Authority & Political Technologies 2014
Power in a World of Becoming, Entanglement & Attachment
‘In every era the attempt must be made anew to rescue tradition from a conformism that is about to overpower it’ (Walter Benjamin)
June 2-3, 2014. University of Warwick
Confirmed Speakers:
- · William Connolly (Johns Hopkins)
- · Christian Borch (CBS, Copehagen)
- · Costas Douzinas (Birkbeck)
- · Amade M’charek (Amsterdam)
- · Luciana Parisi (Goldsmiths)
- · AbdouMaliq Simone (Goldsmiths)
Conference Organisers:
Claire Blencowe & Illan rua Wall – Authority & Political Technologies (APT) Warwick
Suggested Themes:
- · Biopolitics and Political Spirituality/Religion
- · Materialism and the Political Meaning of Entanglement
- · Authority, Sovereignty and Becoming in the (Post) Colony
- · Process and New Forms of Society(ism), Association and Being in Common
- · Necropolitics and Human Rights
Recently, there have been various calls for a move beyond ‘post-structuralism’ (i.e. Foucault, Deleuze, cultural/critical theory), which had long been seen as the radical edge of the critical social sciences. Such calls are motivated in part by the sense that post-structuralist philosophies – which were forged against a backdrop of totalitarian rule and burgeoning welfare states in Europe – fail to offer moral or political purchase in the contemporary governmental landscape. Moreover, there is a sense that various concepts and theories have become reified and constraining – closing down the possibilities of critical thought. However, the issues that post-structuralist theory placed on the critical social science agenda have become more vital than ever – be that the concern for the complex and dispersed nature of power and agency; the imbrication of power and economics with knowledge and science; rethinking the relation between equality and difference; the political/contested/changing nature of embodiment, biology and ecology; or the efforts of states and others to establish and exercise power over life itself. We maintain that now is the time, not to reject post-structuralist perspectives, but to reinvigorate and transform those traditions through empirical and political work that is creatively engaged with current problems. The Authority & Political Technologies group at Warwick will host a series of annual events that bring together world leading, emerging and postgraduate scholars from across the social sciences whose work promises to renew post-structuralist critical thought through empirical scholarship. This year we invite papers on the theme ‘Power in a World of Becoming, Entanglement & Attachment’. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the suggested themes above.
Deadline for abstract submission March 10th 2014.
For further information and updates see the conference website http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/rsw/authorityandpoliticaltechnologies/apt2014/
APT Warwick:
Claire Blencowe; Miguel Beistegui; Will Davies; Stuart Elden; Nick Gane; Olga Goriunova; Amy Hinterberger; Hannah Jones; Cath Lambert; Nick Lee; Celia Lury; Alice Mah; Goldie Osuri; Maria Do Mar Pereira; Lynne Pettinger; Shirin Rai; John Solomos; Vicky Squire; Nathanial Tkacz; Emma Uprichard; Nick Vaughan-Williams; Illan rua Wall; Chiara Livia Bernardi; Sam Burgum; Rogan Collins; Esteban Damiani; Kathryn Medien; Marijn Nieuwenhuis; Hidefumi Nishiyama; Maurice Stierl; Lauren Tooker; Lorenzo Vianelli
