Another University is Possible

Education Crisis

ANOTHER UNIVERSITY IS POSSIBLE

Annual Conference

Call for Papers: 2015 Cultural Studies Association (CSA) Conference Call for Proposals

Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Cultural Studies Association (US)

 

Another University Is Possible: Praxis, Activism, and the Promise of Critical Pedagogy

Riverside Convention Center, Riverside, Greater Los Angeles Area, California

21-24 May, 2015

See: http://www.culturalstudiesassociation.org/conference

SUBMIT A PROPOSAL TODAY!

Important Dates:

*       September 15, 2014: Submission System Opens  NOW OPEN
*       December 15, 2014: Submissions Due
*       February 15, 2015: Notifications Sent Out
*       February 15, 2015: Early Registration Opens
*       April 15, 2015: Early Registration Ends and Late Registration Begins

The Cultural Studies Association (CSA) invites proposals from its current and future members for participation in its thirteenth annual meeting in the Riverside Convention Center, Riverside, Greater Los Angeles Area, California.

Proposals from all areas and on all topics of relevance to cultural studies are welcome, and are not limited to proposals that critically and creatively engage this year’s highlighted problematic.

This year’s theme, “Another University is Possible: Praxis, Activism, and the Promise of Critical Pedagogy,” plays on the World Social Forum’s motto, “Another World is Possible.” It expresses a commitment to the intellectual and political project of a radically different university. Moving beyond policy and pundit-driven discussions of the state and the future of higher education, we seek proposals that highlight socially-engaged scholarship and activism, and projects that explore the transformative possibilities embedded in the present. What forms and formations of research, pedagogy, praxis, and activism have emerged from the struggles being waged in, around, through, and in spite of institutions of higher education? What roles can culture, theory, imagination, and technology play in these struggles? Taking up cultural studies’ historical commitment to the interrogation of the relations among knowledge, power, and social transformation, the 2015 Cultural Studies Association conference seeks to provide an insurgent intellectual space for imagining, enacting, and mapping new forms of knowledge production and scholarly communication and community.

We are particularly interested in work that links the global neo-liberal conjuncture of higher education to local acts of collective resistance and action, and back again. We want to know more about how students, staff, faculty, administrators, and community partners are responding to the current social, legal, economic, financial, political, cultural, institutional, and intellectual challenges and possibilities: student debt as a means of financing higher education institutions; court cases that attack the history and practice of affirmative action; the rise in union activity on campuses; the re-entrenchment of the “humanities” as a division under “crisis”; the emergent emphasis on MOOCs and other online forms of education that extend the already dominant casualization of academic labor; the emergence of public and digital pedagogy and scholarship; the ambivalent politics of academic freedom; the reduction of education to vocational training and degrees to commodified credentials; the role of universities in reproducing or amplifying (rather than reducing) the social inequalities of contemporary capitalism; and the university as a site of capital accumulation and dispossession, among many other trends and tendencies.

As at previous CSA conferences, this year’s conference aims to provide multiple spaces for the cross-pollination of art, activism, pedagogy, design, and research by bringing together participants from a variety of positions inside and outside the university. While we welcome traditional academic papers and panels, we strongly encourage contributions that experiment with alternative formats and challenge the traditional disciplinary formations and exclusionary conceptions and practices of the academic.  We are particularly interested in proposals for sessions designed to document and advance existing forms of collective action or catalyze new collaborations.  We also encourage submissions from individuals working beyond the boundaries of the university: artists, activists, independent scholars, professionals, community organizers, and community college educators.

Proposals from all areas and on all topics of relevance to cultural studies are welcome, and are not limited to proposals that critically and creatively engage this year’s highlighted problematic. We welcome proposals from a range of disciplinary and topical positions, including literature, history, sociology, geography, politics, anthropology, communication(s), popular culture, cultural theory, queer studies, critical race studies, feminist studies, post-colonial studies, legal studies, science studies, media and film studies, material cultural studies, platform studies, visual art and performance studies.

About the Riverside Convention Center, Greater Los Angeles Area, California

The 2015 conference will be held at the beautiful, brand-new Riverside Convention Center, in downtown Riverside, Greater Los Angeles Area, California. The closest airport to Riverside, California, for those of you flying in, is the Ontario, CA International Airport (ONT–sometimes referred to as the LA/Ontario International Airport).  More information about the venue, the city of Riverside, and the greater Los Angeles Area is available here:

http://www.riversidecvb.com/riverside-convention-center

Riverside is a hidden gem of Southern California, less than a half hour drive from the Ontario, CA International Airport, less than an hour’s drive from LA and about 90 minutes from San Diego. With its progressive landmarks, lively downtown, many fine restaurants, galleries and museums, and its proximity to so much of Southern California’s beautiful natural scenery and cultural sites, Riverside is a truly inviting and wonderful site for our conference.

Riverside is also home to several institutions of higher learning, with nearly fifty thousand college students populating the city, Riverside breeds an overall vibe of ambitious, critical energy. Riverside’s colleges and universities include: University of California, Riverside – One of the fastest growing colleges in the nation, UC Riverside is a national leader in cutting-edge research, community collaboration, and student diversity, La Sierra University, named “the most diverse university in the western U.S.” for the past four years by U.S. News & World Report, California Baptist University, and Riverside City College.

Submission Process and Timeline

All proposals should be submitted through the CSA online system, available at www.culturalstudiesassociation.org. Submission of proposals is limited to current CSA members. See the benefits of membership and become a member at www.culturalstudiesassociation.org.

The submission system will be open by September 15, 2014. Please prepare all the materials required to propose your session according to the given directions before you begin electronic submission. Notifications of acceptance/rejection will be sent no later than February 15, 2015.

