Apocalypse Now: Neoliberalism and Apocalyptic Narratives

APOCALYPSE NOW

APOCALYPSE NOW: NEOLIBERALISM AND APOCALYPTIC NARRATIVES

 

Apocalypse Now: Neoliberalism and Apocalyptic Narratives

Conference website: http://www.unil.ch/aponow

Graduate colloquium

English Department, University of Lausanne

22-23 June, 2015 – Lausanne, Switzerland

With the participation of the University of York, and the University of Utrecht

 

Keynote Speakers:

Christian Arnsperger, University of Lausanne

Adam Kelly, University of York

Organizer: Anas Sareen (Anas.Sareen@unil.ch)

 

CALL FOR PAPERS

Western culture has a long-standing investment in the apocalyptic. Events such as 9/11, global warming, or the financial crisis of 2008 have directly impacted the way we perceive the world, and the ways in which we conceive of social structures. The recent events in Paris exemplify these apocalyptic interruptions in Western society, which bring issues of freedom of speech and democratic ideals to the fore, and reveal unresolved questions of race, religion, and ethnicity. Similar dynamics exist between the U.S. and North-Korea. After cyber terrorists hacked Sony Pictures in retaliation against the release of the film The Interview, public debates on race, satire, and cyber-terrorism have reanimated tensions between the two countries. The highly publicized hacker group Anonymous demonstrates yet another case of Internet-born geopolitics, though the ambivalence the group evokes does raise questions about our public sentiments towards the placelessness of virtual security. Evidently, the apocalyptic abounds today, and urges us to re-think issues of national identity, economy, and ethics in light of shifting geopolitical configurations. Immersed in such geopolitical shifts, neoliberal capitalism is the silent victor of many an apocalypse.

As established by David Harvey among others, the elusive object that capitalism is resurges with a renewed ideological agenda during the 1970s, particularly under the governments of Thatcher in Britain, and Reagan in the U.S., coalescing into what we now term ‘neoliberalism’ or ‘neoliberal capital’. Evidently, the apocalyptic urges us to consider the geopolitical configurations of national identity, economy, ethics. Neoliberal capitalism and the apocalyptic recently converged in the 2008 financial crisis, a circumstance of speculative excess pushed over the brink and salvaged by American and European government bailouts. Given these ties between neoliberalism and the nation, what might we mean today when we speak of the apocalyptic?

The ambivalence of the term ‘apocalypse’ may be the starting point of this reflection. If the ‘apocalypse’ means both the ‘end of the world’, and a ‘revelation’, then what does the apocalyptic reveal?

This colloquium aims to explore the ways in which the apocalyptic destabilizes social or narrative structures and, in doing so, reveals the constructed nature of both inclusionary and exclusionary modes of being/living. What are the dynamics behind ‘the end’ and behind renewal? What remains? What disappears? How long does an apocalypse last? Questions of temporality invite articulations around issues of questions of gender, sexuality, race, subjectivity, politics, and ethics among many others.

Therefore, we seek contributions that address such critical categories from a number of different locations, objects, and orientations. We invite innovative papers of 20 minutes (followed by 10 min discussion), which explore the apocalyptic/and neoliberal capitalism by engaging in contemporary cultural products.

Topics may include (but are not restricted to) the following:

• Architecture and dystopia in contemporary film and literature
• Apocalypse and the nation in contemporary film and literature
• Apocalypse and the everyday
• Apocalypse, capitalism, and seriality (TV series, comics)
• Civil disobedience and/or “epistemic disobedience” (see Walter Mignolo, 2009)
• Dancing on the edge: dance and capitalism/dance and the apocalyptic
• De-colonial perspectives on capitalism/the apocalyptic
• Hi-stories of apocalyptic capitalism from the Global South
• Interrupted flows: music, capitalism, and the apocalyptic
• Nuclear families, and alternative modes of belonging, kinship (queer theory, for example Lee Edelman’s No Future, Judith Butler’s Antigone’s Claim)
• Posthumanism and capitalism (zombies, cyborgs, animals)
• ‘Revealing race’ and the geopolitics of the apocalyptic
• Staging apocalyptic capitalism
• Social mouvements, and countering neoliberalism (new forms of political activism)
• Subjectivity and affect under neoliberalism (for example Lauren Berlant’s Cruel Optimism)
• The narrative architecture of the apocalyptic (the immediate and the aftermath)
• The political capital of (cyber-) terrorism

 

Please send abstracts of 300 words, including an author’s bionote,

to aponow@gmail.com by 21 March 2015. Notification of acceptance on 1 Apri l 2015.

