Sunday, December 12, 2010

The Speed of Life



THE SPEED OF LIFE

Ten years ago, Michael Neary and I wrote a paper for the British Sociological Association Annual Conference 2000 called The Speed of Life: The significance of Karl Marx’s concept of socially necessary labour time. The paper was selected by the BSA’s Publications Committee for inclusion in the annual ‘book of the conference’ for 2000.

We revised and edited our paper, and it came out as Time and Speed in the Social Universe of Capital, in Social Conceptions of Time: Structure and Process in Work and Everyday Life, edited by Graham Crow and Sue Heath (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002).

See Amazon.co.uk:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Social-Conceptions-Time-Explorations-Sociological/dp/0333984994/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292087985&sr=1-1

And

Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Social-Conceptions-Time-Structure-Everyday/dp/0333984994/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292088141&sr=1-1

In addition, our original paper was also put out on The Flow of Ideas website on 13th May 2006. It is in two parts.

Recently, the journal Principia Dialectica has alerted folks to our original paper at The Flow of Ideas on their blog. The relevant post is called ‘Marx, Einstein, Postone...’ and was posted to the Principia Dialectica blog on 1st December 2010. This has led to a lot of traffic going to the original paper posted to The Flow of Ideas in 2006. However, the link provided there does not work, so people have been coming to the paper by other means (including a general link given for The Flow of Ideas in the Principia Dialectica blog’s ‘Links’ section).

Thus, to make it easier for people to get to our original paper I have included the working link (and full reference) here, as:

Neary, M. & Rikowski, G. (2000) The Speed of Life: The significance of Karl Marx's concept of socially necessary labour-time, a paper presented at the British Sociological Association Annual Conference 2000, 'Making Time - Marking Time', University of York, 17 -20 April, online at:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Speed%20of%20Life%20-%20Part%20One

The Principia Dialectica blog home page is at:
http://www.principiadialectica.co.uk/blog/

The page with their blog about our paper, ‘Marx, Einstein and Postone...’ is at:
http://www.principiadialectica.co.uk/blog/?author=1&paged=2

Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Marx, Capitalism and Social Justice - an essay by Alexander Rikowski



MARX, CAPITALISM AND JUSTICE

‘Marx did not think that capitalism is unjust, and, in fact, said that it is just.’ Discuss.

Alexander Rikowski

An essay written as an undergraduate in the Department of Philosophy, King’s College London

This essay on ’Marx. Capitalism and Justice’ by Alexander Rikowski can be viewed at:


Rikowski, A. (2010) Marx, Capitalism and Justice, an essay written as an undergraduate in the Department of Philosophy, King’s College London, June, online at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/index.php?page=articles&sub=Marx%20and%20Justice


Posted here by Glenn RikowskiThe Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Friday, December 3, 2010

Alienated Labour - an essay by Alexander Rikowski



ALIENATED LABOUR: AN ESSAY BY ALEXANDER RIKOWSKI

What is alienated labour, and what would unalienated labour be like?
An essay written as an undergraduate in the Department of Philosophy, King’s College London
Alexander Rikowski
This essay on Alienated Labour by Alexander Rikowski can be viewed at:
Rikowski, A. (2010) Alienated Labour, An essay written as an undergraduate in the Department of Philosophy, King’s College London, June, online at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/index.php?page=articles&sub=Alienated%20Labour

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Sunday, November 14, 2010

A Tribute To My Father



A TRIBUTE TO MY FATHER

Kurt Richards, Kurt Rikowski (14th June 1927 – 15th February 2009)

It has taken me some time to get the psychological strength for putting the Eulogy I wrote for my father’s funeral in the public domain. It can now be read on The Flow of Ideas web site.

A Tribute to My Father can be found at:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=A%20Tribute%20to%20My%20Father

Glenn Rikowski
London, 14th November 2010
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Friday, November 5, 2010

On the Commons



ON THE COMMONS

BANFF RESEARCH in CULTURE (BRiC) / Research Residency ProgramBanff Centre for the Arts / University of Alberta
THEME: On the Commons; or, Believing-Feeling-Acting TogetherApplication deadline: December 1, 2010
APPLICATION AND PROGRAM INFORMATION NOW AVAILABLE AT: http://www.banffcentre.ca/programs/program.aspx?id=1068

Guest Faculty: Lauren Berlant, Michael Hardt, Pedro ReyesOrganizers: Imre Szeman, Heather Zwicker, Kitty Scott

Program dates: May 9, 2011 - May 27, 2011
Email contact: bric@ualberta.ca

(Note: There are only 25 spots available in the residency program this year)

