Hegemony, Populism and Emancipation: Remembering Ernesto Laclau

Ernesto Laclau

HEGEMONY, POPULISM AND EMANICIPATION: REMEMBERING ERNESTO LACLAU

Birkbeck College, University of London

Birkbeck Institute for Humanities

Malet Street

London WC1E 7HX

Friday, December 4th and Saturday, December 5th, 2915

This conference will celebrate the life and work of Ernesto Laclau, who died last year. Originally from Argentina, his ideas about radical democracy and populism influenced grassroots activists, thinkers and politicians from Latin America’s new left to Greece, Spain and Great Britain. His highly original essays and books “drew on the work of Antonio Gramsci to probe the assumptions of Marxism, and to illuminate the modern history of Latin America”, as Robin Blackburn wrote in his obituary, as well as Europe. As he says, “with collaborators including his wife, Chantal Mouffe, and the cultural theorist Stuart Hall, Laclau played a key role in reformulating Marxist theory in the light of the collapse of communism and failure of social democracy. His “post-Marxist” manifesto Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (1985), written with Mouffe, was translated into 30 languages, and sales ran into six figures.” Indeed, as Blackburn points out “Laclau believed that the European left had much to learn from Latin America, with its spirit of self-criticism and innovation. He argued that the left should not be embarrassed by charges of populism, whether directed at Chávez or at the Greek left wing party Syriza. It was crucial to distinguish between right wing populism masquerading wholesale privatization and scapegoating from left-wing programmes of “urbanisation” that introduce or defend social and economic justice combining self-government with the transformation of the relation between the state and the people at its base.

All sessions are 90 minutes. Presentations should be no longer than 30 minutes each.

 

Friday, December 4th

Embassy of Argentina 65 Brook Street, W1 K4AH

12.00-14.00:        Registration and Coffee,

14.00 -14.30:       Opening Comments

Ambassador Alicia Castro

Oscar Guardiola (Birkbeck Institute for Humanities)

14.30 – 16.00:

Oliver Marchart (Kunstakademie, Dusseldorf) Laclau’s Political Ontology

Nancy Fraser (New School) Thinking Antagonism: On the Political Contradictions of Financial Capital (BY SKYPE)

16.30 – 18.00

Letitia Sabsay (LSE) The Rhetorical Foundations of Society

Lasse Thomassen (Birkbeck) Hegemony and Socialist Strategy 30 years after: three research agendas

18.30:         Vin d´honneur

 

Saturday, December 5th,

Birkbeck Institute for Humanities

9.00: Coffee

9.30 – 11:00:

Jean-Claude Monod (CNRS) The part and the whole: metaphor and metonymy in the rhetorical construction of the People

Yannis Stavrakakis (Thessaloniki) Theorising populism in light of the Greek Financial Crisis

11:30-13:00:

Rada Iveković (Paris) Around the somewhat meditative rhetoric of Ernesto Laclau

Ricardo Camargo (Universidad de Chile) Articulation and Assault in Laclau’s Politics

13.00-14.00:        LUNCH

14.00-15.30:

Paula Biglieri (University of Buenos Aires) Populism and Emancipation

Mark Devenney (University of Brighton) The New Hegemony: Resisting Financial and Actuarial Capital

16.00-17.30:

Fabienne Brugère (Université Paris 8) Is Feminism Populism?

Jeremy Gilbert (Uni. of East London) What is a demand? The subject of politics in the later Laclau

17.30 – 18.00:     CLOSING COMMENTS

Website: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/events-calendar/celebrating-the-work-of-ernesto-laclau/

 

Ernesto Laclau

***END***

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Materialist Feminisms in an Age of Neoliberalism

Social Justice

MATERIALIST FEMINISMS IN AN AGE OF NEOLIBERALISM

Materialist Feminisms in an age of Neoliberalism; or, Would the critique of patriarchal capitalism please stand up?

