So when is white history month, asks Morgan Freeman.
16 July 2010
28 June 2010
Idee des Kommunismus
So what is the idea of communism, according to the weekend’s conference at the Volksbühne in Berlin? Best answer still offered in the first 15 mins or so of this lecture from 2009.
Badiou’s answer is in French: The communist hypothesis.
25 June 2010
Wealthy and responsible. A shifting discursive terrain?
It seems there is change at hand. For a long time in Germany, the UK, etc. it has been considered quite laudable to use tax loopholes, and respectable to demand less tax for the wealthy.
Now, in Germany, the wealthiest themselves are demanding that they be allowed to contribute more to the current financial crisis. “We want to pay more”; fix those “ridiculous” tax loopholes; over half the top managers in a survey think top earners should pay more tax.
Change indeed. Now politics can use what Ranciére calls a “strategy of verification” to hold these words to deeds.
20 June 2010
Das Undarstellbare der Politik
For German speakers: Das Undarstellbare der Politik: Zur Hegemonietheorie Ernesto Laclaus. (1998) is available as a downloadable pdf from the publishers Turia + Kant.
Edited by Oliver Marchart with texts from Judith Butler, Simon Critchley, Torben Bech Dyrberg, Ernesto Laclau, Thanos Lipowatz, Rado Riha, Anna-Marie Smith, Urs Stäheli, Yannis Stavrakakis, Jelica Šumić-Riha and Slavoj Žižek.
Im Mittelpunkt dieses Bandes steht ein Briefwechsel zwischen Judith Butler und Ernesto Laclau, der die gegenwärtige Renaissance der politischen Philosophie belegt und demnächst auch in Diacritics publiziert werden wird.
Politik kommt heute, nach dem Wegfall der Leitdifferenz Ost – West, zu Bewusstsein als das Wagnis einer Unternehmung ohne sicheren Ausgang. Nichts garantiert ihren Erfolg, ja es ist zweifelhaft, worin der Erfolg denn bestünde – etwa in der Erreichung des Ziels einer perfekt ausbalancierten, hegemonialen Gesellschaft befriedet-befriedigter Bürger? Zynisch resümierte man, dass dies eine Gesellschaft der Langeweile wäre, geschichtslos, leblos, aber gerecht, die Vorwegnahme des Todes.
Ein politischer Diskurs, der dem Politischen wieder Form geben will, muss den Prozess der Differenzierung wieder thematisieren, jenen kaum fasslichen Vorgang der Gesellschaft, in dem sich Politik situiert. Zu diesem Unternehmen, das Laclau und Butler ins Zentrum des Interesses stellen, bietet der Band auch eine Reihe weiterer Beiträge, von Slavoj Zizek bis zu Simon Critchley, sowie Texte von Ernesto Laclau und Judith Butler selbst.
27 May 2010
Foucault in Aachen
…or rather:
Craig Mulholland working on Foucault’s theories of power in “Fragments of Machines” at the NAK (Neuer Aachener Kunstverein) from 29 May.
Craig Mulholland (GB) trained as a painter but his practice encompasses sculpture, installation and film making, addressing themes of alienation and complicity in the contemporary cultural economy. ‘The dominant concerns within Mulholland’s recent work have centred on Foucauldian theories of power – “the political dream of the plague […] the penetration of regulation into even the smallest details of everyday life”.’
‘Fragments of Machines’ is a group exhibition of painting, sculpture, textiles and video work by five contemporary artists based in Glasgow, Berlin, New York and Paris, alongside a rare screening of Lillian Schwartz’s seminal computer-animated 16mm film ‘Googolplex’, made in 1972.
Curated by Will Bradley. Featuring Tauba Auerbach, Claire Fontaine, Travis Meinolf, Craig Mulholland, Lillian Schwartz, Hayley Tompkins
Party “Body Xerox”, 29 May, 11pm.
…image: “Anger Management (2008) by Craig Mulholland
26 May 2010
Revisioning Pragmatism
Conference honoring the memory of William James at the University of Hamburg, June 24 – 26, 2010.