The commons has emerged as one of the key concepts around which social, political, and cultural demands are being articulated and theorized today. Harkening back to the displacement of people from shared communal spaces and their transformation from public into private property — a central act in the development of European capitalism in the 18th and 19th centuries — the commons insists on the fundamentally shared character of social life: that everything from language to education, from nature to our genetic inheritance, belongs irreducibly to all of us. As an increasingly rapacious capitalism draws ever more elements of social life into its profit logic and renders seemingly every activity and value into a commodity, thinking with and through the commons has become an important means of generating conceptual and political resistance to the multiple new forms of enclosure that continue to take place today, and which need to be confronted and challenged forcefully and directly.
The commons is a concept used in analyses and interventions in popular culture, art, new media, political philosophy, social theory, law, literary studies, and more. The ease with which neoliberal ideology — which celebrates the supposed rationality of privatization and has managed to transform taxation into an act feared above all else — has become embedded in the beliefs and lived structures of everyday life demands an intensive examination of how and why we have come to prefer enclosure to the commons in almost every area of social life. Just as importantly, it also requires us to investigate and invent new ways of being-in-common--ways of believing, feeling and acting together, of creating the commons that seem everywhere to be receding from view.
The aim of this year’s Banff Research in Culture workshop is to give scholars, cultural producers, and artists an opportunity to explore how we believe, feel, and act together, and the ways in which we are prevented from doing so. How might we shape new collectivities and communities? What are the capacities and dispositions essential to producing new ways of being? What lessons can we learn from history as well as contemporary struggles over the commons (from challenges to intellectual property to indigenous struggles)? What concepts and vocabularies might we develop to aid our critical and conceptual work with respect to the commons (e.g. Alain Badiou’s revival of communism or Jacque Rancière’s reconfiguration of equality and democracy)? How does artistic and cultural production participate in the production of new collectivities and defense of the commons? Where do we go from here-a moment in which neoliberalism seems to have stumbled and lost its forward momentum? We welcome projects dealing with the full range of issues and topics related to being-believing-feeling-acting together today.
On the Commons will run concurrently with the thematic residency La Commune. The Asylum. Die Bühne led by artist Althea Thauberger, providing opportunities for interaction and collaboration with artists in residence. (http://www.banffcentre.ca/programs/program.aspx?id=1094)


PROGRAM DETAILS
Developed by Imre Szeman, Canada Research Chair in Cultural Studies and Professor of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta, Heather Zwicker, Associate Dean (Graduate Studies) in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta, and Kitty Scott, Director of Visual Arts at the Banff Centre, On the Commons is part of Banff Research in Culture (BRiC), a new residency program designed for scholars engaged in advanced theoretical research on themes and topics in culture. Graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, junior faculty, and practicing artists from across Canada and beyond will convene at The Banff Centre to pursue their work — and, ideally, to incubate new collaborations and creations — for three weeks. During the residency, participants will attend lectures, seminars, and workshops offered by distinguished visiting faculty from around the world, each of whom will stay at Banff for a week or more and will be available to discuss projects and ideas. Participants will also be encouraged to present their work to colleagues through readings, talks, and presentations held over the course of the program.

As a residency program, BRiC is designed to allow participants to devote an extended period of time on their own research in the company of others with similar interests. In addition to giving researchers and creators from different disciplinary and professional backgrounds an opportunity to exchange opinions and ideas, it is hoped that participants will develop new artistic, editorial, authorial, and collective projects during their time at Banff, both individually and in connection with others. We are especially pleased by the opportunity that BRiC affords visual artists and researchers to work together on issues of common interest.

APPLICATION AND PROGRAM INFORMATION NOW AVAILABLE AT: http://www.banffcentre.ca/programs/program.aspx?id=1068

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Friday, October 29, 2010

Critical Education Against Global Capitalism - by Paula Allman



CRITICAL EDUCATION AGAINST GLOBAL CAPITALISM – BY PAULA ALLMAN
Dear colleagues

I'd like to draw your attention to the new paperback edition of Paula Allman's 'Critical Education Against Global Capitalism' which is to be published by Sense Publishers any day now, price around £30.

This is a powerful text relating not only to adult education, about which it has much of importance to say, but also to the general context in which we live and work.

In particular, the new edition has an Afterword by the author in which she offers a detailed and up-to-date Marxist analysis of the current economic crisis and its causes, which is invaluable for helping us to link what is going on in our day-to-work with major global economic developments. It is also an invaluable text for responding to the growing interest in Marxism among students and activists alike as it becomes ever clearer that capitalism, far from triumphing, is in catastrophic crisis.

Best wishes
Helen Colley

Critical Education Against Global Capitalism:
https://www.sensepublishers.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=51&products_id=1122&osCsid=3202bf1d0434f6e0a9d0fb2fcd2ee3d0
Helen Colley
Professor of Lifelong Learning
Education and Social Research Institute
Manchester Metropolitan University
799 Wilmslow Road
Didsbury
Manchester M20 2RR, UK
Tel: +44 (0)161-247 2306
Research Centre Reception: +44 (0)161-247 2320


In support of Paula Allman's book, Stephen Brookfield and John Holst have just published Radicalizing Learning: Adult Education for a Just World.
The books links adult education to the creation of democratic socialism:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Radicalizing-Learning-Adult-Education-World/dp/0787998257

Testimonial
Paula Allman's book is beyond doubt one of the most important and possibly THE most important of all contemporary texts in education. It will be a classic. I can't think of an educational text that can match it in importance. Amazing!
Peter McLaren, Professor, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, UCLA, author of Che Guevara, Paulo Freire, and The Pedagogy of Revolution


END

‘I believe in the afterlife.
It starts tomorrow,
When I go to work’
Cold Hands and Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at:
http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
The Ockress:
http://www.theockress.com

Friday, October 15, 2010

Student As Producer





STUDENT AS PRODUCER

What is Student as Producer?