Scientific committee:

Catherine Chen (Columbia University), Anna Iatsenko (University of Geneva), and Anas Sareen

(University of Lausanne)

Neoliberalism

**END**

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

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

Fifth Annual Conference in Political Economy

The Old Economics

FIFTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN POLITICAL ECONOMY

International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy

“The Crisis: Scholarship, Policies, Conflicts and Alternatives”

L’Orientale, Naples, Italy
September 16-18, 2014

The Crisis: Scholarship, Policies, Conflicts and Alternatives

 

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,confl icts 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 only the 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 at: (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 Financialisation Working Group

Call for Papers

The Fifth Annual Conference in Political Economy.

Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”, Naples, Italy

16 to 18 September, 2014

Over the last three decades developed and developing economies have gone through significant structural transformations under the ever increasing influence of finance. In critical political economy, the resultant mode of accumulation, and its corresponding social effects, have been analysed under the heading of financialisation and neoliberalism.  Whether the financial crisis that started in 2008 was the end or only an interruption to financialisation  and/or neoliberalism, its costs are still borne by governments and the general public.

The International Initiative of Promotion of Political Economy (IIPPE) organises its Fifth Annual Conference in Political Economy. The conference will be held at Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”, Naples, Italy, from 16 to 18 September, 2013 and the theme of the conference is “The Crisis: Scholarship, Policies, Conflicts and Alternatives”.

The IIPPE Financialisation Working Group intends to coordinate panels exploring the implications of financialisation on different aspects of the current crises. In our capacity as convenors of the IIPPE Working Group on Financialisation, we would like to encourage you to submit proposals for individual papers or complete panel to the Working Group for consideration for the Fourth International Conference in Political Economy. In accordance with the general call for papers, contributions could include, but are not limited to:

·       Financialisation of Middle Income Countries; the integration of Middle Income Countries into the global finance with the increasing international capital flows; manifestations and consequences of financialisation in emerging countries.

·       Financialisation of commodities; the increasing growth of commodity index investment and changes in the social relations along commodity chains.

·       Financialisaton of households and income distribution; unequal market and social power relations between classes with the increasing dependence on financial forms of meeting the needs of social reproduction.

·       Limitations of mainstream economic theory and; the role and use of alternative critical studies and methodology in financialisation theory

·       The evolution of financialisation after the crisis, the future of the Euro;  economic analysis of and policy alternatives for social policy as well as transforming financial regulations and international banking reforms

·       Financialisation, the state and conflicts across classes during the recent economic crisis and the ensuing global recession

 

We would particularly like to encourage the submission of panel proposals (2-4 presentations). Panels, which collectively present the work of institutions or other academic groups, provide an excellent opportunity to showcase work in a greater depth than is possible in single presentations. It is further hoped that the conference will provide an opportunity to deepen links between groups working on finance from a critical perspective.

Abstracts of individual papers (max. 500 words) or panel proposals (max. 500 words plus abstracts of the individual papers) should be submitted to serdar_sengul@soas.ac.uk by 17th March 2014.

Following the success of previous Training Workshops, the International Initiative for the Promotion of Political Economy is proud to announce TWO forthcoming training workshops in March 2014. It will run a two-day workshop on Class in London on the 24th and 25th of March 2014, at the School of Oriental and African Studies. And it will run a one-day workshop on Marx, Keynes and Economic Crises in the 20th and 21st Centuries in Leeds on the 31st of March at the LeedsUniversityBusinessSchool. For both workshops, we are seeking an audience of undergraduate and postgraduate students, junior academics and activists, who have a particular interest in acquainting themselves with the basic principles of Marxian political economy and heterodox economics more broadly. For the London workshop, participants include: Henry Bernstein, Adam Hanieh, Alfredo Saad-Filho, and Ben Selwyn, and limited funding is available to support travel costs (from within the UK). For the Leeds workshop, participants include: Andrew Brown, Gary Dymski, Annina Kaltenbrunner, Malcolm Sawyer, Gary Slater and David Spencer. If you wish to apply to attend either (or both) of these workshops, please send, before 1st of March 2014, your name and occupation, for the LONDON WORKSHOP to ew23@soas.ac.uk and for the LEEDS WORKSHOP to M.Boffo@leeds.ac.uk