In order to be listed in the program, conference registration must be completed online before May 1, 2015. All program information – names, presentation titles, and institutional affiliations – will be based on initial conference submissions.  Please avoid lengthy presentation and session titles, use normal capitalization, and include your name and affiliations as you would like them to appear on the conference program schedule.

Important Note about Technology Requests

All sessions run for 90 minutes and will have access to basic internet connection.  However, please note that unlike previous years, only about 50% of the rooms will have access to audiovisual equipment (projector, screen, speakers, etc.). Sessions that require audio-visual space or technical equipment must request these at the time of submission.  The Program Committee will do its best to provide reasonable accommodations, but accommodations are contingent upon the availability of resources and equipment. Any technology requests should be included as a note in the body of the initial submission, with a follow up email to Michelle Fehsenfeld at contact@csalateral.org.   Please only request projectors, screens, and speakers only if you plan to use them.  The CSA will be charged for every piece of equipment we rent/request.  A limited number of laptop computers will be available upon request but participants are expected to bring their own computers.

Please note that all session organizers/submitters must be CSA members for the 2015 calendar year at the time of submission

Conference Formats

Note: While we accept individual paper proposals, we especially encourage submissions of pre-constituted sessions. We also invite proposals that engage with this conference location and its many resources.
All conference formats – papers, panels, roundtables, workshops, and seminars – are intended to encourage the presentation and discussion of projects at different stages of development and to foster intellectual exchange and collaboration. Please feel free to adapt the suggested formats or propose others in order to suit your session’s goals. If you have any questions, please address them to Michelle Fehsenfeld at: contact@csalateral.org.

PRE-CONSTITUTED PANELS: Pre-constituted panels allow a team of 3-4 individuals to present their research, work, and/or experiences, leaving 30-45 minutes of the session for questions and discussion. Panels should include 3-4 participants. Proposals for pre-constituted panels should include: the title of the panel; the name, title, affiliation, and contact information of the panel organizer; the names, titles, affiliations, and email addresses of all panelists, and a chair and/or discussant; a description of the panel’s topic (<500 words); and abstracts for each presentation (<150 words). Pre-constituted panels are preferred to individual paper submissions.

INDIVIDUAL PAPERS: Successful papers will reach several constituencies of the organization and will connect analysis to social, political, economic, or ethical questions. Proposals for papers should include: the title of the paper; the name, title, affiliation, and email address of the author; and an abstract of the 20 minute paper (<500 words). Pre-constituted panels are recommended over individual paper submissions, though we welcome both.

ROUNDTABLES: Roundtables allow a group of participants to convene with the goal of generating discussion around a shared concern. In contrast to panels, roundtables typically involve shorter position or dialogue statements (5-10 minutes) in response to questions distributed in advance by the organizer. The majority of roundtable sessions should be devoted to discussion. Roundtables are limited to no more than five participants, including the organizer. We encourage roundtables involving participants from different institutions, centers, and organizations. Proposals for roundtables should include: the title of the roundtable; the name, title, affiliation, and contact information of the roundtable organizer; the names, titles, affiliations, and email addresses of the proposed roundtable participants; and a description of the position statements, questions, or debates that will be under discussion (<500 words).

PRAXIS SESSIONS: Praxis sessions allow a facilitator or facilitating team to set an agenda, pose opening questions, and/or organize hands-on participant activities, collaborations, or skill-shares. Successful praxis sessions will be organized around a specific objective, productively engage a cultural studies audience, and orient itself towards participants with minimal knowledge of the subject matter. Sessions organized around the development of ongoing creative, artistic, and activist projects are highly encouraged. The facilitator or team is responsible for framing the session, gathering responses and results from participants, helping everyone digest them, and (where applicable) suggesting possible fora for extending the discussion. Proposals for praxis sessions should include: the title of the session; the name, title, affiliation, and contact information of the (lead) facilitator and of any co-facilitators; a brief statement explaining the session’s connection to the conference theme and describing the activities to be undertaken (<500 words). Please direct any questions about praxis sessions to Michelle Fehsenfeld atcontact@csalteral.org.

SEMINARS: Seminars are small-group (maximum 15 individuals) discussion sessions for which participants prepare in advance of the conference. In previous years, preparation has involved shared readings, pre-circulated ”position papers” by seminar leaders and/or participants, and other forms of pre-conference collaboration. We particularly invite proposals for seminars designed to advance emerging lines of inquiry and research/teaching initiatives within cultural studies broadly construed. We also invite seminars designed to generate future collaborations among conference attendees, particularly through the formation of working groups. Once a limited number of seminar topics and leaders are chosen, the seminars will be announced through the CSA’s various public email lists. Participants will contact the seminar leader(s) directly who will then inform the Program Committee who will participate in the seminar. Seminars will be marked in the conference programs as either closed to non-participants or open to all conference attendees. A limited number of seminars will be selected by the program committee, with a call for participants in the chosen seminars announced on the CSA webpage and listserv no later than 15 February 2015. Interested parties will apply directly to the seminar leader(s) for admission to the session by1 April 2015. Seminar leader(s) will be responsible for providing the program committee with a confirmed list of participants (names, affiliations, and email addresses required) for inclusion in the conference program no later than15 April 2015. Proposals for seminars should include: the title of the seminar; the name, title, affiliation, and contact information of the seminar leader(s); and a description of the issues and questions that will be raised in discussion and an overview of the work to be completed by participants in advance of the seminar (<500 words). Individuals interested in participating in (rather than leading) a seminar should consult the list of seminars and the instructions for signing up for them, to be available at the conference website by 15 February 2015. Please direct questions about seminars to seminars@csalateral.org. Please note that for them to run at the conference, seminars accepted for inclusion by the program committee must garner a minimum of 8 participants, including the seminar leader(s).

