Peter Hallward on the revolutions

Posted on February 22, 2011 by stuartelden

In The Guardian here.

I’ve been following events in Bahrain and Libya with interest and horror, but since these are countries I know little about – I had at least been to Egypt and Tunisia – have not felt I had much to say. Much as I admire Hallward’s attempts to make sense of what’s happening, and his conceptual courage in putting it in such a public forum (with the attendant idiots who comment on such things) I do worry a bit about the rush to comment and the attempt to discern wider patterns in a very fluid and chaotic situation, or set of situations. There is a great risk of reducing lots of country-specific issues to general themes.

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Speculative Realism book series more info

Posted on February 22, 2011 by stuartelden

EUP has a page up on the series here:

Since its first appearance at a London colloquium in 2007, the Speculative Realism movement has taken continental philosophy by storm. Opposing the formerly ubiquitous modern dogma that philosophy can speak only of the human-world relation rather than the world itself, Speculative Realism defends the autonomy of the world from human access, but in a spirit of imaginative audacity.

Editorial board member Eileen Joy encourages submissions here:

And so I say to you–yes, YOU–that if you are a medievalist or early modernist or classicist or anything that supposedly operates on this side of the so-called “Enlightenment” divide, and if you have any interest in the recent speculative turn in relation to literary-historical and material cultural (including “media”) subjects ranging from antiquity to the 1600s, then: we would love to see your book proposal.

Tim Morton gives that a thumbs up, here.

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Sloterdijk in France

Posted on February 21, 2011 by stuartelden

Looks like an good conference on Sloterdijk to be held in Paris. Details here. Surprisingly, given that most of his major works are translated into French (the whole of Spheres, for instance), this claims to be the first conference devoted to him there.

Posted in Conferences, Peter Sloterdijk | 2 Comments

Political Matter

Posted on February 21, 2011 by stuartelden

Interesting review of Bruce Braun and Sarah J. Whatmore (eds.) Political Matter: Technoscience, Democracy and Public Life, University of Minnesota Press, 2010 (via Pop Theory).

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Canberra – first impressions

Posted on February 21, 2011 by stuartelden

I arrived in Canberra, via Sydney, this morning. The last day in Singapore was spent down at Marina Bay, which has had a huge amount of development work since I was last there. The Marina Bay Sands hotel/casino complex is reminiscent of the architectural madness of Dubai or Macau. I had a good time in Singapore, and was sorry to leave. But it’s been five years since I was in Australia, and it’s great to be back.

I’d not been to Canberra before, and first impressions are very good. It’s bigger than I expected – I think this is only because everyone had said how small it was – and the city is set in some impressive scenery. I had a window seat flying in and we had to make a loop to take a different approach, so I got stunning aerial views as my introduction to it. I’m living in an apartment on campus, which is only about 5 minutes walk from Lake Burley Griffin, so had a couple of hour walk down there this evening. I definitely need to get a bike – there are cycle paths everywhere. The weather is great – sunny and warm but not too hot, and a drier heat than Singapore. So far everyone has been very friendly and helpful – I already have the apartment sorted, an office, phone, internet, email, library card and just need to pick up a security card tomorrow morning. This can take a week or more sometimes.

There’s a seminar at the Humanities Research Centre tomorrow so that will be a chance to meet people. I’m sure in time this will be a productive place for my work, but at the moment it just feels good to be here.

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Pulau Ubin

Posted on February 19, 2011 by stuartelden

One of my favourite places in Singapore is the little island in the Johor strait off the northeast coast – Pulau Ubin. It’s just south of the border with Malaysia. It’s not that easy to get to Changi village where the bumboats leave from, but it’s worth the trip to see some nature and get away from the city. You can rent bikes when you get off the boat, and there are lots of quiet roads and trails around the island. The name means ‘granite island’ and there are old quarries that are now small lakes, as well as mangrove swamps. There’s a lot of wildlife there – monitor lizards, wild pigs and turtles; and parrots, fish eagles, herons, orioles and hornbills. A great way to spend a Saturday.

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Merrifield, Magical Marxism

Posted on February 19, 2011 by stuartelden

Andy Merrifield’s new book, Magical Marxism is now out. This develops ideas that were in a commentary piece for Society and Space a while back. Andy is author of books on Lefebvre and Debord, among others. (Thanks to Clive Barnett for the alert.)