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

Crisis

 

**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

The Future and Practice of Decent Work

Unemployment

THE FUTURE AND PRACTICE OF DECENT WORK

International Center for Development and Decent Work, KasselUniversity, 14 – 15 February 2013

The Financial and Economic Crisis: A Decent Work Response report prepared by the International Institute for Labour Studies and the Employment Sector and Policy Integration and Statistics Department Geneva in 2009 indicates that the Decent Work Agenda should provide a policy framework to stem crises by placing employment and social protection at the heart of ‘extraordinary fiscal stimulus measures’ which can both protect vulnerable people, and reactivate investment and demand in economies.

The International Labour Organisation’s World of Work Report 2012 forecasts a global unemployment rate of 6.1 per cent in 2012, with total world unemployment rising from 196 million in 2011 to 202 million in 2012. In this context, and with the rise in austerity measures which cannot guarantee growth but which have already triggered social disruption and harm, this conference will explore the concept of decent work and search for a praxis of decent work in all countries, all contexts, and for all people.

Guy Ryder, an experienced trade unionist, was elected as the ILO’s new Director General on 28th May 2012, to take office in September, and he has stated his commitment to prioritise people and the world of work (Ryder, 2012).  In June 2012, India, Brazil and South African signed a long term Declaration of Intent in a number of areas including development and cooperation, and labour, which is explicitly designed to further the Decent Work Agenda, aiming toward creating jobs, guaranteeing rights at work, extending social protection and the promotion of social dialogue, with gender equality as a core objective. These types of initiatives indicate a continuation of the relevance of a concept that was coined by Juan Somavia, Director General 1999 – September 2012, but the global climate of strained governance continues to challenge the possibilities for decent work in developed and developing countries alike.
 
The ILO’s new Director General faces a Eurozone crisis, rising unemployment, a spate of emergency crisis-driven labour policy deregulation that has often not been passed with consent from relevant social partners, and the dramatic rise in precarity and nonstandard employment which impacts lives in all corners of the world. Several governments across the European Union, including Portugal, Spain, Hungary, and the United Kingdom, have recently passed emergency labour motions and reforms using the rationale of austerity to decentralise collective bargaining, disempower temporary workers, and increase working time for less remuneration, in many cases via Memoranda of Understanding passed in consultation and consent with the Troika (the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF) (Clauwaert and Schomann, 2012). Nonetheless the ‘international consensus’ remains committed to securing ongoing decent work, and labour law is expected to provide the theatre for appropriate labour standards and rights despite labour law modernisation (Faioli, 2010).

The conference involves papers dealing with questions around the legitimation and the tripartite structure of the International Labour Organisation, questions about the world of work in the current context of global recession, issues surrounding social unrest as linked to rising unemployment, and the nature of international labour standards in this context. The concept of decent work is in crisis and this conference is a call for praxis around these issues.

Please email decentworkconference@gmail.com to express interest in attending this event. 

First published in: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/the-future-and-praxis-of-decent-work-international-center-for-development-and-decent-work-kassel-university-14-2013-15-february-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

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

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

European Sociological Association 11th Conference

CRISIS

EUROPEAN SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION 11th CONFERENCE 2013

European Sociological Association 11th Conference – Torino, 28-31 August 2013 – ‘Crisis, Critique and Change’

Call for Papers, Critical Political Economy Research Network (RN06)
WHOSE CRISIS, WHOSE CRITIQUE AND WHOSE CHANGE?

The recent years have, in the eyes of many, been characterised by a multiplicity of crises, the growth in significance of critiques of the current state of affairs, and increasing demands for change. However, the uneven impact of crises, the concentration of voices of critique in only parts of society and the world, and the very different demands for change that have been articulated, force critical political economy scholars to ask the question ‘Whose crisis, whose critique and whose change?’

This observation has many aspects to it. For example, apart from the initial shock in late 2008, many of those towards the top of different societies have suffered very little (if any) decline in wealth and incomes over the last few years. Moreover, the critiques have come from the radical Right as much as from more progressive currents of thought such as the Occupy, Indignados and other movements. Finally, very real change may be taking place, but in Europe for example it is often in the form of brutal and authoritarian structural adjustment programmes, social and political polarisation/conflict and a more general crisis of everyday living for the majority of the population (e.g. the rise in bankruptcies, evictions and imprisonments related to debt, the reductions of salaries, social rights and entitlements).