WORKING GROUP SESSIONS: All working groups have two sessions at their command. Working groups may elect to post calls on the CSA site for papers and internal submission procedures or handle the creation of their two working group sessions by other means. Working groups will facilitate the creation of two sessions drawing from, but not limited to, working group members. Working groups should create their proposals according to the specifications listed under their session format. When submitting to the conference website, working groups should select “Working Group” as their session format and include a note in the body of their submission designating the session as an official submission of the working group. Only Working Group organizers should submit Working Group session proposals through the conference submission system.  A listing of all CSA Working Groups is available here: http://www.culturalstudiesassociation.org/workinggroups

PANEL CHAIRS: We are always in need of people to serve as panel chairs. To volunteer to do so please submit your name, title, affiliation, and email address, as well as a brief list of your research interests through the conference website.

 

Registration Fees

Like our membership fees, the registration fees will be on a sliding scale: for more on this see:  http://www.culturalstudiesassociation.org/conference

 

**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

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

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

Marxism and Education: Renewing Dialogues (MERD)

MARXISM AND EDUCATION: RENEWING DIALOGUES (MERD)

Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford Campus

Wednesday 21 May 2014,

3pm – 6pm, Room: Saw 005

Education, Marxism and Society

Update: 7^th April 2014

—

3pm

Welcome by Dave Hill and Alpesh Maisuria

 

3.05pm

Deirdre O’Neill (InsideFilm.org)

Film, Prisons, Social Class and Radical Pedagogy: A Marxist Analysis

 

4.05pm

Glenn Rikowski (Visiting Scholar, Anglia Ruskin University)

Crisis and Education

 

5.05

Ravi Kumar (South Asian University, India)

Marxism and Education: An Indian Perspective

 

6.05

Social event

 

In association with Anglia Ruskin University Department of Education Research Seminars

Full address: Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford: Bishop Hall Lane, CM1 1SQ.

A map can be found here: http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home.html

Edited Collection by Dave Hill

**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 at Academia: http://independent.academic.edu/GlennRikowski

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

International Conference on Critical Education 2014 Website

ICCE IV

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CRITICAL EDUCATION 2014 WEBSITE

The ICCE 2o14 now has its own website: http://www.eled.auth.gr/icce2014/

IV International Conference on Critical Education

The outbreak of the economic, social, and political crisis is affecting education at a global scale. The crisis, in tandem with the dominant neoliberal and neoconservative politics that are implemented and promoted internationally as the only solution, redefine the sociopolitical and ideological role of education. Public education is shrinking. It loses its status as a social right. It is projected as a mere commodity for sale while it becomes less democratic and critical.

Understanding the causes of the crisis, the special forms it takes in different countries and the multiple ways in which it influences education, constitutes important questions for all those who do not limit their perspectives to the horizon of neoconservative, neoliberal and technocratic dogmas. Moreover, the critical education movement has the responsibility to rethink its views and practices in light of the crisis as well as the paths that this crisis opens for challenging and overthrowing capitalist domination worldwide.

The International Conference on Critical Education, which was held in Athens in 2011 and 2012 and Ankara in 2013, provides a platform for scholars, educators, activists and others interested in the subject to come together and engage in a free, democratic and productive dialogue. At a time of crisis when public education is under siege by neoliberalism and neoconservatism, we invite you to submit a proposal and to attend the IV International Conference on Critical Education to reflect on the theory and practice of critical education and to contribute to the field.

**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

Power and Education – Volume 5 Number 3 (2013)

Education Crisis

POWER AND EDUCATION – VOLUME 5 NUMBER 3 (2013)

Just published at: www.wwwords.co.uk/power/content/pdfs/5/issue5_3.asp

POWER AND EDUCATION
Volume 5 Number 3 2013       ISSN 1757-7438

 

CONTENTS:

Heather Piper. Editorial OPEN ACCESS

 

GENERAL ARTICLES
Heather Piper, James R. Duggan & Stephen Rogers. Managerial Discourse, Child Safeguarding, and the Elimination of Virtue from In Loco Parentis Relationships: an example from music education

Dora F. Edu-Buandoh & Isaac Nuokyaa-Ire Mwinlaaru. ‘I’ll DEAL with You …’: power and domination in discourse in a Ghanaian educational context

Amanda French. ‘Let the Right Ones In!’: widening participation, academic writing and the standards debate in higher education

Sandra Leaton Gray. The ‘Big Society’, Education and Power

 

RADICALISM, EDUCATION AND POLITICAL PRACTICE
Ansgar Allen. Editorial. Radicalism, Education and Political Practice OPEN ACCESS

Gary Clemitshaw. Critical Pedagogy as Educational Resistance: a post-structuralist reflection

Darren Webb. Critical Pedagogy, Utopia and Political (Dis)engagement

Sheila Macdonald. Migration and English Language Learning in the United Kingdom: towards a feminist theorising

Antony Williams. Critical Educational Psychology: fostering emancipatory potential within the therapeutic project

Paul Allender. Derrida and Humanism: some implications for post-humanist political and educational practice

 

BOOK REVIEWS
Plantation Pedagogy: a postcolonial and global perspective (Laurette S.M. Bristol), reviewed by Kathleen Clayton
Teaching, Learning and Intersecting Identities in Higher Education (Susan M. Pliner & Cerri A. Banks, Eds), reviewed by Zorka Karanxha
Acting on HIV: using drama to create possibilities for change (Dennis Francis, Ed.), reviewed by Thabo Msibi

 

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. There is open access for articles more than three old

PERSONAL SUBSCRIPTION (single-user access) Subscription to the 2013 volume (including full access to ALL back numbers) 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.

For all editorial matters, including articles offered for publication, please contact p&ejournal@mmu.ac.uk

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

**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

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

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

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

 

Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies (JCEPS) – Volume 11 Number 3 (July 2013)

Professor Dave Hill

JOURNAL FOR CRITICAL EDUCATION POLICY STUDIES (JCEPS) – VOLUME 11 NUMBER 3 (JULY 2013)

Now Out!

