Progressive Geographies

Routledge is currently looking for book proposals to be included in a new book series, Routledge Studies in Radical History and Politics.

The series has two areas of interest. Firstly, it aims to publish books which focus on the history of movements of the radical left. ‘Movement of the radical left’ is here interpreted in its broadest sense as encompassing those past movements for radical change which operated in the mainstream political arena as with political parties, and past movements for change which operated more outside the mainstream as with millenarian movements, anarchist groups, utopian socialist communities, and trade unions. Secondly, the series aims to publish books which focus on more contemporary expressions of radical left-wing politics. Recent years have been witness to the emergence of a multitude of new radical movements adept at getting their voices in the public sphere. From those participating in the Arab Spring, the Occupy…

As before, let me know if you spot anything I’ve missed…

(1961). “Descartes et Leibniz dans les deux manières de penser le réel et la science.” Critique no. 164. Hors série.

(1963). “La Querelle des anciens et des modernes en mathématiques et en épistémologie.” Critique, no. 198. Hors série.

(1965). “Un modèle mathématique du cogito.” Revue Philosophique de la France et de l’Étranger 155: 197-205.

(1965). Review of Paul Ver Eecke, Les « Coniques » d’Apollonius de Perge. Revue Philosophique de la France et de l’Étranger 155: 256-57.

(1966). “Don Juan au palais des merveilles: sur les statues au XVIIe siècle.” Les Études philosophiques 21, no. 3: l’athéisme: 385-90.

(1966). “Etablissement, par nombres et figures, de l’Harmonie préétablie.” Revue Internationale de Philosophie 20, no. 76/77: 216-27.

(1966). “Le troisième homme ou le tiers exclu.” Les Études philosophiques 21, no. 4: 463-69.

(1966). “Pénélope ou d’un graphe théorique.” Revue…

My main presentation at the AAG in Chicago was part of a session organised by Noam Leshem and Alasdair Pinkerton on Remnants of No Man’s Land: history, theory and excess (more on their larger project here).  Here is an extended summary of what I had to say, together with some of my slides, but bear in mind that this all had to be done in 20 minutes so there wasn’t much room for nuance.  Neither was there time to discuss civilian entanglements, both volunteers and victims, nor the sick: the presentation focuses on the wounded, even though the problems of trench foot, ‘trench flu’, and a host of other diseases were also extremely important.  They do all receive attention in the larger project from which this is extracted.  One last, geographical qualification: my discussion is limited to the evacuation of British and imperial troops from the Western Front.

My…

Urban geologist? What’s that?

A new City of Vancouver proposal to start addressing the city’s scourge of speculation-driven housing vacancy is in the news. The municipal government wants to comprehensively identify vacant houses throughout the city, building on important work being done by the grassroots group Beautiful Empty Homes but leveraging governmental data (namely from BC Hydro) that the public doesn’t have access to.

I spoke to a number of news outlets about the proposal yesterday, starting with the Vancouver Sun, which focused on the spectre of xenophobia in discussions of Vancouver’s expensive property market. As I argued, though, the major issue here isn’t whether it’s foreigners buying houses or other Canadians, it’s that Vancouver’s housing market isn’t strongly connected to the local economy, and speculators buying properties but not living in them just makes that problem worse:

“The problem in Vancouver is that demand for housing doesn’t have that…

Here is the latest instalment of the comprehensive Michel Serres primary bibliography: archival material. Archival material about but not written by Michel Serres is not included in this list, which gives a tantalizing glimpse into Serres’ early thought and intellectual formation.

Serres, Michel. (Undated). “Essai sur le concept épistémologique d’interférence”. Thèse complémentaire présentée à la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines de Paris-Sorbonne. 217 pages. Archives et manuscrits conservés à l’École normale supérieure: Fonds Hyppolite.  http://www.calames.abes.fr/pub/ms/Calames-20131241612190693

—.  (Undated). “1 lettre de Michel Serres envoyée à Robert Flacelière”. feuillet. 135 x 210 mm. Sur papier à en-tête Université de Clermont, Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Institut de Philosophie. Archives et manuscrits conservés à l’École normale supérieure : Fonds Hyppolite. http://www.calames.abes.fr/pub/ms/Calames-20131119111157328292

—.  (Undated). “1 lettre de Michel Serres envoyée à Marguerite Hyppolite”. 1 feuillet. 210 x 270 mm. Archives et manuscrits conservés à l’École normale supérieure : Fonds Hyppolite. http://www.calames.abes.fr/pub/ms/Calames-2013112616115165623

—.  (Undated). “Michel Serres, 1 lettre”…