This conference takes place on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of William James’s death. While we want to honor James — arguably the most famous American philosopher — as a great scholar and the father of pragmatism, the conference aims at much more: It examines the impact of pragmatism on various disciplines in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and tries to engage in a discourse that breaks new ground and advances new perspectives in theoretical debates that still seem to be largely dominated by European traditions.
As with James’s work itself, whose interdisciplinary character has inspired work especially in philosophy, psychology and physiology, this conference is also characterized by interdisciplinarity and transnational dialogue. Scholars from the fields of philosophy, literary and cultural studies, social science, and religious studies will explore pragmatism’s importance, potential, and current relevance.
10 May 2010
Thomas Faist on diversity
Interesting discussion article from Thomas Faist (2009). Diversity: a new mode of incorporation? Ethnic and Racial Studies 32(1): 171-190 (pdf).
Abstract
Lately, cultural diversity in Western societies has, in terms of religions, languages, ethnic we-groups, transnational ties, and countries of origin, once more undergone immense growth. Modes of migrant incorporation reflect endeavours to respond to this change.While some approaches such as assimilation and multiculturalism emphasize the social integration of migrants in the host societies, the vague term ‘diversity’ harbours innovative measures in two respects. First, diversity addresses not only the incorporation of migrants, but also how societies and particularly their organizations deal with cultural pluralism. Second, diversity can then be understood both as an individual competence of migrants as members of organizations and the civil sphere, and as a set of programmes which organizations adopt to address cultural pluralism. Also, novel forms of diversity have emerged, such as transnationality. Yet in the absence of a rights-based foundation the question arises of how social inequality can be dealt with.
…with thanks to Susanne for the link…
11 April 2010
Integration and the discourse of “concreteness”
The debate on integration in Germany continues. But certain aspects are aggressively excluded from the discussion.
Today a round table discussion on “Tacheles” on Phoenix (state-funded public television channel). Participants discuss, among other things, “positive examples” of educational projects to assist integration. One is a bilingual primary school in which all kids learn subjects in both German and Turkish.
After some comments on the project, Cem Gülay
Cem Gülay
says that it is important to remember that education is not the only important aspect to integration. There are over 20,000 young people of Turkish background with university degrees in Germany, but when it comes to getting professional jobs, they are clearly discriminated against. He starts to give concrete numbers: 1 to 3.
The moderator jumps in: wait, wait, wait, we’re talking about this concrete project. And cuts Gülay off, turning to the next participant.
Discursive strategy of “concreteness”: using “the concrete” to disrupt mention of larger systemic issues such as institutional racism. Yet Necla Kelek was not interrupted when she translated the specific project into a mention of women’s position in Muslim societies.
Unfortunately, Gülay’s comments on this topic are not included in the range of clips available on Phoenix’ website.
Hamideh Mohagheghi
Practical critical discourse analysis on “Islam”
Hamideh Mohagheghi, Chair of the Muslim Academy in Germany, does a nice bit of practical critical discourse analysis (in the video summary below at around minute 3:30) by drawing attention to the moderator’s use of “young people with a Turkish background” and “young people with a Muslim background” as synonyms.
Around minute 7:50 she takes apart the concept of “highly religious people” – what on earth is “highly religious”, she asks. How are we supposed to measure that?
23 March 2010
Laclau and contingency
Ernesto Laclau talks to the Greek journal Intellectum about the uses of populism, why radical democracy has nothing to do with liberalism, and how lack of political competition benefits the far-Right.
…with thanks to Hanna for the link.
2 March 2010
Tangerinegate
Accusations are all you need to get into the mainstream news media apparently.
Can you believe what our Prime Minister did with a tangerine?
But can you believe that my phone call ended up in the Financial Times? And on the BBC show The Bubble (14 mins 15 secs in to be precise). And The Telegraph and The Sun. And animated by a Hong Kong news channel…
And it’s on wikipedia. So is Robert Popper a media hoax genius or is he hoaxing us that he hoaxed the media — is he actually simply a fan trying to renew Gordon Brown’s image?
…Thanks to Nick for the tip.