JCEPS: http://www.jceps.com

ISSN 1740-2743 Online version / ISSN 2051-0959 Print version

The Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies (JCEPS) is a peer-reviewed international scholarly journal published by The Institute for Education Policy Studies (IEPS). The free, online version is published in association with the University of Athens (Greece). The print version (available on subscription or purchase – click on the Subscriptions and Purchasing link is published by IEPS). JCEPS will have three issues per annum, as from 2013. The journal website is www.jceps.com Enquiries should be addressed to dave.hill@ieps.org.uk or naomi.hill@ieps.org.uk

The Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies (JCEPS) seeks to develop Marxist and other Left analysis of education. JCEPS seeks and publishes articles that critique global, national, neo-liberal, neo-conservative, New Labour, Third Way, postmodernist and other analyses of policy developments, as well as those that attempt to report on, analyse and develop Socialist/ Marxist transformative policy for schooling and education from a number of Radical Left perspectives. JCEPS also addresses issues of social class, ‘race’, gender, sexual orientation, disability and capital/ism; critical pedagogies, new public managerialism and academic / non-academic labour, and empowerment/ disempowerment.

For Style Guidelines please click on the ‘Submissions and Style Guidelines’ link

Contact: dave.hill@ieps.org.uk and dave.hill@anglia.ac.uk

 

Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies

Volume 11, Number 3: July 2013

 

CONTENTS:

Lauren E. McDonald: In Their Own Words: U.S. Think Tank “Experts” and the Framing of Education Policy Debates

Eleni Prokou: Equity and efficiency in Greek higher education policies in the past three decades: a shift of emphasis to the issue of efficiency / “quality assurance” in the 2000s.

Richard Hall: Educational technology and the enclosure of academic labour inside public higher education

Esther Milu: Critical Perspectives on Free Primary Education in Kenya: Towards an Anti-Colonial Pedagogy

Sophie Ward: Creativity, Freedom and the Crash: how the concept of creativity was used as a bulwark against communism during the Cold War, and as a means to reconcile individuals to neoliberalism prior to the Great Recession

Leonidas Maroudas and Evangelos Nikolaidis: Institutional changes and the expansion of flexible forms of employment in higher education: the case of Greek Universities

Ahmet Yildiz, Derya Ünlü, Zeynep Alica, Dogus Sarpkaya: Remembering Mahmut Hoca in a Neoliberal Age: “I am not a tradesman but a teacher.”

Angelo Letizia: Battle for the Enlightenment: Neoliberalism, Critical Theory and the role of Circumvential Education in Fostering a New Phase of the Enlightenment

Mark Stern: Bad Teacher: What Race to the Top Learned From the “race to the bottom”

Robert FitzSimmons and Satu Uusiautti: Critical Revolutionary Pedagogy Spiced by Pedagogical Love

Brittany Aronson and Ashlee Anderson: Critical Teacher Education and the Politics of Teacher Accreditation: Are We Practicing What We Preach?

Maria Vaina, Evaggelia Katidioti, and Antonis Ktiti: Teaching the Banking System according to Critical Education. A Study of a Schoolbook on Economics in Greece

Tim Rudd: The Ideological Construction of a New Form of Digital Exclusion: Computer Science as Latin or Total Deus Ex Machina?

YiShan Lea: Travel as a Ritual Toward Transformative Consciousness: Juxtaposing Che Guevara’s Biography and Teacher Candidates’ Narratives

Kirsi-Marja Saurén and Kaarina Määttä: The Ritualization of Progress—the Schooled Imagination

Joshua A. Cuevas: A Reflection on Belief

 

**END**

 

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo (new remix, and new video, 2012)

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

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

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

 

School of Success

Education Not For Sale

SCHOOL OF SUCCESS

Platform for Education Struggle

This is the provisional website of the School of Success. An ongoing, yet started, research project by graphic designer David Ortiz.

The platform is still in its first phase, presenting the problem of cutbacks in higher education — mainly from the situation in the Netherlands. The second phase will expanded to other countries while driving to deeper research on the consequences, alternative methodologies and future scenarios.

Meanwhile — and until the platform fully operates — the first pamphlets of the School of Success can be downloaded in PDF format or purchased the full set of pamphlets (nicely printed with a risograph) through email request.

More material coming soon.

For further information contact: info@schoolofsuccess.net or jump here.

School of Success: http://schoolofsuccess.net/

**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ 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

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

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

The Pedagogical Practices of Social Movements

Social Movements

THE PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Call for Papers Volume 6 Issue 1 (May 2014)

Interface: A journal for and about Social Movements

The pedagogical practices of social movements

Sara C Motta and Ana Margarida Esteves

In this special issue, we aim to deepen conceptualisations, analysis and practices of critical and radical pedagogies in our struggles for transformation. We seek to explore the pedagogical practices of movements by expanding our understanding of knowledge and how movements learn beyond solely a focus on the cognitive to the ethical, spiritual, embodied and affective.

Our aim is to systematize and document these practices and to provide conceptual, methodological and practical resources for activists, community educators and movement scholars alike. We are really keen to receive creative pieces including longer articles, dialogues, critical reflections on practice/particular projects etc and pieces that use visual art, photography, and video as means of critical reflection.

The May 2014 issue of the open-access, online, copyleft academic/activist journal Interface: a Journal for and about Social Movements (http://www.interfacejournal.net/) invites contributions on the theme of The Pedagogical Practices of Social Movements.

The pedagogical, understood as knowledge practices and learning processes, often takes a pivotal role in the emergence, development and sustainability of social movements and community struggles. In this issue of Interface we seek to explore the pedagogical practices of movements by expanding our understanding of knowledge and how movements learn beyond solely a focus on the cognitive to the ethical, spiritual, embodied and affective. Our aim is to systematize and document these practices and to provide conceptual, methodological and practical resources for activists, community educators and movement scholars alike.