The drive to connect research and undergraduate teaching to create a productive and progressive pedagogical framework has become one of the most significant areas for academic development in higher education.

The Student as Producer project develops this connection by re-engineering the relationship between research and teaching. This involves a reappraisal of the relationship between academics and students, with students becoming part of the academic project of universities rather than consumers of knowledge.

Key to this process of re-engineering is to establish research-engaged teaching and learning as an institutional priority at the University of Lincoln, making it the dominant paradigm for all aspects of curriculum design and delivery, and the central pedagogical principle that informs other aspects of the University’s strategic planning.

Research-engaged teaching and learning is defined as: ‘A fundamental principle of curriculum design whereby students learn primarily by engagement in real research projects, or projects which replicate the process of research in their discipline. Engagement is created through active collaboration amongst and between students and academics’.
Although focussed on one institution the project will engage fully with other higher educational institutions, at the local, national and international level, so as to ensure maximum impact across the sector.

For more information on Student as Producer, see:
http://studentasproducer.lincoln.ac.uk/

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Wavering on Ether:
http://blog.myspace.com/glennrikowski
The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Higher Education and the Market



HIGHER EDUCATION AND THE MARKET

Higher Education Policy Network

Book launch and seminar: ‘Higher Education and the Market’

Monday 8th November 2010, 4.00-6.30 pm
Room GCG-08, London Metropolitan University, 166-220 Holloway Road, London, N7 8DB

Market forces are increasingly central to the higher education sector and this event marks the launch of a very timely new book: ‘‘Higher Education and the Market’ edited by Professor Roger Brown. The book examines the role and impact of the market in HE in a number of countries across Europe as well as in the USA and Japan, and this event offers an opportunity to discuss the issues raised in the context of major challenges to the future of the higher education sector.

The event will take the form of a presentation by the editor and key author:

Professor Roger Brown, Co-Director for the Centre of Higher Education Research Development (CHERD) at Liverpool Hope University.

Followed by responses from:

David Palfreyman, Fellow and Bursar New College Oxford and Director of the Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies

Dr Kelly Coate, Lecturer in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, National University of Ireland, Galway and a member of the SRHE Governing Council

There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion and a wine reception.

For further details about the Higher Education Policy Network, please contact the network convenor, Professor Carole Leathwood, Institute for Policy Studies in Education, London Metropolitan University,
c.leathwood@londonmet.ac.uk.

Higher Education Policy Network – 8th November

Network Events are free to SRHE members as part of their membership package.

Delegate fees for non members: £25 (students £20).

To register for this event please contact
nmanches@srhe.ac.uk

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
The Ockress:
http://www.theockress.com Wavering on Ether: http://blog.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Friday, October 8, 2010

Alain Badiou Talks About the Communist Hypothesis



ALAIN BADIOU TALKS ABOUT THE COMMUNIST HYPOTHESIS

In conversation
Alain Badiou talks about
The Communist Hypothesis
18.30, Thursday 28 October 2010
Arthur & Paula Lucas Lecture Theatre (S-2.18), Strand Building
King’s College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS

This event is free - but please let us know by emailing european-studies@kcl.ac.uk if you'd like to attend.

This event is hosted by the European Studies Programme http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/depts/european/ at King's College London as part of the Arts & Humanities Week and in association with Verso Books.

Alain Badiou, Professor of Philosophy at the International Graduate School, is one of the most celebrated philosophers in the world. Among a vast output, his philosophical reputation rests especially on the two-volume work Being and the Event (1988) and Logics of Worlds (2006). The New Statesman has described him as ‘an heir to Jean-Paul Sartre and Louis Althusser’, seeking to continue both Althusser’s anti-humanism and Sartre’s preoccupation with subjectivity.
A veteran of May 1968 and a Maoist militant during the 1960s and 1970s, Badiou has emerged as one of France’s leading public intellectuals in recent years. His opposition to banning the burqa was followed by The Meaning of Sarkozy (2007). This polemic first advanced what he called the ‘Communist Hypothesis’, which reasserts the idea of an alternative to capitalism based on the universal principle of equality. These ideas are further developed in The Communist Hypothesis, recently published by Verso.

---END---

‘I believe in the afterlife.
It starts tomorrow,
When I go to work’
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at:
http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Saturday, September 18, 2010

The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism



THE ENIGMA OF CAPITAL AND THE CRISES OF CAPITALISM
By David Harvey

Book launch and panel discussion with author David Harvey, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography, CUNY Graduate Center and Director of the Center for Place, Culture and Politics.

Discussants:

Leo Panitch is Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at York University (Canada) and editor of the Socialist Register.
Frances Fox Piven is Professor in the faculties of political science and sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center. Professor Piven is the author of, among other books, Poor People's Movements and The New Class War. She is currently at work on a book on American labor union strategies in response to globalization and the new economy.

William Tabb is Professor Emeritus of Economics, Political Science and Sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He is the author of numerous books including The Amoral Elephant: Globalization and Capitalist Development in the Early 21st Century (Monthly Review Press, 2001).