A special issue of the online journal Politics and Culture (http://www.politicsandculture.org)

***Please Note: In addition to article-length contributions, we also solicit shorter interventions, provocations, or position papers (1500-2000 words) for two themed discussions 1) experiences and direction from elders in this work and 2) experiences and demands from junior scholars.

Liberal inclusion. Globalization and neoliberal crisis. Neoconservative backlash. We know that feminism has had many lives. We are especially attuned to the forms of imperialist, settler and liberal “feminism” that have motivated a great many social projects, most recently the ostensible concern over the status of women in Afghanistan that has played so well as a rationale for war. And yet, we live amidst a rapidly accelerating culture of neoliberal individualism, combined with the virulent cult of persecuted white masculinity that marks the neoconservative shift, the backlash against supposed minority gains, and the dogged attack by the state and corporate elite on the material and social protections won through decades of struggle. The need for anti-capitalist feminist foment has never been so dire.

From early noted thinkers such as Lucy B. Parsons, Rosa Luxembourg and Emma Goldman, to Marxist Feminist scholars such as Maria Mies, Mariarosa Dalla Costa and Giovanna Dalla Costa, Angela Davis and Sylvia Federici, to anti-racist and anti-colonialist scholars such as bell hooks, Himani Bannerji, Patricia Monture Angus, Vandana Shiva, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Andrea Smith, to theorists such as Zillah Eisenstein, Wendy Brown, and Nancy Fraser, “structuralist” or “materialist” feminisms draw a lineage that views economics, capitalism and political struggles specifically through the lenses of gender, race and class, and anti-imperialist, anti-patriarchal, anti-heteronormative and anti-racist agendas. While the distinctions are far too subtle and complex to enumerate here, critical to Marxist, socialist, anarchist, materialist and other kinds of structuralist feminism is the notion that ending gender-based oppression requires (among other things) a reckoning of capitalist, colonial and patriarchal histories and organizations of power. We invite a forward-looking conversation that draws trajectories in the body of work we might broadly think of as structural or materialist feminisms.

Topics for consideration may include:
* In a neoliberal age in which the ecological collapse wreaked by capitalism’s rapacious appetite appears as an urgent horizon framing cultural politics, what is to be gained or lost by prioritizing gender as a category of analysis? What is the task ahead for materialist feminism?
* The contemporary backlash
* Where is the work of structural feminism taking place? Do you observe or practice it in the university, in the streets, in your creative work, in your everyday life relations and survival?
* Identity politics vs. anti-capitalist struggle: whose schism?
* Women and the gift, women for the land, women and the spirit
* Queer materialisms
* Is there a materialist feminism outside of struggle? And is there a struggle?
* From “Marxist feminism” to transnational, anti-imperialist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, anti-colonial feminist?  There is a story that has been told many ways many times and yet not told nearly enough: history and future of structural feminisms? Revisiting feminist theory, women’s studies, institutionalization, ghettoization, backlash, disciplinarity

****In addition to article-length contributions, we also solicit shorter interventions or provocations (1500-2000 words) for two themed discussions 1) experiences and direction from elders in this work and 2) experiences and demands from junior scholars.

Please send 200 word abstracts and/or short queries to Alyson McCready (alyson.mccready@gmail.com) or Mary Ellen Campbell (campbeme@mcmaster.ca) by April 1st, 2011.

Submissions will be expected May 15th, 2011.
 
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Feminism

Critical Governance Studies Conference

CRITICAL GOVERNANCE STUDIES CONFERENCE 

AT WARWICK UNIVERSITY, UK, DECEMBER 13/14 2010 

  

 

“Governance” has for some time been a fashionable concept across the social sciences and throughout the public, private and voluntary sectors.  Rod Rhodes identified 7 different arenas and senses in which “governance” discourse is used and promoted: governance as governing without government, the minimal state, new public management, self-organising networks, socio-cybernetic systems, good governance; corporate governance.  