Pedagogical practices can constitute important elements in the process of unlearning dominant subjectivities, social relationships, and ways of constituting the world and learning new ones. They can be central in the ‘how’ of movement construction and community building in spaces such as workshops, teach-ins, and through popular education. They can contribute to the building of sustainable and effective social movements through music, storytelling, ritual or through processes that surround strategy building, the sharing of experiences or simply friendship. They can help activists and organizers to learn through their participation in counter-hegemonic, grassroots initiatives such as community banks, local currencies and workers cooperatives. They can also be important aspects of movement relevant research.

In this special issue of Interface we ask the broad question, ‘What role do pedagogical practices have in the praxis of social movements and their struggle for political change and social transformation?’ The practices we would like to explore include formal methodologies such as Open Spaces for Dialogue and Enquiry (OSDE), participatory action research, as well as methodologies of popular and community education inspired by feminist, Freirean, post-colonial and Gramscian approaches, among others, but also the more informal pedagogical practices which remain under-conceptualized and theorized and which include the role of the affective, the embodied (the body and earth for example) and the spiritual.

However, we also understand the politics and dynamics of movement and community education and learning to be contested terrain. We see how mainstream institutions and actors have co-opted the language and methods of popular education and movement methodologies. These processes of co-optation often neutralize their radical and political potential. We also understand that social movements often end up reproducing, through these practices, inequalities based on factors such as class, gender, race/ethnicity, educational level, expertise and role within movement organizations. Therefore, we would be very interested in receiving contributions based on “insider” knowledge about power dynamics behind knowledge production and learning within social movements (i.e. relationship between experts and non-experts, leaders and other members, impact of gender, class, race, educational level and expertise), and how such power dynamics determine whose “voices” end up being represented in the process and outcome of knowledge leaders and other members, impact of gender, class, race, educational level and expertise), and how such power dynamics determine whose “voices” end up being represented in the process and outcome of knowledge production and learning, and whose voices end up being silenced.

Among the more specific questions we would like to address in the issue are:

 What learning processes and knowledge practices are developed by movements?

 What is the role of formal methodologies and pedagogies in movement praxis?

 What is the role of informal pedagogies of everyday practice in the building of movements, the development of their political projects and fostering their sustainability and effectiveness?

 What is the role of the affective, embodied and spiritual in learning processes?

 What is the role of ethics in movement learning?

 What is the role of counter-hegemonic economic practices, such as those classified as “Solidarity Economy”, in learning processes within social movements?

 In what way do activist researchers contribute to the learning of movements?

 What politics of knowledge underlie the politics of social movements?

 Do the processes of ‘alternative’ education within social movements and collective struggles transform, disrupt or replicate hegemonic social relations?

 What pedagogical and political insights can be gleaned from exploring education for mobilization and social change?

We are very happy to receive contributions that reflect on these questions and any others relevant to the special issue theme and that fit within the journal’s mission statement (http://www.interfacejournal.net/who-we-are/mission-statement/).

Submissions should contribute to the journal’s mission as a tool to help our movements learn from each other’s struggles, by developing analyses from specific movement processes and experiences that can be translated into a form useful for other movements.

In this context, we welcome contributions by movement participants and academics who are developing movement-relevant theory and research. Our goal is to include material that can be used in a range of ways by movements — in terms of its content, its language, its purpose and its form. We thus seek work in a range of different formats, such as conventional (refereed) articles, review essays, facilitated discussions and interviews, action notes, teaching notes, key documents and analysis, book reviews — and beyond. Both activist and academic peers review research contributions, and other material is sympathetically edited by peers. The editorial process generally is geared towards assisting authors to find ways of expressing their understanding, so that we all can be heard across geographical, social and political distances.

We can accept material in Afrikaans, Arabic, Catalan, Croatian, Danish, English, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Maltese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Zulu.

Please see our editorial contacts page (http://www.interfacejournal.net/submissions/editorial-contact/) for details of who to submit to.

Deadline and Contact Details

The deadline for initial submissions to this issue, to be published May 1, 2014, is November 1, 2013. For details of how to submit to Interface, please see the “Guidelines for contributors” on our website. All manuscripts, whether on the special theme or other topics, should be sent to the appropriate regional editor, listed on our contacts page. Submission templates are available online via the guidelines page and should be used to ensure correct formatting.

Details: http://www.interfacejournal.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Interface-5-1-CFP-vol-6-no-1.pdf

Sara Motta

**END**

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

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

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

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

Third International Conference on Critical Education

Education Crisis

THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CRITICAL EDUCATION

MAY 15-17th 2013

University of Ankara, Turkey

 

Conference website: http://icce-2013.org/

 

Supporting Institutions

University of Ankara (Turkey)

(UNION) KESK (Turkey)

(UNION) Eğitim Sen (Turkey)

Çankaya Municipality (Turkey)

Association of Adult Education (Turkey)

 

Supporting Journals

Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies (UK)

KRITIKI: International Journal for Critical Science & Education (Greece)

Radical Notes (India)

Eleştirel Pedagoji (Turkey)

Cultural Logic (USA/Canada)

 

CALL FOR PAPERS

Abstract Submission: 1^st March 2013

Accepted Papers announced on 15^th March 2013

 

Education Under Siege by Neoliberalism and Neoconservatism

Neoliberal and neoconservative educational politics have significantly been damaging education all over the World. Public education is regarded as old fashioned, private schools and a variety of types of education have been presented as an ideal model, schools and the students are now in a more competitive relationship, public education has been losing its status as a social right as a result of relationships with the market, and the state is rapidly losing its social character in the face of these developments. It leads us to rethink education given problems such as the education becoming less democratic, less secular and losing its scientific character; becoming more conservative and capital oriented and becoming less concerned with- in fact- detrimental to- issues of equality and critique. In rethinking education, the critical education movement takes an important role in creating new horizons and strategies against the global attack of capital.

