Althusser, Spinoza and Revolution in Philosophy: An Interview with Warren Montag

Posted on February 2, 2017 by stuartelden

Althusser, Spinoza and Revolution in Philosophy: An Interview with Warren Montag in Salvage. A fascinating discussion of Althusser, Jonathan Swift, Pierre Macherey, Adam Smith and others.

Posted in Baruch Spinoza, Louis Althusser, Pierre Macherey, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

CFP: Losing Ground: On holes and other absences

Posted on February 1, 2017 by stuartelden

Friday, 19 May 2017, University of Warwick, Coventry

“ To dig, to drill , to burrow, to punch, to enlarge, to fill up, to fall in, to jump over, to look through, to hide in- all of these, and indeed many others, are things we do with, around, inside, and through holes.”

“A hole is there where something isn’t.”

Of Holes and Other Superficialities

What happens when ground gives way?

Sinkholes are constantly appearing. At least; there has been an increase in media attention over their globally growing number. Sinkholes describe geologically formed depressions or holes in the ground caused by either suffusion or karst processes leading to a collapse of the surface. They can appear naturally, but increasingly seem to be man-made as a result of more diversified subterranean uses. Their increasing number, destabilizes urban, political and social infrastructure; it also raises profound metaphysical questions. In this workshop we attempt to look at sinkholes, as a lens through which we can ponder on situations of a vanishing of the ground beneath our feet. Holes can be seen as the absence of geographic materialities, loss, gaps, and collapse of meaning. Holes can also be interpreted as potential sites of openings, creativity, and reconstruction of new or recovered meaning.

We invite contributions that engage with the question of holes; a question, we believe, that can only be thought of through a multidisciplinary lens. We look for a conversation among artists, philosophers, geographers, academics in Sociology, Politics, Literature and Theatre and Performance Studies. The workshop will be held in parallel with an art exhibition at Warwick University, Coventry. The exhibition will feature segments of Heide Fasnacht’s Suspect Terrain  and Jenny Perlin’s, and is part of a larger effort to make holes relevant as a subject and site of learning and research. 

We invite interested contributors to send a 300 words abstract, and a short biographical note to Marijn Nieuwenhuis (m.nieuwenhuis@warwick.ac.uk) and Aya Nassar (a.m.i.nassar@warwick.ac.uk) by February 20, 2017. Besides paper presentations;  alternative contributions such as performance, videos, drawings, pictures (etc.) are welcomed.  The workshop and the exhibition are funded by the Institute of Advanced Study (IAS), University of Warwick, and a PTF Professional Development Fund from The New School. Further information about the project can be found here https://sinkholesworkshop.wordpress.com

Posted in Conferences, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Pakistan Journal of Historical Studies – can anyone access?

Posted on January 31, 2017 by stuartelden

There is a review of Foucault’s Last Decade in the Pakistan Journal of Historical Studies – can anyone access it? Nowhere in the UK seems to carry this journal. Please email me if you can help.

Update: thanks for those that sent this or links – much appreciated.

Update 2 [3 Feb 2017]:

It is a curious review, which says very little about the book itself. It takes exception to the idea of studying a ‘decade’ of Foucault’s work, suggesting that this is an arbitrary periodisation, and even noting my previous work on the politics of calculation! All very well, except for the crucial and missed reason for why I chose this period. We know Foucault began work on the History of Sexuality volume I in 1974, and the project was brought to a premature end with his death in 1984. That is the reason for the ‘last decade’ – the intellectual puzzle was the history of this project; the title was a choice which came subsequently. Of course, as the book points out, and the review underlines, there are threads of continuity between the period before 1974 and the ‘last decade’. But the 1974-84 is one where Foucault’s main preoccupation is the History of Sexuality, with all its detours, dead-ends and reworking. That is the history I study in the book. The previous period – not just 1971-74, as the review suggests, but 1969-74 – is the topic of Foucault: The Birth of Power. In that I have a similar intellectual puzzle: how did Foucault come to write Discipline and Punish, related works on medicine and health, and how did all this relate to his political activism? My ongoing research into the early Foucault tracks some still earlier traces, alongside other concerns.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

The Early Foucault and Intellectual History – talk at the Institute of Historical Research, 2 February 2017

Posted on January 30, 2017 by stuartelden

I’ll also be giving some talks on Foucault over the next couple of months. First, at the Philosophy of History seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, 2 February 2017 at 5.30pm.

This talk will begin with a discussion of Foucault’s Last Decade (2016) and Foucault: The Birth of Power (2017). I’ll talk about how I’ve been doing this work – working with published writings, archival material and other sources. It will then move to a discussion of the work I am now beginning on the very early Foucault – his work in the 1950s and the genesis of the History of Madness. The talk will say something about his early teaching, what we know of the process that led to the writing of his first major book, and the shorter publications that preceded it. The last part of the talk will talk about Foucault and translation – that is translations where Foucault was one of the translators, not translations of Foucault. These include works by Ludwig Binswanger and Viktor von Weizsâcker.

I’ll be giving versions of this talk at Goldsmiths and possibly Maynooth in March [update: actually the Goldsmiths talk was cancelled, and in Maynooth I’ll be speaking about terrain].

