults directed at rival penseurs.” The Guardian

“Ranciere critiques the political stance in the west that pours scorn on mass protests and popular culture at home, yet promotes the spread of democracy by force throughout the world. … But Ranciere eschews polemic in order to show the confusion in our political discourse. He challenges what he sees as the widely held view that democratic life is synonymous with “the apolitical life of the indifferent consumer”.” New Statesman

Praise for THE FUTURE OF THE IMAGE

“A series of gratifyingly knotty and close discussions of 19th- and 20th-century literature, film and painting” The Guardian

“French philosopher Jacques Ranciere is a refreshing read for anyone concerned with what art has to do with politics and society.” J.J. Charlesworth, Art Review

“What we see here is Ranciere developing a unique voice as a political theorist.” Bookforum

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Jacques Ranciere is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris-VIII.  His books include THE FUTURE OF THE IMAGE, HATRED OF DEMOCRACY, and ON THE SHORES OF POLITICS (all from Verso), THE POLITICS OF AESTHETICS, DISAGREEMENT, THE PHILOSOPHER AND HIS POOR, THE IGNORANT SCHOOLMASTER,SHORT VOYWAGES TO THE LAND OF THE PEOPLE and NIGHTS OF LABOR.

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The Emancipated Spectator Author: Jacques Ranciere / 25 January 2010 / 
Hardback /
978 1 84467 343 8 /£12.99 / $23.95/144 pages / Hardback

For more information visit http://www.versobooks.com/books/nopqrs/r-titles/ranciere_j_emancipated_spectator.shtml

To buy the book in the U.K:
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9781844673438/The-Emancipated-Spectator
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Emancipated-Spectator-Jacques-Ranci%C3%A8re/dp/184467343X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264006364&sr=8-1

To buy the book in the U.S:
http://www.amazon.com/Emancipated-Spectator-Jacques-Ranci%C3%A8re/dp/184467343X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264000587&sr=8-

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ALSO OUT NOW:

New in Paperback

HATRED OF DEMOCRACY

Published 7 December 2009

978-1-84467-386-5 / Paperback /$16.95 /£8.99 / 112 pages

In his new book, Jacques Ranciere examines how the West can no longer simply extol the virtues of democracy by contrasting it with the horrors of totalitarianism. As certain governments are exporting democracy by brute force, and a reactionary strand in mainstream political opinion is willing to abandon civil liberties and destroy collective values of equality, Ranciere explains how democracy—government by all—is the principle that de-legitimates any form of power based on the superiority of those who govern. Hence the fear, and consequently the hatred, of democracy amongst the new powers that be.  HATRED OF DEMOCRACY rediscovers the ever-new and subversive power of the democratic idea.

To buy the book in the U.K:
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9781844673865/Hatred-of-Democracy
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hatred-Democracy-Jacques-Ranci%C3%A8re/dp/1844673863/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264006391&sr=1-2

To buy the book in the U.S:
http://www.amazon.com/Hatred-Democracy-Jacques-Ranci%C3%A8re/dp/1844673863/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264000236&sr=8-1

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THE FUTURE OF THE IMAGE

Published 23 February 2009

978-1-84467-297-4 / Paperback /$16.95 /£9.99 /152 pages

The leading theorist of the art-world – the adjective ‘Rancierian’ is already in use –returns with his bestselling manifesto on the relationship between art and politics, now in paperback.

To buy the book in the U.K.:
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9781844672974/The-Future-of-the-Image  
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Future-Image-Jacques-Ranciere/dp/1844672972/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264006443&sr=1-1

To buy the book in the U.S:
http://www.amazon.com/Future-Image-2009-paperback/dp/1844672972/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264000279&sr=1-1

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Wavering on Ether: http://blog.myspace.com/glennrikowski

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

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The Italian Difference: Between Nihilism and Biopolitics

Nihilism

THE ITALIAN DIFFERENCE: BETWEEN NIHILISM AND BIOPOLITICS

 

The Italian Difference: Between Nihilism and Biopolitics

Lorenzo Chiesa and Alberto Toscano (eds.)

Price: $35.00 AUD; $25.00 USD; £16.00 GBP

ISBN-13: 978-0-9805440-7-7

ISBN-ebook: 978-0-9806665-4-0

Publication date: July 2009

Pages: 180

Format: 216×140 mm (5.5×8.5 in) Paperback

Series: ‘Transmission’

Download book as PDF (Open Access): http://www.re-press.org/content/view/66/38/

Description

This volume brings together essays by different generations of Italian thinkers which address, whether in affirmative, problematizing or genealogical registers, the entanglement of philosophical speculation and political proposition within recent Italian thought. Nihilism and biopolitics, two concepts that have played a very prominent role in theoretical discussions in Italy, serve as the thematic foci around which the collection orbits, as it seeks to define the historical and geographical particularity of these notions as well their continuing impact on an international debate. The volume also covers the debate around ‘weak thought’ (pensiero debole), the feminist thinking of sexual difference, the re-emergence of political anthropology and the question of communism. The contributors provide contrasting narratives of the development of post-war Italian thought and trace paths out of the theoretical and political impasses of the present—against what Negri, in the text from which the volume takes its name, calls ‘the Italian desert’.

Contents

Antonio Negri, ‘The Italian Difference’

Pier Aldo Rovatti, ‘Foucault Docet’

Gianni Vattimo, ‘Nihilism as Emancipation’

Roberto Esposito, ‘Community and Nihilism’

Matteo Mandarini, ‘Beyond Nihilism: Notes towards a Critique of Left-Heideggerianism in Italian Philosophy of the 1970s’

Luisa Muraro, ‘The Symbolic Independence from Power’

Mario Tronti, ‘Towards a Critique of Political Democracy’

Alberto Toscano, ‘Chronicles of Insurrection: Tronti, Negri and the Subject of Antagonism’

Paolo Virno, ‘Natural-Historical Diagrams: The ‘New Global’ Movement and the Biological Invariant’

Lorenzo Chiesa, ‘Giorgio Agamben’s Franciscan Ontology’

Authors, editors and contributors: Lorenzo Chiesa and Alberto Toscano

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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