Melissa Wright is an Associate Professor in Geography and in the Program on Women's Studies, Pennsylvania State University. Author of Disposable Women and Other Myths of Global Capitalism. New York and London: Routledge, 2006.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27TH, 2010
PROSHANSKY AUDITORIUM
7 PM – 9 PM
CUNY GRADUATE CENTER, 365 FIFTH AVE @ 34TH STREET

Free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale.

'I believe in the afterlife.
It starts tomorrow,
When I go to work'

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at:
http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Meeting on 'Marx at the Margins' with Kevin B. Anderson



MEETING ON ‘MARX AT THE MARGINS’ – WITH KEVIN B. ANDERSON

Location: Niebyl Proctor Marxist Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave. Oakland, CA 94609

Saturday September 25th, 20102:00 PM

Marx at the Margins: On Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Non-Western Societies
Author event Marx at the Margins: On Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Non-Western Societies by Kevin B. Anderson

Marx’s critique of capital was far broader than is usually supposed. To be sure, he concentrated on the labor-capital relation within Western Europe and North America. But at the same time, he expended considerable time and energy on the analysis of non-Western societies, as well as race, ethnicity, and nationalism. While some of these writings show a problematically unilinear perspective and, on occasion, traces of ethnocentrism, the overall trajectory of Marx’s writings was toward a critique of national, ethnic, and colonial oppression and toward an appreciation of resistance movements in these spheres. In 1848, in the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels espoused an implicitly and problematically unilinear concept of social progress. Precapitalist societies, especially China, which they characterized in ethnocentric terms as a “most barbarian” society, were destined to be forcibly penetrated and modernized by this new and dynamic social system. In his 1853 articles for the New York Tribune, Marx extended these perspectives to India, while viewing the communal social relations and communal property of the Indian village as a solid foundation for “Oriental despotism.” Postcolonial and postmodern thinkers, most notably Edward Said, have criticized the Communist Manifesto and the 1853 India writings as a form of Orientalist knowledge fundamentally similar to the colonialist mindset.

END

I believe in the afterlife.
It starts tomorrow,
When I go to work

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at:
http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon Profile:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/
The Ockress:
http://www.theockress.com

Friday, September 10, 2010

Discourse, Power and Resistance in Education Conference 2011



DISCOURSE, POWER AND RESISTANCE IN EDUCATION CONFERENCE 2011

DPR10: Discourse, Power, Resistance Conference 2011

Theme: CHANGING EDUCATION
University of Plymouth, United Kingdom, 13-15 April 2011Sponsored by the School of Secondary and Further Education Studies

Official DPR Conference Website:
http://www.dprconference.com

The DPR conference returns to Plymouth in its tenth year, bringing together learners, teachers, researchers and policy-makers from the international education community to look at the crises in contemporary education, not just at post-compulsory level but across the board from pre-school to post-graduate. The need for change in education has never been more urgent. The conference will bring colleagues from around the world to think radically about education changing, and needing to change.

The conference will be divided into 7 streams:
- What is the point of education?- Anticipative education: policy and practice- Education in a funding crisis- Widening participation: for real- Education across the boundaries of faith: challenging fear and hatred- The future of post-compulsory education: the internet and the role of the university- DPR: open

The DPR conference is a site for the radical critique of discourse, power and resistance within and beyond the discipline of education, looking at concerns which are currently troubling learners, teachers and researchers engaged at all stages from pre-school to postgraduate. The conference looks more widely at the impact on education of powerful interests in and behind the policy-making apparatus as they exert their influence to reshape the goals and ethos of learning, teaching and research. DPR transgresses inter-disciplinary boundaries, attracting scholars from across the humanities and social sciences. A continuing concern of the conference is the contested issue of research methodology and the related issues of the problem of knowledge.

The conference has an international reputation, drawing delegates from a wide range of the developed and developing nations and attracting world-class keynote speakers.

The DPR journal,
Power and Education (www.wwwords.co.uk/POWER), was launched in 2009.

For full information, including a Call for Papers and registration details, please visit the conference website:
http://www.dprconference.com

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile:
http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com
Wavering on Ether: http://blog.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Save Wanstead Flats! Mass Community Picnic!



SAVE WANTSEAD FLATS! MASS COMMUNITY PICNIC!

Sunday 5th September

All welcome at 1.00pm on the spot to the west of Centre Road where the police want to site their Olympic operations base in 2012

Ever since over 250 attended a packed public meeting in July, residents living near Wanstead Flats have been demanding answers about plans by the City of London Corporation to allow the Metropolitan Police to base its Olympic operational centre on the Flats in 2012. In order to push this proposal through, the Corporation would need to amend an Act of Parliament that has protected Wanstead Flats for community use for well over a century.

Local people want to know why the proposed site for this police base, west of Centre Road, has been chosen, how that decision was made and why the Olympic stadium site itself cannot be used. There has been no consultation, even though the plans involve locating a fenced, high-security compound – with building, parking areas, stables and apparently even police holding cells – for at least 120 days and so close to residential neighbourhoods.

