Volume 32, Issue 1 now out

Posted on February 11, 2014 by stuartelden

New issue of Society and Space out, including an open access theme section – papers by Wakefield, Braun, Adams, Gabrys and Agamben.

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In Marx’s Laboratory: Critical Readings of the Grundrisse reviewed

Posted on February 11, 2014 by stuartelden

I’ve mentioned this book before – now reviewed at Marx & Philosophy.

34946

Edited by Riccardo Bellofiore, University of Bergamo, Italy, Guido Starosta, National University of Quilmes, Argentina, and Peter D. Thomas, Brunel University, London

In Marx’s Laboratory. Critical Interpretations of the Grundrisse provides a critical analysis of the Grundrisse as a crucial stage in the development of Marx’s critique of political economy. Stressing both the achievements and limitations of this much-debated text, and drawing upon recent philological advances, this volume attempts to re-read Marx’s 1857-58 manuscripts against the background of Capital, as a ‘laboratory’ in which Marx first began to clarify central elements of his mature problematic. With chapters by an international range of authors from different traditions of interpretation, including the International Symposium on Marxian Theory, this volume provides an in-depth analysis of key themes and concepts in the Grundrisse, such as method, dialectics and abstraction; abstract labour, value, money and capital; technology, the ‘general intellect’ and revolutionary subjectivity, surplus-value, competition, crisis; and society, gender, ecology and pre-capitalist forms.

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Melbourne talks on The Birth of Territory – full details and flyers

Posted on February 11, 2014 by stuartelden

26 February 2014, 12.30pm, “The Birth of Territory”, Monash University, Melbourne (Room N502, Menzies Building, Clayton Campus) – flyer, website

27 February 2014, 5pm, “The Birth of Territory”, RMIT University, Melbourne (Swanston Academic Building SAB, B80 L3 R15, City Campus) – flyer

Posted in Conferences, Politics, Territory, The Birth of Territory | 3 Comments

Tim Morton to give the Wellek lectures

Posted on February 11, 2014 by stuartelden

whittlesey_morton_1-3He has the news here – these are significant lectures and a real honour. He is, as he notes, in some excellent past company.

The good news – for those unable to attend – is that they are published in book form after the event.

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Glenn Greenwald’s new site – The Intercept

Posted on February 10, 2014 by stuartelden

Glenn Greenwald’s new site – The Intercept – is now live, with posts by Jeremy Scahill & Greenwald, and Trevor Paglen.

Pakistan UN Drones

Here’s their description of the site’s purpose:

The Intercept, a publication of First Look Media, was created by Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and Jeremy Scahill. It has a two-fold mission: one short-term, the other long-term.

Our short-term mission is to provide a platform to report on the documents previously provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Although we are still building our infrastructure and larger vision, we are launching now because we believe we have a vital obligation to this ongoing and evolving story, to these documents, and to the public.

Our NSA coverage will be comprehensive, innovative and multi-faceted. We have a team of experienced editors and journalists devoted to the story. We will use all forms of digital media for our reporting. In addition, we will publish primary source documents on which our reporting is based. We will also invite outside experts with area knowledge to contribute to our reporting, and provide a platform for commentary and reader engagement.

Our long-term mission is to produce fearless, adversarial journalism across a wide range of issues. The editorial independence of our journalists will be guaranteed. They will be encouraged to pursue their passions, cultivate a unique voice, and publish stories without regard to whom they might anger or alienate. We believe the prime value of journalism is its power to impose transparency, and thus accountability, on the most powerful governmental and corporate bodies, and our journalists will be provided the full resources and support required to do this.

While our initial focus will be the critical work surrounding the NSA story, we are excited by the opportunity to grow with our readers into the broader and more comprehensive news outlet that the The Intercept will become.

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Stuart Hall obituaries and tributes

Posted on February 10, 2014 by stuartelden

NLR vanThere is an obituary in The Guardian, and Couze Venn has written a piece for the TCS website. Jeremy Gilbert has  written a piece for Open Democracy; and one at Red Pepper. Tariq Ali has a piece in The Guardian, as does Stuart Jeffries. McKenzie Wark has a piece at Public Seminar; Robin Blackburn at the Verso blog – with a list of links and recommended reading – and there is a piece in The Voice, and at the BFI website.

His last editorial for Soundings is available here. Tendance Coatesy has a piece here. Birkbeck Psychosocial Studies have a tribute; and Gary Younge has a piece here. Hatful of History has a long excerpt from an unpublished piece discussing his work. Though written before his death, there is a good overview of his career and work by Roger Blomley at Ceasefire. Ben Carrington has a piece here.

The University of Birmingham have a piece here. Lawrence Grossberg has a moving tribute at Truth-out. Les Back and Nirmal Puwar have pieces at Open Democracy.

