Monday, December 31, 2012

Remembering the Impossible Tomorrow: Italian Thought and the Recent Crisis in Capitalism



REMEMBERING THE IMPOSSIBLE TOMORROW: ITALIAN THOUGHT AND THE RECENT CRISIS IN CAPITALISM

A Conference organised by Keith Crome, Lars Iyer, William Large, Andrea Mura and Stevphen Shukaitis

The British Society for Phenomenology 2013 Annual Conference
5th- 7th April, 2013
St. Hilda’s College, Oxford

During Marx’s time radical thought was formed from a convergence of three sources: German philosophy, English economics, and French politics. In the introduction to Radical Thought in Italy: A Potential Politics (1996) Michael Hardt argued that these tides had shifted, with radical movements drawing from French philosophy, US economics, and Italian politics. More recently, Matteo Pasquinelli has argued that ‘Italian theory’ has attained an academic hegemony comparable to that held by French philosophy in the 1980s.

But despite the proliferation of analysis and organizing drawing from and inspired by the history of autonomous politics in Italy, where are these voices today? In 2012, if you listened to the mainstream politicians and economic experts and no-one else, you would hardly know that there was any financial crisis in 2008. You might have a faint recollection that for a brief moment alternative voices were heard in the media, but now it as if nothing at all had happened.  The waters that once had parted have now engulfed us again. It is the same voices articulating the same tired ideas as the whole of Europe slides into the nightmare of austerity, despite the fact they do not appear to have any relation to reality, and even those who speak them seem exhausted and worn out.

For some time now, many of us have noticed that there have been different voices, and they began speaking many years before 2008 warning us of an impending disaster. These voices were coming from Italy. Perhaps because of their own experience, the radical Italian thinkers never believed the logic of the market could solve its own problems or that life and capital were one and the same.  Our hope is to draw from this history as well as listen to some of the new generation of Italian political thinkers, to share their ideas, offer an alternative diagnosis of the present, and perhaps even a suggestion of what different future might look like.

Confirmed Speakers:
Dario Gentili
Paolo Do
Federico Chicchi
Christian Marazzi
Anna Simone
Franco Berardi
Tony O’Connor
Sinead Murphy

British Society for Phenomenology and Conference Details: http://britishphenomenology.org.uk/

***END***

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
Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Thursday, December 20, 2012

The Institute of Art and Ideas


THE INSTITUTE OF ART AND IDEAS

Watch / Think / Share – Philosophy for Our Times

Cutting edge debate and talks from the world's leading thinkers, free for everyone

Includes Why Marx was Right – a video by Terry Eagleton: http://iai.tv/video/why-marx-was-right

“Once the darling of the intelligentsia, Marxism has been out of fashion for at least a couple of decades. Philosopher and critic Terry Eagleton makes the case for Marx's resurrection, challenging objections and explaining why his thought remains as relevant as ever” (IAI website).

IAI website: http://iai.tv/

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs
‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

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
Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Glenn Rikowski’s paper, Critical Pedagogy and the Constitution of Capitalist Society has been published at Heathwood Press as a Monthly Guest Article for September 2012, online at:

Heathwood Press: http://www.heathwoodpress.com  

University for Strategic Optimism


UNIVERSITY FOR STRATEGIC OPTIMISM

A university based on the principle of free and open education, a return of politics to the public, and the politicisation of public space.

About

Our basic public services, we are told, are simply too expensive. They must be thrown under the wheels of the megalithic debt that bears down upon us. They must be privatised, corporatised and commodified. All this so we can ensure the continuation of a system that funnels wealth into the hands of a privileged few. This failed and flailing market system, we are told, is the only one that is possible, drastic cuts the only alternative, the fairest thing to do. Any deviation from the path laid out for us will unleash the worst imaginable, a media-imagined Worst that threatens from our darkened skies.

The UfSO offers an emphatic No! to this description of our current situation, and sees instead a magnificent opportunity, a multiplication of possibilities, the opening of a space in which we might think about, and bring about, a fairer and and more fulfilling society for all. In short: Many good reasons for strategic optimism! We urge a rampant questioning of the ideological basis for the relentless privatisation and privation of our lives: Are these cuts incoherent, as some have said? Or is this a specific move/set of moves on the part of neoliberal capital? Are labour, education, healthcare, and the environment, mere commodities, to be consumed by those who will redeem them as more capital? Can the opposition to cuts begin moving towards a society ‘fit for purpose’? Is it still easier to imagine The End-of-the-World than The End-of-Capitalism?

University for Strategic Optimism: http://universityforstrategicoptimism.wordpress.com/

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs
‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

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
Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski
Glenn Rikowski’s MySpace Blog: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski/blog

Monday, December 17, 2012

Rouge Forum Dispatch - 16th December 2012


ROUGE FORUM DISPATCH – 16th DECEMBER 2012

Dear Friends
The Dispatch is updated here http://www.richgibson.com/blog/

The Dispatch goes on hiatus until the new year.

Please remember the Rouge Forum Conference 2013.