For this reason we are interested in hosting a wide range of topics in our sessions that are linked to the above themes. For instance, this could include the sharp growth of precarious labour and insecurity, the rise of state authoritarianism, the question of resistance and dissent from all sides of the political and social spectrum, the crises of welfare states and everyday living, and so on. More broadly, this could also include the crises and continuities in ‘living dead’ neoliberalism, the evolution of Eurozone governance, the possibilities for more progressive ‘models of capitalism’ in the future, the lessons that can be learned from the ‘pink tide’ in Latin America, the Arab uprisings, etc..

We are interested in all of the above plus more. As such, we seek contributions from those with an interest in political economy research, regardless of their disciplinary affiliation and whether they are in academia or not. We also hope to attract a diverse range of participants, from a number of countries and backgrounds.

We invite submission of papers and panel proposals for our open sessions – please see the instructions below. Moreover, at the Torino conference we have two joint sessions with other ESA networks. If you are interested in participating in these joint sessions, please indicate this on your submission.

RN06 JOINT SESSION WITH RN08 DISASTER, CONFLICT AND SOCIAL CRISIS

The Eurozone Crisis as an Opportunity: Structural Changes within the Member States of the Eurozone and the European Union

[Chair: Laura Horn (RN06) and Nikos Petropoulos (RN08)]

This joint panel with RN08 invites submissions on the theme of ‘The Eurozone Crisis as an Opportunity: Structural Changes within the Member States of the Eurozone and the European Union’. The focus will be on the structural – economic, political, and social changes – within the member states themselves. Special emphasis will be on the states that have especially been affected by the debt crisis and have taken part of the ECB/IMF/EU bail-out mechanism (e.g. Ireland, Portugal, Greece) or have received loans from EU/ECB to support their bank system (e.g. Spain).  Papers may also focus on structural changes, if any, within the ‘solvent’ states of the Eurozone and the European Union (Germany, Finland, Holland, Austria, the CzechRepublic).  Priority will be given to comparative empirical and critical analysis.

RN06 JOINT SESSION WITH RN18 SOCIOLOGY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA RESEARCH

Critical Political Economy of the Media and Communication in Times of Capitalist Crisis and Change

[Chair: Ian Bruff (RN06) and Christian Fuchs (RN18)]

This joint panel with RN18 invites submissions on the theme of ‘Critical Political Economy of the Media and Communication in Times of Capitalist Crisis and Change’. Abstract submissions could, for example, focus on the role of media and communication in critical political economy approaches to the crisis, the role of critical political economy approaches in the sociology of communications and the media, or indeed any other aspects of topics and issues linked to this theme. In other words, this joint session focuses on the intersection of Critical Political Economy and the Sociology of the Media and Communication. It is interested in contributions that focus on one or more of the following questions:

* Which approaches that are based on Marx, Critical Political Economy, or Marxism are there today for understanding the current crisis and ongoing changes?

* What is the role of the media and communication in these approaches?

* What is the role of Critical Political Economy, Marx, and Marxism in the Sociology of the Media and Communication?

* What is the role and value of Marx today for understanding crisis, change, capitalism, communication, and critique?

 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMISSIONS

Authors are invited to submit their abstract either to the general session (open) or any specific session. Please submit each abstract only to one session. After abstract evaluation, coordinators will have the chance to transfer papers between sessions where applicable.

Abstracts should not exceed 1750 characters (including spaces, approximately 250 words). Each paper session will have the duration of 1.5 hours. Normally sessions will include 4 papers.

Abstracts can only be submitted online no later than 1st of February 2013 to the conference websitehttp://www.esa11thconference.eu. Abstracts sent by email cannot be accepted.

The information requested during abstract submission include: 1) name(s), affiliation(s) and email of all the author(s); 2) contact details of presenting author (postal address, and telephone in addition to email); 3) title of proposed presentation; 4) up to 4 keywords (optional).

Submitting authors will receive an email of acknowledgement of successful submission receipt. Abstracts will be peer-reviewed and selected for presentation by the relevant Research Network or Research Stream; the letter of notification will be sent by the conference software system in early April 2013. Each author cannot submit more than two abstracts (as first author).