The International Conference on Critical Education, which was held in Athens for first meetings, provides a base for the academics, teachers and intellectuals who are interested in the subject to come together in order to overcome obstacles for public education. Therefore, in the age where education is under siege by neoliberalism and neoconservatism, we invite you to the IIIrd International Conference on Critical Education to reflect on the theory and practice of critical education and to contribute to the field.

On behalf of the organising committee, 

Professor Dr. Meral UYSAL 
University of Ankara, Faculty of Educational Sciences
Department of Life Long Learning and Adult Education

 

**END**

 

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

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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/

 

 

Teaching Marx: The Socialist Challenge

Teaching Marx

TEACHING MARX: THE SOCIALIST CHALLENGE

Announcing a forthcoming book: Teaching Marx: The Socialist Challenge

Edited by Curry Stephenson Malott, Mike Cole and John Elmore

To be published by Information Age Publishing

Critical Construction: Studies in Education and Society, see: http://www.infoagepub.com/series/critical-constructions

Series Editor: Curry Stephenson Malott, West Chester University

“There is growing disillusionment with a social system where increasing productivity leads only to increased gaps between rich and poor, where reductions in social programs (retirement, health care, education) are the chief response an uninspired political sector can muster, and where non-sustainable exploitation of the Earth continues undiminished — in short, as the looming, world-wide economic crisis draws nearer, the essays in Teaching Marx: The Socialist Challengeare critical reading. It is time for our teachers to prepare students not to take their place in an increasingly corrupt economy, but to bring about the fundamental changes we need to build an equitable, prosperous, sustainable future” — Dr. Dennis Vickers, Humanities Department, College of Menominee Nation, Keshena, Wisconsin.

Curry Malott

“Teaching Marx: The Socialist Challenge is an extraordinarily important text at this juncture of world history. Functioning as more than just another pedagogical weapon to be used against the ideological structures of death and social hallucinogenics manufactured by the transnational capitalist class, it is a book that can provide fecund opportunities for teachers to re-learn how to put social and economic justice front and center in the agenda for educational reform by putting Marx front and center, where he belongs” — Peter McLaren, Professor, UCLA and author of Che Guevara, Paulo Freire and the Pedagogy of Revolution

“Teaching Marx: The Socialist Challenge provides a useful starting point for understanding the origins of today’s global crisis of capitalism. Our work in public schools to encourage respectful dialogues between Indian and non-Indian students about local conflicts over land ownership, through the TERRA Institute, should encourage cooperative action to find common interests. This book reminds us to move those specific discussions to explorations of the causes of conflicts over land, including the imperatives of global capitalism” — David Stanfield, TERRA Institute, www.terrainstitute.org

“As this book so clearly and illustratively points out, the work of Marx has always served as a critical tool for identifying and scraping away the residue of commodity relations as a means to an end of revolutionary purpose, and teaching Marx is therefore keynote to education becoming able to serve as a tool of liberation and revolution. The reasons for why this is so are very clear in the book. As its authors successively and in detail clearly point out, we are ‘educated’ to believe that we live in a meritocracy where god-given abilities and hard work afford position and reward, and the work of social institutions like the school play a key part in this. These institutions, as ideological apparatuses of the State, barrage us with propaganda and bombard us with ideas inside practices that are designed to convince us all that at the head of the equation of the constitution of the social and economic order is the work, skills, ideas, knowledge and commitment of individual people themselves and that the effort and competences of these individuals determine social position and the possibilities for economic reward and even social justice for all.

Mike Cole

Put directly and simply, the book shows us how the public has been hoodwinked by the school and other social institutions to believe in the ethics of capitalism and its central ideological tenet that the present social order is natural and in the end inevitable and beneficial for us all. However, as well as critiquing the work of the school as an instrument of reproduction, the book also shows how and why the education system could and should challenge the anti-democratic perspectives that disguise and defend the current social relations of production and the ideological and material needs of the capitalist class. It offers that is an educational challenge to the inevitability and “correctness” of capitalism by showing how its laws can be made visible to ordinary people so the oppressive power of the capitalist class can be more correctly identified, challenged and defeated.  In this way the book both poses the question and provides answers concerning what role education can play in a possible future revolutionary moment: both as a “true” education as an act of liberation and as a dialectic lens for critiquing the world in which we live. Used appropriately the book can become a clear and fundamental ingredient for helping to create the possibilities for a more egalitarian and socially just world” — Dennis Beach, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

“This collection by Malott, Cole and Elmore’s is a very timely contribution to the current revival of Marxism in education. The authors engage seriously with the ideas of Marx – from his theory of capitalist crises to the increasing impoverishment of the working class – and debunk many of the commonly held myths about Marxism. The compilation of writings provide a devastating rejoinder to those who believe that we can only make changes within the present system and show how this crisis has made discussion of socialist alternatives, in education and society, an urgent necessity. They argue that, in Marx’s words, the educators need to get educated and find ways – through their students, through what they teach, and through their political activism – to feed into wider movements of social change” — Marnie Holborow, author on Marxism and Language, Dublin City University, Ireland.

John Elmore

 

UPDATE 2^nd MARCH 2013

Teaching Marx: The Socialist Challenge – is now out!

At Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Marx-Curry-Stephenson-Malott/dp/1623961203/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1362256280&sr=1-1

At Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Teaching-Marx-Curry-Stephenson-Malott/dp/1623961203/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1362256511&sr=1-7

At the Publishers (Information Age Publishing): http://www.infoagepub.com/products/Teaching-Marx

 

**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

Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies: Volume 10 Number 2 – 2012

Education Crisis

JOURNAL FOR CRITICAL EDUCATION POLICY STUDIES: VOLUME 10 NUMBER 2 (2012)

Volume 10, Number 2: October 2012 – Now Out!