The Save Wanstead Flats Campaign is organised by local people and on Sunday 5th September, we would like to invite you to show your opposition to the City of London Corporation’s plans by joining us for a picnic – occupying the very spot where the police operations base would be constructed.

Bring Food! Picnic blankets, your children, and your friends! Meet all your neighbours who also want to save Wanstead Flats!

Please copy this and pass on to friends and neighbours and those concerned with the environment and wildlife in London

Don’t give the property developers, banks and corporate lawyers a chance and a legal loophole to ruin Wanstead Flats!

C/o Community Involvement Unit, Durning Hall, Earlham Grove, London E7 9AB

Email:
savewanstedflats@gmail.com

Save Wanstead Flats Campaign:
http://www.savewansteadflats.org.uk/

SWFC on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Protect-Wanstead-Flats-and-Epping-Forest/142307172448681

Article in The Socialist, ‘Save Wanstead Flats’, 4th August 2010:
http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/10074/04-08-2010/save-wanstead-flats

‘Does Wanstead Flats Really Need Saving?’ by Flash Bristow, in the Epping Forest, Waltham Forest and Wanstead and Woodford Guardian, 24th August 2010, online at:
http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/blogs/8350467.Does_Wanstead_Flats_really_need_saving_/?ref=rss

‘Plan to sell off nature reserves risks ‘austerity countryside’, by Juliette Jowitt, Severin Carrell and John Vidal, The Guardian, Friday 13th August 2010, at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/13/plan-sell-nature-reserves-austerity-countryside

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Marxsite is Back!



MARXSITE IS BACK!

After months of technical problems and staffing difficulties, Marxsite returns. Expect a cascade of postings as we struggle to catch up with the momentous events which the current phase of the capitalist crisis has unleashed.

Please let other people know. During our absence the site continued getting more than 1000 hits a day, despite not updating. This can only be because of the range of accumulated materials and links that the site now deploys.

Marxsite is at:
http://www.marxsite.com/

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile:
http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies - Vol.8 No.1 (August 2010)



JOURNAL FOR CRITICAL EDUCATION POLICY STUDIES – VOLUME 8 NUMBER 1 (August 2010)

JCEPS 8(1), AUGUST 2010

Table of Contents

1. Re-thinking normative democracy and the political economy of education. Paul R. Carr, Lakehead University (Orillia), Ontario, Canada

2. Neoliberal Ideology and Public Higher Education in the United States. Daniel B. Saunders, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

3. Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing? a reply to Dave Hill’s ‘Race and Class in Britain: a critique of the statistical basis for critical race theory in Britain’. David Gillborn, Institute of Education, University of London, England

4. The New Assimilationism: The Push for Patriotic Education in the United States Since September 11. Liz Jackson, Educational Policies Consultant, Republic of South Africa

5. Neo-Liberalism and the evolvement of China’s education policies on migrant children’s schooling. Jie Dong, Tilburg University, the Netherlands

6. Freire: Informal Education as Protest. Susanne Butte, Walden University, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

7. Some Social Consequences of Faith-based Schooling: A Comparative Study of Denominational Secondary Education in Thanet and Lille. Paul J. Welsh, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, Kent, UK

8. Access for Whom, Access to What? The Role of the “Disadvantaged Student” Market in the Rise of For-profit Higher Education in the United States. Bonnie K. Fox Garrity, Mark J. Garrison, and Roger C. Fiedler, D’Youville College, Buffalo, New York, USA

9. “Why Does Wearing A Yellow Bib Make Us Different”?: A Case Study of Explaining Discrimination in a West of Scotland Secondary (High) School. Henry Maitles, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland and Erin McKelvie, Classroom teacher, Glasgow City Council, Glasgow, Scotland

10. Manufacturing (il)literacy in Alberta’s classrooms: The case of an oil-dependent state. Albert Hodgkins, University of Alberta, Canada

11. ‘Media Mediators’: Advocating an Alternate Paradigm for Critical Adult Education ICT Policy. Karim A. Remtulla, Ontario Institute of Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

12. Schooling Ugandan Girls: a policy historiography. Mary Kabesiime, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

13. Transformation of the Turkish Vocational Training System: Capitalization, Modularization and Learning Unto Death. Ergin Bulut, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Illinois, USA

14. Alternative State Formation in Colonial Hong Kong: Patriotic Schools, 1946-1976. Lau Chui Shan, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China

15. American Education Discourse: Language, Values, and U.S. Federal Policy. Chad Becker, Indiana State University, Indiana, USA

16. Book Review Symposium: Peters, Michael, Lankshear, Colin, and Olssen, Mark. (2003). Critical Theory and the Human Condition: Founders and Praxis. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Gabriela Walker, Alexander Rakochy, Margaret Fitzpatrick, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA; Colegio Roosevelt - The American School of Lima, Peru

17. Book Review Symposium: Kahn, Richard (2010). Critical Literacy, Ecopedagogy, and Planetary Crisis. New York: Peter Lang. Samuel Day Fassbinder, Greg William Misiaszek, Jorunn Thordarson, DeVry University, Illinois, USA; University of California, Los Angeles, USA; University of North

JCEPS:
http://www.jceps.com

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon Profile:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/

Saturday, August 14, 2010

International Conferene on Critical Education



INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CRITICAL EDUCATION

FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT (13 August 2010)

The Department of Education, University of Athens, Greece is hosting the

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CRITICAL EDUCATION
12-16 July 2011, Athens, Greece

Organized by the journals:

JOURNAL OF CRITICAL POLICY EDUCATIONAL STUDIES (UK)
CULTURAL LOGIC (USA/CANADA)
KRITIKI (GREECE)
RADICAL NOTES (INDIA)

The venue of the Conference will be the city of Athens and possibly the surrounding areas.