Abstract submission deadline: 1 February 2013
Abstract submission platform: http://www.esa11thconference.eu

First published: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/cfp-european-sociological-association-11th-conference-2013-torino-28-31-august-2013-2013-crisis-critique-and-change

 

**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

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

Tax the Rich: An Animated Fairy Tale

Merchant Bankers

TAX THE RICH: AN ANIMATED FAIRY TALE

Tax the Rich: An Animated Fairy Tale is narrated by Ed Asner, with animation by Mike Konopacki. Written and directed by Fred Glass for the California Federation of Teachers. An 8- minute video about how we arrived at this moment of poorly funded public services and widening economic inequality.

Things go downhill in a happy and prosperous land after the rich decide they don’t want to pay taxes anymore. They tell the people that there is no alternative, but the people aren’t so sure. This land bears a startling resemblance to our land.

For more info, go to http://www.cft.org

Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6ZsXrzF8Cc

 

There is a critique of this video: Tax the Rich: A Critique – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA21fu9Y4uA  

 

**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

The Individuality Pr♥test: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/transcontinental/the-individuality-prtest

I Love Transcontinental: http://ihearttranscontinental.blogspot.co.uk/

States, Banks and Crisis: Emerging Finance Capitalism in Mexico and Turkey

Merchant Bankers

STATES, BANKS AND CRISIS: EMERGING FINANCE CAPITALISM IN MEXICO AND TURKEY

States, Banks and Crisis: Emerging Finance Capitalism in Mexico and Turkey.

(2012)

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

By Thomas Marois

 

Monday 29 Oct 2012
17:00 – 18:30

Room 4421

SOAS Main Building, London

 

‘Financialization is as financialization does. It is a mix of the universal characteristics of finance within capitalism, its contemporary powerful hold over, even defining feature of, the neoliberal age, and the myriad of specific global markets and countries into which it has penetrated. In a stunning work of comparative political economy, Marois brilliantly weaves together these aspects of finance drawing on both innovative theoretical insights and primary case study evidence from Turkey and Mexico to furnish what will become a classic and original contribution to the understanding of financialization in the developing world, highlighting both the role of the state in the era of putatively free markets and the possibility, indeed, necessity of alternatives.’ – Ben Fine, SOAS, University of London, UK

Event sponsored by SOAS Development Studies, Neoliberalism, Globalisation, and States Research Cluster and the London International Development Centre

Published first in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/states-banks-and-crisis-emerging-finance-capitalism-in-mexico-and-turkey-by-thomas-marois-book-launch-29-october-soas

 

**END**

 

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

Up the Anti: Reclaim the Future

It’s Crisis Time!

UP THE ANTI: RECLAIM THE FUTURE

Conference

1^st December 2012

Queen Mary College, University of London

Mile End

London

 

Since the financial crisis broke we have seen a rising tide of protest, revolutions and resistance.

One of the driving forces of these movements has been a desire to change the future: to reject the idea that we have no future outside of the logic of never ending austerity, declining living standards and the loss of public services to private profiteers.

Up the Anti is a one day conference to think about and discuss  how we lay claim to the future that we want and deserve. It will host an eclectic mix of sessions, ranging from in-depth seminars and debates to participatory, facilitated discussions and workshops. There are many questions we need to ask, including:

Is there an alternative to capitalism? What might it look like?

How do we win popular support for new radical projects?

What can we learn from the social struggles and new movements in Europe?

And how do we overcome divisions within left and radical movements?

What next after the Occupy protests?

 

We called the event ‘Up the Anti’ because we all agree that we need to build a bigger movement against social oppression and capitalism.  But we are not just against things; we also want to reclaim the future from those in power who seem intent on dragging us towards austerity, growing social inequality and environmental destruction.

The conference will be held in London at Queen Mary College, University of London, not far from Mile End and Stepney Green underground stations.

But the day is not just all workshops and seminars, we also have time for a gig at Queen Mary Student Union with comedy, music and DJs. Highlights include the up and coming radical comedian Chris Coltrane and the critically acclaimed blues guitarist Sean Taylor.

UP THE ANTI is a genuine movement event put on by a plurality of groups, websites, publishing houses, and networks. It is sponsored by New Left Project, Ceasefire, Occupied Times, Anticapitalist Initiative, Platypus and Globalise Resistance.