Some excellent and timely articles in this issue of Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies: Glenn Rikowski

See: http://www.jceps.com

ISSN 1740-2743 Online version / ISSN 2051-0959 Print version

The Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies (JCEPS) is a peer-reviewed international scholarly journal published by The Institute for Education Policy Studies (IEPS). The free, online version is published in association with the University of Athens (Greece). The print version (available on subscription or purchase – click on the Subscriptions and Purchasing link is published by IEPS). JCEPS will have three issues per annum, as from 2013. The journal website is www.jceps.com 

Enquiries should be addressed to dave.hill@ieps.org.uk or naomi.hill@ieps.org.uk

The Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies (JCEPS) seeks to develop Marxist and other Left analysis of education. JCEPS seeks and publishes articles that critique global, national, neo-liberal, neo-conservative, New Labour, Third Way, postmodernist and other analyses of policy developments, as well as those that attempt to report on, analyse and develop Socialist/ Marxist transformative policy for schooling and education from a number of Radical Left perspectives. JCEPS also addresses issues of social class, ‘race’, gender, sexual orientation, disability and capital/ism; critical pedagogies, new public managerialism and academic / non-academic labour, and empowerment/ disempowerment.

Contact: dave.hill@ieps.org.uk and dave.hill@anglia.ac.uk

 

CONTENTS:

Dave Hill: Immiseration Capitalism, Activism and Education: Resistance, Revolt and Revenge

Frank Truth: Pay Big to Publish Fast: Academic Journal Rackets

Mike Neary and Sarah Amsler: Occupy: a new pedagogy of space and time?

Periklis Pavlidis: The Antinomic Condition of the University: “Universal Labour” Beyond “Academic Capitalism”

Curry Malott: Rethinking Educational Purpose: The socialist challenge

Jennifer de Saxe: Conceptualizing Critical Feminist Theory and Emancipatory Education

Mike Cole: ‘Abolish the white race’ or ‘transfer economic power to the people’? : Some educational implications

Mike Neary: Teaching Politically: Policy, Pedagogy and the New European University

Ravi Kumar: The Charge of Neoliberal Brigade and Higher Education in India

Dionysios Gouvias: The Post-modern Rhetoric of Recent Reforms in Greek Higher Education

Babak Fozooni: The Politics of Encyclopaedias

Gun-Marie Frånberg and Marie Wrethander: The rise and fall of a social problem: Critical reflections on educational policy and research issues

Imed Labidi: Arabizing Obama: Media’s Racial Pathologies and the Rise of Postmodern Racism

Maria Nikolakaki: Building a Society of Solidarity Through Critical Pedagogy: Group Teaching as a Social and Democratic Tool

Navin Kumar Singh: Exploration of Praxis through Personal and Professional Journey: Implications

Olli-Jukka Jokisaari: A Philosophy for Education in the World of Technology

Reza Pishghadam and Elham Naji Meidani: A Critical Look into Critical Pedagogy

Geraldine Mooney Simmie: The Pied Piper of Neo Liberalism Calls the Tune in the Republic of Ireland: An Analysis of Education Policy Text from 2000-2012

 

**END**

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

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

 

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/

Dave Hill

 

Critical Pedagogy and the Constitution of Capitalist Society

CRITICAL PEDAGOGY AND THE CONSTITUTION OF CAPITALIST SOCIETY

Critical Pedagogy and the Constitution of Capitalist Society was a paper I wrote originally for the ‘Migrating University: From Goldsmiths to Gatwick’, held at Goldsmiths College, University of London, on 14^th September 2007. It has now been republished at Heathwood Press as the Monthly Guest Article for September 2012. Some of the links do not now work for the original paper, which was posted to The Flow of Ideas website in 2007. These have been rectified for the Heathwood Press version.

You can view the Heathwood Press republishing of Critical Pedagogy and the Constitution of Capitalist Society at: http://www.heathwoodpress.com/monthly-guest-article-august-critical-pedagogy-and-the-constitution-of-capitalist-society-by-glenn-rikowski/

Heathwood Press is the publishing arm of the Heathwood Institute – An Independent Institute for Critical Thought: a ‘radical academic collective of authors and researchers whose aim is to continuously and normatively break new grounds of intellectual and political thought’ (Heathwood website).

This is an exciting initiative: the sort of development that yields hope for the future.  

Heathwood Press can be viewed at: http://www.heathwoodpress.com

Glenn Rikowski, London 22^nd September 2012

 

References as:

Rikowski, G. (2012) Critical Pedagogy and the Constitution of Capitalist Society, Monthly Guest Article or September 2012, Heathwood Press, online at: http://www.heathwoodpress.com/monthly-guest-article-august-critical-pedagogy-and-the-constitution-of-capitalist-society-by-glenn-rikowski/

Rikowski, G. (2007) Critical Pedagogy and the Constitution of Capitalist Society, A paper prepared for the ‘Migrating University: From Goldsmiths to Gatwick’ Conference, Panel 2, ‘The Challenge of Critical Pedagogy’, Goldsmiths College, University of London, 14th September 2007, online at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Critical%20Pedagogy%20and%20Capitalism

 

**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

 

 

Sustaining Alternative Universities

Alternative & Sustainable Universities

SUSTAINING ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSITIES

UK Free University Network (FUN)

Sustaining Alternative Universities

Collaborative Research Conference

1–2 December 2012

Oxford, UK

 

They will admit that little is to be expected from present-day governments, since these live and act according to a murderous code. Hope remains only in the most difficult task of all: to reconsider everything from the ground up, so as to shape a living society inside a dying society. [People] must therefore, as individuals, draw up among themselves, within frontiers and across them, a new social contract which will unite them according to more reasonable principles.’ (Albert Camus, ‘Neither victim nor executioner’, 1946)

Following on from the inaugural meeting of the UK Free University Network held in early 2012, we are calling out to representatives of all free universities and to all those who wish to participate in a conference with a more focused objective.