Conference and Local Organizing Committee Coordinators:
Dave Hill, (Middlesex University, UK)
Peter McLaren, (UCLA, USA)
Kostas Skordoulis, (University of Athens, Greece)

Keynote Speakers:
To be announced, to include Dave Hill, (Middlesex University, UK), Peter McLaren, (UCLA, USA), Ravi Kumar (Jamia Milia Islamia University, Delhi, India). There will also be keynote speakers from Greece. Key women Marxist writers are being invited as Plenary speakers.

Important Dates

Participants should submit an abstract of 300 words by: 15 December 2010.
Notification of acceptance of paper presentation by: 15 January 2011.
Full papers should be submitted by: 30 May 2011.

The papers will be peer reviewed and published in the Conference Proceedings.

Selected papers will be published in Special Issues of JCEPS, Cultural Logic and KRITIKI.

Presentations
There will be 6 plenary presentations (two per day), each plenary session lasting one hour. Other papers will have 30 minutes (inclusive of the paper presentation plus discussion)


Conference Fee

The Conference fee is 300 Euros. (approx $380, or £245). The fee covers participation in the conference, the book of abstracts, coffee/tea/refreshments during conference breaks and participation in the conference dinner in a traditional taverna.

Participation of unemployed, and of colleagues from the third world is free/ no fees.

Further Information about the Invited speakers will be announced in the second circular. As will the contact address and registration details for the conference. Though in the meantime it would be interesting to see who might intend to offer papers… send me a provisional (non-binding) indication of interest if you like? (
dave.hill35@btopenworld.com and dave6@mdx.ac.uk ) (It’s not mandatory to let me know in advance… … paper abstracts can be submitted until 15 Dec 2010.

Many thanks

Dave Hill, Kostas Skordoulis and Peter McLaren

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon Profile:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/
Wavering on Ether:
http://blog.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Victor Rikowski Playing at Forest Roots



VICTOR RIKOWSKI PLAYING AT FOREST ROOTS

Victor Rikowski will be playing at the Forest Roots on Friday 23rd July. He will be performing some country music and one of his own compositions.

Victor plays in Cold Hands & Quarter Moon at Bangor University, north Wales. You can find out more about this band and listen to their music by going to:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/ and the Cold Hands & Quarter Moon profile on MySpace: http://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/

Victor’s PowerPoint story (in 6 parts), The Ockress, can be found at:
http://www.theockress.com

Acoustica are the headline band at Forest Roots. They play a varied selection of Irish folk and modern acoustic music. There will also be The Flats Family band, and guest and surprise musicians.

So come along to Forest Roots on Friday, 23rd July!

It starts 8.30pm at the usual venue: The Forest Gate Hotel function room, Godwin Road, Forest Gate.

Free entry (with a whip-round)

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile:
http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Historical Materialism Conference 2010: Extended Abstract Deadline



HISTORICAL MATERIALISM CONFERENCE 2010

Extended Abstract Deadline

Due to high demand, the deadline for submitting abstracts for the 2010 Historical Materialism Conference in London has now been extended to 1 JULY 2010. This will be the last extension.

'Crisis and Critique': Historical Materialism Annual London Conference 2010,

Central London, Thursday 11th to Sunday 14th November*

Call for Papers

Notwithstanding repeated invocations of the ‘green shoots of recovery’, the effects of the economic crisis that began in 2008 continue to be felt around the world. While some central tenets of the neoliberal project have been called into question, bank bailouts, cuts to public services and attacks on working people's lives demonstrate that the ruling order remains capable of imposing its agenda. Many significant Marxist analyses have already been produced of the origins, forms and prospects of the crisis, and we look forward to furthering these debates at HM London 2010. We also aim to encourage dialogue between the critique of political economy and other modes of criticism – ideological, political, aesthetic, philosophical – central to the Marxist tradition.
In the 1930s, Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht projected a journal to be called ‘Crisis and Critique’. In very different times, but in a similar spirit, HM London 2010 aims to serve as a forum for dialogue, interaction and debate between different strands of critical-Marxist theory. Whether their focus is the study of the capitalist mode of production's theoretical and practical foundations, the unmasking of its ideological forms of legitimation or its political negation, we are convinced that a renewed and politically effective Marxism will need to rely on all the resources of critique in the years ahead. Crises produce periods of ideological and political uncertainty. They are moments that put into question established cognitive and disciplinary compartmentalisations, and require a recomposition at the level of both theory and practice. HM London 2010 hopes to contribute to a broader dialogue on the Left aimed at such a recomposition, one of whose prerequisites remains the young Marx’s call for the ‘ruthless criticism of all that exists’.
We are seeking papers that respond to the current crisis from a range of Marxist perspectives, but also submissions that try to think about crisis and critique in their widest ramifications. HM will also consider proposals on themes and topics of interest to critical-Marxist theory not directly linked to the call for papers (we particularly welcome contributions on non-Western Marxism and on empirical enquiries employing Marxist methods).
While Historical Materialism is happy to receive proposals for panels, the editorial board reserves the right to change the composition of panels or to reject individual papers from panel proposals. We also expect all participants to attend the whole conference and not simply make ‘cameo’ appearances. We cannot accommodate special requests for specific slots or days, except in highly exceptional circumstances.