UP THE ANTI Conference Website: http://uptheanti.org.uk/

**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

 

I ♥ Transcontinental: http://ihearttranscontinental.blogspot.co.uk/ 

 

Engaging Sociology: BSA Annual Conference

Sociology

ENGAGING SOCIOLOGY: BSA ANNUAL CONFERENCE

The theme for the 2013 Annual Conference is: Engaging Sociology.  The conference will take place at the Grand Connaught Rooms, London from 3-5 April 2013. 

This conference highlights Sociology’s contribution as it engages with topical issues affecting contemporary society – whether this is the recent riots, the financial crisis, climate change, social mobility, the Big Society, or the London Olympics.  Presentations from scholars throughout the UK (and beyond) demonstrate the value of engaging with sociological theory, combined with rigorous methodological approaches, in illuminating how these compelling issues impact on us all – over the life course; in the domestic sphere; in our communities and localities; in our dealings with institutions (the worlds of work, education, the arts and media; the justice system, religion, politics and the State); through our leisure pursuits and sport; via civic participation and political involvement; and as members of a European and global society. Fifteen concurrent streams (including, for example, social divisions/identities; cities, space, mobilities & place; media, culture & consumption) allow delegates to focus on specific interests. Our engaging plenaries bring delegates together, encouraging broader sociological debate and providing an opportunity to explore synergies with other disciplines.

The 2013 annual conference promises to be dynamic, informative, inspiring and is definitely not to be missed.  

Our themes are deliberately broad and all-encompassing, designed to appeal to the entire spectrum of sociologists and stimulate lively debate.  You are at the heart of the discipline. Your voice is important. Join the finest scholars from across the globe to lead the debate. Policy makers are coming to hear what you – the people with real experience – have to say.

 

Who should attend?

* Senior academics looking to engage in a lively, stimulating debate with peers and bright new stars.

* Researchers looking to connect with like-minded colleagues.

* Teachers looking for new ideas and inspiration.

* Students looking and learn from experts and Postgraduates looking to present and get ideas on their research.

* Policy-makers looking for scientific facts to back or steer their ideas or to develop new directions in policy.

* Anyone looking to engage with the wider sociological community.

The aims of this conference are: to showcase the latest sociological research; to attract a concentration of international specialists in our major research fields; to provide a forum in which to discuss the teaching of sociology and the professional practice of being a sociologist; and to facilitate debate, networking and professional development opportunities.

The BSA annual conference is the primary annual conference for sociology in the UK with opportunities for everyone connected to the discipline.

 

UPDATE: ABSTRACTS

Engaging Sociology: Are you engaging with topical issues affecting contemporary society?

Submit your abstract for the BSA Annual Conference 2013

To find out more about the BSA Annual Conference 2013, or to submit an abstract, please visit our website: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/events/bsa-annual-conference.aspx

The conference promises to be yet another dynamic, informative, inspiring meeting of minds and is definitely not to be missed.

Deadline for abstract submissions: Midnight on Friday 5 October 2012.

SUBMIT Your Abstract online NOW!

3-5 April 2013
BSA Annual Conference:  Engaging Sociology
Grand Connaught Rooms, London

www.britsoc.co.uk

events@britsoc.org.uk

 

**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

 

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

 

 

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 

**END**

‘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

Second COST-Network Conference 2012

Crisis Management

SECOND COST-Network CONFERENCE 2012

Many intellectuals, Jurgen Habermas among them, argue that the management of the financial crisis undermines democracy. The COST-Network ‘Systemic Risks, Financial Crises and Credit’ invites papers that critically examine this claim.

Do financialization and the management of the financial crisis circumscribe democratic institutions and processes? If yes, what are the mechanisms that restrict democracy?

 

Potential themes include:

–  The sources of power of financial actors

–  The role of knowledge networks in crisis management

–  Conflicting crisis narratives

–  Restructuring the State to accommodate financial capital

–  New hierarchies among nations

–  Diffusion of policy concepts and policy learning processes

–  Resistance and civil society

 

October 11, 2012 to October 13, 2012

Kassel University, Germany

Deadline for Submission of Abstracts: 15th June 2012
Successful candidates will be notified by: 30th June 2012
Deadline for papers: 1st Oct 2012
Please send your abstracts to: COST2012@icdd.uni-kassel.de

See: http://www.uni-kassel.de/einrichtungen/icdd/events/cost-conference/cost-conference-2012/call-for-papers.html

For more information: http://www.worldfinancialcrisis.eu/

**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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.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