Following his hugely popular book, The Wisdom of Donkeys, Andy Merrifield breathes new life into the Marxist tradition.

Magical Marxism demands something more of traditional Marxism – something more interesting and liberating. It asks that we imagine a Marxism that moves beyond debates about class, the role of the state and the dictatorship of the proletariat. In escaping the formalist straitjacket of orthodox Marxist critique, Merrifield argues for a reconsideration of Marxism and its potential, applying previously unexplored approaches to Marxist thinking that will reveal vital new modes of political activism and debate.

This book will provoke and inspire in equal measure. It gives us a Marxism for the 21st century, which offers dramatic new possibilities for political engagement.

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Territory and Geopolitics discussion

Posted on February 18, 2011 by stuartelden

Interesting discussion session with Matt Sparke in Singapore yesterday. We discussed chapter 5 from Matt’s 2005 book In the Space of Theory, the intro to my Terror and Territory, and the ‘Land, Terrain, Territory’ piece. Henry Yeung was as ever a great host, and the faculty and graduate students who came along raised some interesting questions. Katharyne Mitchell and Jamie Peck are also visiting the department at the moment so it made for a good group.

I spent the morning today in Chinatown and at Clark Quay, but back at work this afternoon and evening on journal stuff and responding to some referee reports. I’ve also been invited by John Protevi to do an interview for the APPS blog so have been thinking a bit about that.

Posted in Conferences, Territory, Terror and Territory, The Birth of Territory, Travel | Leave a comment

On reading drafts

Posted on February 18, 2011 by stuartelden

Written from the perspective of students seeking comments, but this reflection by Adam Kotsko holds true more generally. Adam notes that we really want validation, but the comments below the post are interesting too, in that seeking feedback is supposed to show something about the student too.

It comes up in the context of editing a journal, where sometimes people ask if I’ll take a look at their paper to see if it’s suitable. On the one hand I think this is fine, because not all papers are suitable for all journals. What I generally point out is that we have a policy of pre-screening all submissions by the editor and the five co-editors, and don’t send everything to review. But saying that it is suitable for review does not mean it is suitable for publication.

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E-book and event on protests

Posted on February 18, 2011 by stuartelden

Open Democracy e-book on the recent protests in London and elsewhere, available free here.

The first book to be produced by an ‘editorial kettle’ – all seven of its editors are under 30 and have been kettled by the police – Fight Back! features 350 pages of reports, analysis, images, reflections and overviews on the UK’s winter of protests by 43 authors. It asks: Is this the start of a successful movement against fees and cuts? 

From a 15-year-old UK Uncut flash-mob activist to a rebel Lib Dem peer – Fight Back! captures both the spirit and arguments of Britain’s winter revolt, bringing together the best reportage and analysis of an extraordinary political moment. 

Its editor is the journalist Dan Hancox; others on the editorial team are Guy Aitchison, Laurie Penny, Siraj Datoo, Caillean Gallaghar, Aaron Peters and Paul Sagar.

Featuring contributions from: Guy Aitchison, Anthony Barnett, Rosemary Bechler, Tasha Bell, Joanna Biggs, Ben Braithwaite, Sophie Burge, James Butler, Felix Cohen, Tony Curzon Price, Jesse Darling, Siraj Datoo, Rowenna Davies, Genevieve Dawson, Keith Ewing, Alan Finlayson, Cailean Gallagher, Ryan Gallagher, Jeremy Gilbert, Asher Goldman, Tom Griffin, Dan Hancox, Johann Hari, Adam Harper, Gerry Hassan, Owen Hatherley, Oliver Huitson, Peter Johnson, Markus Malarkey, Ben Martin, Anna Mason, Maeve McKeown, Len McLuskey, Jonathan Moses, Anthony Painter, Nick Pearce, Laurie Penny, Aaron Peters, Rory Rowan, Paul Sagar, Trevor Smith, John Stuttle, Niki Seth-Smith, Daniel Trilling, Oliver Wainwright.

Details of a launch event entitled ‘The Art of Protest’, at The Centre for Cultural Studies Research, University of East London, on 2nd March 2011, here. All Welcome – no booking required For further info: J.Gilbert@uel.ac.uk.

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