*Please note that, in order to allow for expected demand, this year the conference will be three and a half days’ long, starting on the Thursday afternoon.

Please submit a title and abstract of between 200 and 300 words by registering at: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/conferences/annual7/submit by 1 JULY 2010

Possible themes include:

• Crisis and left recomposition

• Critique and crisis in the global south

• Anti-racist critique

• Marxist and non-Marxist theories of crisis

• Capitalist and anti-capitalist uses of the crisis

• Global dimensions of the crisis

• Comparative and historical accounts of capitalist crisis

• Ecological and economic crisis

• Critical theory today

• Finance and the crisis

• Neoliberalism and legitimation crisis

• Negation and negativity

• Feminism and critique

• Political imaginaries of crisis and catastrophe

• The critique of everyday life (Lefebvre, the Situationists etc.)

• The idea of critique in Marx, his predecessors and contemporaries

• Art criticism, political critique and the critique of political economy

• Geography and crisis, geography and the critique of political economy

• Right-wing movements and crisis

• Critiques of the concept of crisis

• New forms of critique in the social and human sciences

• Aesthetic critique

• Marxist literary and cultural criticism

• Reports on recent evolution of former USSR countries and China


Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
“Daystar” by Will Roberts, at YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6f_pA5XUPk
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile:
http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon at MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon Profile:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/
The Ockress:
http://www.theockress.com

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Middlesex University Philosophy Campaign - Update 26 May 2010


MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITY PHILOSOPHY CAMPAIGN – UPDATE 26th MAY 2010

Campaign update Wednesday 26 May 2010 (
http://savemdxphil.com/)

1. John Protevi and Todd May have posted a petition calling for an international academic boycott of Middlesex University, http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/academic-boycott-of-middlesex-university.html. Several hundred well-placed people have already signed it, in the space of a few hours. Please spread the word about this, far & wide.

2. The poet Michael Rosen renounced his visiting professor at Middlesex today. He explained that "On account of the action of Middlesex University over the Philosophy Department, I would like to inform Professor Ahmad that I would like to renounce my visiting professorship. I do not wish to be a visiting professor at Middlesex University. Best wishes, Michael Rosen."

3. This morning, professors Osborne and Hallward were denied managerial permission to attend an emergency meeting of their union, the UCU, scheduled for Friday 28 May. They were also denied permission to attend the UCU annual general meeting scheduled for next Wednesday, and a meeting of the University's self-constituted Professors Group.

4. Collective pressure to greylist i.e. boycott Middlesex University is growing rapidly. The external examiners for the Middlesex Philosophy department have already announced their refusal to collaborate with next month's assessment boards, and colleagues in other departments may soon follow suit. A boycott by external examiners will have a significant and immediate impact on the University.

5. Last Friday Middlesex management told the four suspended students that their hearings would take place this Friday 28 May at the Hendon campus. Fiona Fall, who will preside over the hearings, suddenly decided this morning that it would be 'better for the students' to hold the meeting at Trent Park instead, since it is their 'home campus.' The four students explained that they would nonetheless prefer for the hearing to go ahead at Hendon as originally planned. But Fiona Fall has made up her mind. 'As my understanding is that a rally of support is being organised at Hendon,' she told one of the students, 'I have decided that Trent Park continues to be the best most calm place to hold the hearings for both students and the panel.'

6. Confirmed speakers for the rally at Hendon on Thursday 27 May from 4pm include Alex Callinicos (KCL), Richard George (Campaign for Better Transport; Plane Stupid), Paul Gilroy (LSE), Nina Power (Roehampton), Jim Wolfreys (UCU), among others. Please circulate the rally announcement and flyer (http://savemdxphil.com/) to everyone who might be sympathetic.

The Campaign
26 May 2010.