Our goal is to establish a forum to challenge orthodoxies and develop a dialogue between scholars and practitioners interested in developing critical approaches to the study and practice of governance. To this end, Warwick University’s Institute of Governance and Public Management has organised a two day international, cross-disciplinary conference to debate these issues, with a view to generating a post-conference edited collection.    

Our keynote speaker is the world-renowned Professor Nancy Fraser (New York’s New School for Social Research).

Professor Nigel Thrift (Vice Chancellor, University of Warwick), will give the opening address.

Other distinguished contributors include professors Mark Bevir (Berkeley, California), Janet Newman (Open University), Helen Sullivan (Birmingham) and Hugh Willmott (Cardiff).  

We welcome individual abstract submissions from now until 19th November and invite colleagues to submit abstracts on themes that might include, among others, critical approaches to the governance of citizens, space, money, networks, risk, security, science and universities. Proposals for panels and streams along these lines are also welcome. Abstracts for both panels and individual papers should be between 200 and 500 words and including the names, positions, affiliations and contact details of all proposers and contributors.

As the conference theme is “challenging orthodoxies”, we ask colleagues to address it directly in their abstracts by describing a problematic orthodoxy, subjecting it to critical challenge and outlining new areas of inquiry and new social practices based on the critical approach. At the same time, we encourage people to problematize the key terms, governance, orthodoxy and critique.  

After the conference, we plan to publish an edited collection with selected papers, showcasing the best critical governance research from across the disciplines.

We are able to offer a small number of discounts to scholars and doctoral students who would otherwise be unable to attend.  If you wish to apply for a discounted fee, please state this at the end of your abstract and explain why you need financial support.  

Please email abstracts to esme.farrington@wbs.ac.uk and register for the conference at: http://www.wbs.ac.uk/events/2010/12/13/Critical/Governance/Conference. 

We look forward to meeting you at the Warwick Critical Governance Studies conference.  Warwick University is close to Shakespeare’s Stratford-on-Avon, to the charming and historic Cotswolds, and to London. Warwick’s campus is easily accessible by road, plane and train (20 minutes from Birmingham International Airport; or 60 minutes from London’s Euston rail station).  Warwick’s campus and conference facilities are pleasant and modern, the accommodation is 4 star and the service is professional.  

Jonathan S Davies and Penelope Tuck
Institute of Governance and Public Management (IGPM)
Warwick University, Coventry UK  

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The 2010 General Election: Will it Mean Anything at All?

Deadwing

THE 2010 GENERAL ELECTION: WILL IT MEAN ANYTHING AT ALL?

University of East London School of Humanities and Social Sciences

In association with OurKingdom, presents:

The 2010 General Election: Will it Mean Anything at All?

A Public Seminar

21^st April 2010

Is there any scope for a progressive electoral strategy?

Have we left the era of representative democracy behind?

Details (and an excellent article by Jeremy Gilbert) at: http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/jeremy-gilbert/2010-general-election-will-it-mean-anything-at-all

UEL staff are joined by two leading political commentators to discuss the issues

Anthony Barnett, founder of openDemocracy.net and editor of the OurKingdom blog (see his recent article for New Statesman at http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2010/03/labour-brown-british-britain)

Richard Seymour, author of The Liberal Defence of Murder and blogger at Lenin’s Tomb See: http://www.culturalstudies.org.uk/April.html for full details 

You may also be interested in a pair of seminars planned to follow the election at the Centre for the study of Global Media and Democracy, Goldsmiths [www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/global-media-democracy/], starting their new series around the question ‘Is Democracy Possible Here in the UK?’:

May 13 Post-Election Reflections with Angela McRobbie (Goldsmiths, author of The Aftermath of Feminism, 2009) and Colin Leys (Goldsmiths and Queens University, Ontario, author of Market-Driven Politics, 2000).