In recent years, we have witnessed the accelerated neoliberal capitalist colonisation of the university. In the UK (and far beyond) many students are now priced out of higher education and the academic finds him/herself subservient to the logic and interests of capital. In response to this intolerable reality, many groups of scholars, students, and others have come together independently to create alternative, ‘free’ universities.

The ‘Sustaining Alternative Universities’ conference, as a space for coordinating research and sharing knowledge and experience, seeks to support these projects in taking further decisive steps towards the creation of a national movement of individuals and organisations dedicated to the construction and development of alternative democratic, critical, and ultimately sustainable higher education communities.

 

Sustainability: history, dialogue, and practice

The successes of this movement hinge on its sustainability. ‘How can we build, develop, and maintain truly sustainable educational communities outside the existing institutional frameworks?’ is the question upon which our collective investigations and discussions should be founded. Therefore, our collective task is to conceptualise, research, imagine, and, ultimately, cultivate a sustainable movement based on a network of locally-based, sustainable, free universities. We believe that this conference can help us to successfully undertake this task through a three-step process.

Step one: history. An intrinsic element of building sustainability today must surely be to learn from the history of previous projects of popular, democratic and radical education here in the UK, and beyond. Therefore, we invite representatives of each free university to conduct and present research into the history of these traditions in their specific locality, drawing on their own particular influences. Researchers should keep in mind the practical purpose driving this research and consider issues such as: Who participated in these efforts? How were they structured, organised, and sustained? What was the significance of their historical and spatial context? What lessons can be derived from these efforts for our own endeavours today?

We hope that this shared research effort will allow us to both map out a history of popular / democratic / radical higher education in the UK, and to identify ways these can inform our own current projects. Ultimately, this collaborative research endeavour could also help us trace the roots of our network.

Step two: dialogue. The next step is to engage in dialogue with one another, and with our histories. We need to both imagine our ideals and talk freely and openly about the challenges and obstacles that impede our ambitions and objectives today. We need to name the material, social and subjective conditions that constrain the actualisation of our imagination and hopes. At the conference, we aim to draw on our collective experiences in democratic education to create a supportive, democratic space in which participants feel able to share their thoughts, feelings, and ideas in these areas.

Step three: practice. Finally, we need to take the lessons and ideas derived from our historical research and dialogue and put them into practice. The conference will culminate in a session in which we all make plans for practical action to take things forward on a local and national level.

 

Affinities and collaborations

We invite collaboration and co-operation with all. Beyond the Free University Network itself, we particularly welcome collaboration from members of the following groups:

Academic members of the ‘For a Public University’ working group and Campaign for the Public University. We at FUN have not forsaken the mainstream university, and many of our members are not only academics or students, but also active in defending the public university. We recognise the rich traditions of critical pedagogy within the university and the enduring possibilities of its democratic promise. We welcome contributions from all academics.

Members of the Co-operative Movement. Clearly, the co-operative model of organisation offers much for free universities today to draw on, and at least one in the UK is explicitly organised upon co-operative principles. We welcome members of the Co-operative Movement who might contribute to our historical and contemporary understanding of co-operative education, and/or who would like to build bridges between these two movements.

University workers who are not academics. All too often, non-academic staff working in universities are marginalised within or excluded from these discussions. Their contributions, knowledges, experiences and possibilities are overlooked. We seek to redress this situation and invite all those making invaluable contributions to higher education in ways that are not specifically ‘academic’ to participate in this conference.

Students and all those desiring to learn. Critical pedagogy aspires to break down hierarchical boundaries between students and teachers, and to expand the right of learning to everyone whether they occupy the role of ‘student’ or not. In the democratic universities we envisage, students shape their own learning experiences. We welcome contributions from students, past, present, and future.

All others who share our principles, and who are active in creating alternative institutions in other areas of social life, particularly in education. There is much we can learn from each other.

 

An open, democratic, egalitarian, anti-elitist intellectuality

This is a critical pedagogical and political project. This conference is not intended to be a typical academic conference based exclusively on theoretically dense papers and presentations. There is validity, truth, importance, and profound insight in many other methods and ways of expressing knowledge, and we open our conference and minds to these. We believe that narrative – telling stories – is a particularly important means for reaching the personal and social heart of the obstacles and challenges that confront us in our ambitions to create democratic and sustainable learning communities.

 

Where and when

In the spirit of the Occupy movement, we have decided to host this conference on higher education in Oxford for obvious historical reasons.

We propose that the conference will be held on the weekend of 1–2 December 2012.

We recognise the high cost of transport and accommodation and ask those in a position to do so to offer contributions to help unwaged participants to attend. A system will be created to make this transparent and possible.

 

Impact and output

Only joking!

We want this conference to be the turning point at which we really begin to cultivate a sustainable and flourishing free university movement. We hope you can join us for this conference.

If you are interested in participating in the conference and/or in its planning of and preparation, please contact either Sarah Amsler (samsler@lincoln.ac.uk) or Joel Lazarus (joel_lazarus@hotmail.com). 

We aim to have a coordinating committee established by 13 August.

 

Venue

The location of the conference venue will depend on final numbers. However, what is certain is that this conference’s organisation will be guided by fully inclusive principles. This means a family friendly venue with park/playground nearby and a safe indoor space for children of all ages to play. Childcare duties will not preclude participation at this conference. Equally, we will ensure that the venue is fully accessible and that all dietary requirements are catered for. Please contact us if you have any concerns, ideas, or requests.

 

**END**

 

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

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

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

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

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

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

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