BBC radio Thinking Aloud programme on Hall’s work.

In memory of Stuart Hall: a special programme paying tribute to the leading cultural theorist and former director of the Birmingham Centre for Cultural Studies. A pioneer of ‘multiculturalism’, he documented the changing character of ‘post Imperial’ British society. Laurie Taylor is joined by Caspar Melville, Lecturer in Global Creative and Cultural Industries at SOAS, Baroness Lola Young and Jeremy Gilbert, editor of the journal, New Formations. They explore Stuart Hall’s life, influence and legacy.

ABC Radio on his legacy; Les Back & Mónica Moreno Figueroa at the TCS open site; Bruce Robbins at Al Jazeera America; Nick Beech at the TCS open site. Pieces from Centre of Cultural Studies Research at the University of East London) and in German at science.orf.at; Hilary Wainwright at Jacobin; and the European Cultural Foundation’s website. Discover Society has a good piece about political tensions at Birmingham.

Some more links here. I’ve been updating this post as I see new links. Please add additional ones in comments – thanks for ones already incorporated.

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David Graeber interview at Radical History Review

Posted on February 10, 2014 by stuartelden

Interesting interview with David Graeber at Radical History Review (open access), discussing debt, Debt, finance, anarchism and Occupy. Thanks to Peter Gratton for the link.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Talks in Melbourne this month on The Birth of Territory

Posted on February 10, 2014 by stuartelden

The Birth of Territory

I will be giving two talks on The Birth of Territory this month in Melbourne.

26 February 2014, 12.30pm, “The Birth of Territory”, Monash University, Melbourne (Room N502, Menzies Building, Clayton Campus) – flyer, website

27 February 2014, 5pm, “The Birth of Territory”, RMIT University, Melbourne (Swanston Academic Building SAB, B80 L3 R15, City Campus) – flyer

Here’s the abstract – most of this will be familiar to people who’ve heard me talk on this book before (and especially those who have read it…), but I hope the concluding part and discussion will open up some of my current interests.

This talk will provide an overview of my 2013 book The Birth of Territory, which traces the emergence of this crucial concept in Western political thought. In the first part I suggest that territory needs to be related to, yet not reduced to, ‘land’ and ‘terrain’, which are political-economic and political-strategic relations. Territory needs to be additionally understood in terms of its relation to space, a calculative category that is dependent on the existence of a range of techniques, and political-legal questions. Territory then can be understood as a political technology: it comprises techniques for measuring land and controlling terrain, and we must therefore think measure and control—the technical and the legal—alongside the economic and strategic. The second part offers an account of a few moments in the emergence of this concept – looking briefly at temporal power theorists, the rediscovery of Roman law, German debates in the seventeenth century, and some political techniques. It closes with a few comments on where my work on territory and related questions is currently going.

I’ve decided not to give talks in Sydney and Brisbane on this trip – though I appreciated the invitations – and hope we can work out dates in 2015 when I’m next here. I will also be giving a talk on Foucault at the University of Melbourne in early March. Details here when confirmed.

Posted in Books, Foucault's Last Decade, My Publications, Politics, Territory, The Birth of Territory | 2 Comments

Claudio Minca & Rory Rowan – The question of space in Carl Schmitt

Posted on February 10, 2014 by stuartelden

Claudio Minca & Rory Rowan’s article “The question of space in Carl Schmitt” is now available in the online part of Progress in Human Geography, ahead of appearing in print (requires subscription).

In this paper we present an analysis of the German legal and political theorist Carl Schmitt as a spatial thinker whose work contains many elements relevant to the concerns of political geography. In examining his fundamental concern with how to ground modern political order without theological foundation, we identify a conceptual matrix between space, political order and conflict that underpins his thought. Charting the development of his spatial theory across his work, we focus on two key spatial moments from immediately before and after the Second World War: first, his theory of Großraum (‘greater space’) order as a reformulation of global order after the eclipse of the state and its complicated entanglements with Nazi spatial thinking and expansionism in eastern Europe; second, his notion of nomos, developed after the war to embrace both a geo-elemental spatial ontology and an account of the rise and fall of Eurocentric global order. We conclude by noting Schmitt’s failure to move beyond an understanding of order grounded on spatial division and his increasing retreat into eschatological fantasy as global spatio-political relations became increasingly more complex in the late 20th century.

You can read my 2010 critical piece ‘Reading Schmitt Geopolitically’ from Radical Philosophy here.

 

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David Nowell Smith, Sounding/Silence: Martin Heidegger at the Limits of Poetics reviewed

Posted on February 10, 2014 by stuartelden

SoundingAlso at NDPR, Krzysztof Ziarek reviews David Nowell Smith, Sounding/Silence: Martin Heidegger at the Limits of Poetics.

Posted in Martin Heidegger | 1 Comment