May 20 Democratic Futures? Democracy beyond the UK with Jeremy Gilbert (UEL, author of Anticapitalism and Culture, 2008), Alice Mattoni (European University Institute, Florence) and Samuel Toledano (International Visiting Fellow, Goldsmiths)

Both 5:30pm Goldsmiths main building RHB 309

For more details, write to Nick Couldry, n.couldry@gold.ac.uk

PLUS April 29 Luc Boltanski and Nancy Fraser in discussion on Capitalism and

Critique – Goldsmiths main building RHB 309 5-7pm, followed by drinks reception

For more details, write to Nick Couldry, n.couldry@gold.ac.uk

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The Point is to Change It

Capitalism

THE POINT IS TO CHANGE IT

Antipode
Volume 41, Issue 1, 2010

Online ISSN: 1467-8330 Print ISSN: 0066-4812

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123329956/issue

Journal compilation © 2010 Editorial Board of Antipode

Introduction

1-9
Introduction: The Point Is To Change It
Noel Castree, Paul Chatterton, Nik Heynen, Wendy Larner, Melissa W. Wright
Abstract
Published Online: 25 Mar 2010
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00713.x

Original Articles

10-26
Now and Then1
Michael J. Watts
Abstract
Published Online: 25 Mar 2010
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00714.x

27-49
The Idea of Socialism: From 1968 to the Present-day Crisis
Hugo Radice
Abstract
Published Online: 25 Mar 2010
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00715.x

50-65
The Revolutionary Imperative
Neil Smith
Abstract
Published Online: 25 Mar 2010
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00716.x

66-93
To Make Live or Let Die? Rural Dispossession and the Protection of Surplus Populations
Tania Murray Li
Abstract
Published Online: 25 Mar 2010
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00717.x

94-116
Postneoliberalism and its Malcontents
Jamie Peck, Nik Theodore, Neil Brenner
Abstract
Published Online: 25 Mar 2010
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00718.x

117-141
D/developments after the Meltdown
Gillian Hart
Abstract
Published Online: 25 Mar 2010
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00719.x

142-165
Is the Globalization Consensus Dead?
Robert Wade
Abstract
Published Online: 25 Mar 2010
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00720.x

166-184
The Uses of Neoliberalism
James Ferguson
Abstract
Published Online: 25 Mar 2010
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00721.x

185-213
Crisis, Continuity and Change: Neoliberalism, the Left and the Future of Capitalism
Noel Castree
Abstract
Published Online: 25 Mar 2010
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00722.x

214-238
Money Games: Currencies and Power in the Contemporary World Economy
John Agnew
Abstract
Published Online: 25 Mar 2010
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00723.x

239-261
Pre-Black Futures
Katharyne Mitchell
Abstract
Published Online: 25 Mar 2010
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00724.x

262-280
The Shape of Capitalism to Come
Paul Cammack
Abstract
Published Online: 25 Mar 2010
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00725.x

281-297
Who Counts? Dilemmas of Justice in a Postwestphalian World
Nancy Fraser
Abstract
Published Online: 25 Mar 2010
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00726.x

298-319
The Communist Hypothesis and Revolutionary Capitalisms: Exploring the Idea of Communist Geographies for the Twenty-first Century
Erik Swyngedouw
Abstract
Published Online: 25 Mar 2010
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00727.x

320-346
An Economic Ethics for the Anthropocene
J. K. Gibson Graham, Gerda Roelvink
Abstract
Published Online: 25 Mar 2010
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00728.x

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Luc Boltanski and Nancy Fraser

Nancy Fraser

LUC BOLTANSKI AND NANCY FRASER

As part of the Capitalism, Culture and Critique series, the Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy, Goldsmiths, University of London invites you to a debate and open conversation with Luc Boltanski (l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris), co-author of ‘The New Spirit of Capitalism’ (Verso 2005), and author of ‘Distant Suffering’ (Cambridge 1999), and Nancy Fraser (New School for Social Research, New York), whose most recent work is ‘Scales of Justice’ (Columbia 2009).

The event will take place on Thursday April 29th in RHB309 5-7, Goldsmiths, University of London and it will be followed by a drinks reception in the Senior Common room.

All are welcome so please feel free to circulate this information.

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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