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile:
http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon at MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic
Wavering on Ether:
http://blog.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Anarchist Pedagogies



ANARCHIST PEDAGOGIES

CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS
For a book entitled
Anarchist Pedagogies
Editor: Robert Haworth PhD
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

Overview:

Anarchist movements have a long history of resisting traditional schooling and authoritative pedagogical practices, while at the same time, attempting to construct transformative educative processes. Examples include Francisco Ferrer’s (1913) work entitled, Origins of the Modern School and the creation of the Escuela Moderna schools in Spain, the Modernist Schools in the United States (Emma Goldman, Voltaraine de Cleyre, Alex Berkman and others) during the early 20th century as well as contemporary anarchists who are experimenting in participatory informal learning spaces. These examples are important to acknowledge within radical notions of teaching and learning being that they are experiences that enable activists and scholars to critically re-imagine education and build theories on “how” and “where” individuals experiment in constructing knowledge through differing learning spaces (Coté, Day & Peuter, 2007; de Leon, 2008, Malott, forthcoming).
Moreover, as totalizing efforts of the nation-state continue to develop standardized curriculum, efficiency models and data driven outcomes, anarchist pedagogies attempt to construct ongoing collective learning environments that can be described as ‘disciplined improvisation’ or ‘spontaneous’ in nature (Goldman, 1969; Haworth, forthcoming; Sawyer, 2003; Ward, 1972). Furthermore, these informal learning spaces create new ways of exposing illegitimate corporate and state power, as well as participating in the ‘coming communities’ (Day, 2007).
This edited book calls on international scholars (15 single authored or collectively authored chapters) in anarchist studies to critically reflect on historical and contemporary experimentations in anarchist pedagogies. Scholarly efforts will focus on what we have learned from past anarchist experiences and current transformative learning environments — where individuals are engaged in collective, participatory, voluntary and mutual efforts that contest global capitalist structures.
The edited collection responds to the need to reflect on anarchist pedagogies and will highlight three major themes. Authors in the first section will be encouraged to focus on historical discussions surrounding anarchism and education. The authors will give introspective critiques of historical practices, including theories of teaching and learning and alternatives to compulsory public schools. Authors in the second section will construct philosophical and theoretical frameworks evolving from contemporary anarchists, particularly through individuals participating in cooperatives, independent media collectives, infoshops, political zines, open source projects, DIY, direct action networks and other autonomous and cultural spaces.
Continued efforts to construct theoretical and philosophical discussions surrounding anarchism have also provided opportunities to build affinities and tensions with frameworks outside of anarchist writings (Cohn, 2007). The third section will encompass anarchist theories of teaching and learning. Authors will be asked to construct linkages and apprehensions to theories surrounding critical pedagogies and critical theory, autonomous Marxism, postmodernity and poststruturalism.

Proposed sections:
Forward:
Zack de la Rocha
1) Introduction
2) Section 1: Anarchism & Education: Historical experimentations
a. Anarchist perspectives on education
b. Modern Schools; Spain and the United States
c. Pedagogical practices: teacher/student relationship
d. Issues of the state and compulsory education
e. Connection and/or tensions between progressive education and social reconstruction
f. What have we learned?
3) Section 2: Anarchist Pedagogies in the “here and now”
a. Contesting power through multiple fronts: Movements against neoliberalism and learning through collective processes: Infoshops, cooperatives, autonomous spaces, zines, DIY
b. Teaching and learning in non-hierarchical, mutual and voluntary spaces — issues surrounding race, class, gender, LGBT
c. Technology: Issues surrounding the use of technology: open source, listservs, blogs & discussion boards
4) Section 3: Anarchism: Theoretical Frameworks on Teaching & Learning
a. Affinities: Anarchism & Critical pedagogies. Relationship to Postmodernism and Poststructuralism-Postanarchism
b. Informal learning spaces
c. De-schooling
d. Anarchism & the role of the university
e. Pedagogical practices

Audience:

Anarchist Pedagogies will draw upon and make connection to contemporary anarchist studies literature, particularly in education. The book will be important for scholars in anarchist studies, critical pedagogy, as well as undergraduate students and activists who are interested in building philosophical, theoretical, historical and contemporary discussions and imaginations beyond traditional forms of education.

Timeframe:
1) Proposals due by July 20th, 2010
2) Proposal confirmations: August 20th, 2010
3) Chapter drafts due by October 1st, 2010
4) Editor
5) Review of drafts: November, 2010
Editor will produce a comprehensive introductory and single authored chapter in one of the three sections. The forward will be written by an activist/scholar. Final editing and approval of the formatted version will be submitted December 30th, 2010. Publishing date will be set for early fall, 2011.

Contributors:
Process for submitting proposals:
Interested scholars, researchers, educators, activists and others should send to the editor, by July 20th, 2010, the following:
1) Names, positions, mailing addresses, fax and phone numbers, and email addresses of authors;
2) Title of proposed chapter;
3) Description, of no more than 300 words, of chapter, including type of research, approach, context, connection to the book, and other pertinent information;
4) Biographies of authors of no more than 200 words;

Biography of editor:
Robert Haworth is an Associate Professor in Multicultural Education at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. He currently serves as the director for the Research Center for Cultural Diversity and Community Renewal. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses surrounding diversity and education, globalization and neoliberalism. He has published multiple peer reviewed book chapters and presented internationally on anarchism and informal learning spaces, as well as critical social studies education. He co-founded Regeneration TV, along with other research collectives that are directly involved in contesting neoliberal policies at the university level. This is Robert Haworth’s first edited book.

Robert Haworth PhD—Associate Professor University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
haworth.robe@uwlax.edu
608.385.0891

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile:
http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon at MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon Profile:
http://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/
The Ockress:
http://www.theockress.com
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
Wavering on Ether: http://blog.myspace.com/glennrikowski