Posted in Conferences, Foucault's Last Decade, Foucault: The Birth of Power, The Early Foucault | 1 Comment

Talks on territory and terrain in the next month – London, Durham and Oslo

Posted on January 30, 2017 by stuartelden

31_jan_power_territory_and_bordersI’ll be giving a few talks about the work on terrain as the materiality of territory over the next month or so.

First is a short talk at the British Library on 31 January 2017, 7pm. This is part of a session on Power, Territory and Borders, with Tim Marshall (author of the best-seller Prisoners of Geography) and chaired by BBC journalist Philippa Thomas. I’ve been asked to give some general historical background which uses my previous work, but the last part discusses the new work on terrain. This talk requires tickets which are available from the BL.

On the 6 February 2017, 6.15pm, I’ll be back up at Durham to give a public lecture in the Institute of Advanced Study‘s series on ‘The Scale of Things’. The talk is entitled “Towards a Political Theory of Terrain”.

On 23 February 2017, 6.30pm, I’ll be giving the London Review of International Law annual lecture at SOAS, under the title “Legal Terrain”.

Then on 3 March 2017 I’ll be part of the Technologies of Space: Verticality, Volume, Infrastructure symposium at the University of Oslo, speaking on “Terrain’s Volume”. Lisa Parks and Mark Dorrian are the other speakers. This event requires registration.

The Durham, SOAS/LRIL and Oslo talks will all be versions of the lecture I gave in Gießen late last year. They won’t be exactly the same, with some different emphases, but there will be substantial overlap. Details of all the talks I’ll be giving are here.

 

Posted in Conferences, terrain, Territory | Leave a comment

Althusser, an Intellectual Adventure, a film by Bruno Oliviero – available on Youtube

Posted on January 28, 2017 by stuartelden

Update 27 Feb: the video has unfortunately been removed.

altAlthusser, an Intellectual Adventure – a film by Bruno Oliviero.

The entire film is available on Youtube. Thanks to Irina Culic for the link.

The interview with Althusser is in Italian, with French subtitles. Most of the film is in French. YouTube makes French subtitles available – but they are automatic and not at all reliable [updated]. Includes interviews with Etienne Balibar, Jacques Rancière, Pierre Macherey, Lucien Sève, etc.

Posted in Etienne Balibar, Louis Althusser, Pierre Macherey | Leave a comment

Trump’s strategy and portfolio of tactics: Insights from Week One

Posted on January 27, 2017 by stuartelden

Some insights into the Trump administration’s tactics – it’s been quite a week.

irelandafternama's avatarIreland after NAMA

A week into Trump’s presidency it is already clear how the new administration is going prosecute its election promises and objectives.  Here’s a short mapping of twenty-odd tactics in play or are muted to come into play shortly.  While protests and individual acts of resistance may have some effect, it is clear that those opposed to Trump will need their own organized playbook of tactics to counter each of those listed below.  And these need leadership and coordination as the more fragmented and dispersed the response, the less effective it will be. Please feel free to use the comments section to add to the list of tactics and to suggest responses.

Objectives

  1. Use power to further the interests of corporations, the uber-wealthy and conservative ideology.
  2. Maintenance of power at all costs and put in place structures and processes that work to ensure maintenance of power into the future.

Strategy

  1. To…

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Best of Luck with the Wall, Donald

Posted on January 27, 2017 by stuartelden

A stunning film of the US-Mexico border – ‘Best of Luck with the Wall’, from 2o16. A great insight into the interactions of the geopolitical and the geophysical landscape. Thanks to Natalie Oswin for the link.

Posted in Boundaries, Politics, terrain, Territory | 2 Comments

Eyal Weizman video interview on ‘Forensic Architecture – Investigating the Blueprint of War Crimes’ on Russia Today

Posted on January 27, 2017 by stuartelden

Eyal Weizman video interview on ‘Forensic Architecture – Investigating the Blueprint of War Crimes’ on Russia Today. A fascinating discussion of what his Goldsmiths research agency Forensic Architecture does, and a robust response to hostile questioning.

Eyal writes:

A few weeks ago Russia Today (RT) got in touch proposing to do a piece on Forensic Architecture. I responded that I’d be happy to take part on condition that the examples we’d discuss would be Russian air strikes on hospitals in Syria. I thought they’d never agree. They did and we discussed our collaboration with MSF analysing strikes on their supported hospitals, in particular on the hospital near Ma’arat al-Nu’man.

Posted in Eyal Weizman, Politics, urban/urbanisation | Leave a comment

Environment and Planning C relaunched as ‘Politics and Space’ – new manifesto

Posted on January 27, 2017 by stuartelden

Society and Space is part of the Environment and Planning family of journals, now published by Sage. Environment and Planning C – formerly ‘Government and Policy’ is being relaunched as ‘Politics and Space’.

New editors Patrica Daley, Eugene McCann, Alison Mountz and Joe Painter have a piece describing this new purpose as ‘Reimaging Politics & Space: Why here, why now?‘ Here’s one key paragraph:

Our starting point in the project of re-visioning this journal is that no one owns the political in political geography and, therefore, while we are editors, we hope you will join us in building the future of Politics & Space. Send us your papers! Send us something new, different, something that you need to see in these pages.

Posted in Politics, Publishing | 1 Comment