Winning the Class Struggle Against Corporate Education Reform

Call for Proposals: http://rougeforumconference.wordpress.com/rouge-forum-2013/call-for-proposals-rf-2013/

May 16-19, 2012
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan

Rouge Forum 2013 Call for Proposals
The core issue of our time is the clash of the real promise for perpetual war and booming inequality met by the potential of connecting reason to power with organized mass class conscious resistance in
schools, on the job, in communities, and in the military … and what you do counts!

The Rouge Forum brings together academic presentations and panel discussions, performances, community building, and cultural events. This conference will center on such questions as:

* Overall, what do we need to know and what do we need to do to win against corporate education reform in our classrooms?
* In what ways are our classrooms, schools, universities, unions, etc. occupied by capitalism, the military, racism, inequality?
* And what do these occupations demand from us pedagogically? What are the obstacles that must be overcome to achieve democratic education?
* What can we learn from Wisconsin 2011, the Occupy Movement, and the Chicago Teacher’s Strike to make us smarter and stronger in our struggle against corporate education reform?
* How do we educate to liberate ourselves from the impact of empire? How do we push back against the imperializing of our classrooms and communities?
* How do we occupy our classrooms, schools universities, and unions and communities in an effort to create education that is in the public interests?

Calling on artists … Pop up radical art gallery would be for artists to submit 2-3 D pieces that they can bring with them to the conference to display as part of an opening or Friday / Saturday night reception activity.

Good luck to our side,
Rich Gibson

*****END*****

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Glenn Rikowski’s paper, Critical Pedagogy and the Constitution of Capitalist Society has been published at Heathwood Press as a Monthly Guest Article for September 2012, online at:

Heathwood Press: http://www.heathwoodpress.com 


Wednesday, December 12, 2012

New Articles and Features in the International Marxist-Humanist


NEW ARTICLES AND FEATURES IN THE INTERNATIONAL MARXIST-HUMANIST (December 2012)

***FEATURED ARTICLES:
U.S. Voters Repudiate Far Right, But Still Face Austerity Capitalism under Obama -- by Kevin Anderson

Helen Macfarlane - The Radical Feminist Admired by Karl Marx -- by Louise Yeoman (audio and print, originally from BBC radio)

Marxism and Religion: A Complete and Annotated Bibliography –- by Roland Boer

The On-Going Relevance of Marxist-Humanism –- by Sandra Rein

**** OTHER ARTICLES
Review of Peter Hudis, Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism –- by Dan Swain (originally published in Marx and Philosophy Review of Books)

***OTHER LANGUAGES
[Spanish] Los votantes estadounidenses repudian la extrema derecha, pero aún se enfrentan al capitalismo de austeridad bajo Obama -- Kevin Anderson

[Croatian] Od globaln krize do prevladavanja kapitala –- Peter Hudis

***RECENT BOOKS OF INTEREST:
MARX’S CONCEPT OF THE ALTERNATIVE TO CAPITALISM – by Peter Hudis 
Historical Materialism Series, Brill Academic Publishers, hardcover 2012, paperback 2013
[This is one of the best books I have read in the last 20 years. It is of paramount importance for the struggles ahead and humanity’s quest for release from the value-form of labour and our break-out into realms of freedomGlenn Rikowski]

MARX ON GENDER AND THE FAMILY: A CRITICAL STUDY – by Heather Brown
Historical Materialism Series, Brill Academic Publishers, hardcover 2012, paperback 2013

THE DUNAYEVSKAYA-MARCUSE-FROMM CORRESPONDENCE, 1954-1978: DIALOGUES ON HEGEL, MARX, AND CRITICAL THEORY -- Edited by Kevin B. Anderson and Russell Rockwell, Lexington Books, paperback 2012

1839: THE CHARTIST INSURRECTION – By David Black and Chris Ford, Unkant Publishers, paperback 2012
[This is an exciting and well-crafted account of Chartism at its glorious peak. I have used the book and the related video it in my teaching. For more on here see: http://rikowski.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/promotional-film-for-1839-the-chartist-insurrection-by-david-black-and-chris-ford/ and http://rikowski.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/1839-the-chartist-insurrection/ -- Glenn Rikowski]

The International Marxist-Humanist is the web publication of the International Marxist-Humanist Organization (IMHO). The IMHO aims to develop and project a viable vision of a truly new, human society that can give direction to today’s many liberation struggles, whether of labor, women, youth, or racial/ethnic and sexual minorities. It seeks to work out a unity of theory and practice, worker and intellectual, and philosophy and organization. We ground our ideas in the totality of Marx’s Marxism and Raya Dunayevskaya’s body of ideas and upon the unique philosophic contributions that have guided Marxist-Humanism since its founding in the 1950s. 

Also contact the above address or more information about our publication or our organization, or to learn about events in your geographical area (if available).

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs
‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

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
Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Tax the Rich: An Animated Fairy Tale



TAX THE RICH: AN ANIMATED FAIRY TALE

Tax the Rich: An Animated Fairy Tale is narrated by Ed Asner, with animation by Mike Konopacki. Written and directed by Fred Glass for the California Federation of Teachers. An 8- minute video about how we arrived at this moment of poorly funded public services and widening economic inequality.
Things go downhill in a happy and prosperous land after the rich decide they don't want to pay taxes anymore. They tell the people that there is no alternative, but the people aren't so sure. This land bears a startling resemblance to our land.

For more info, go to http://www.cft.org


There is a critique of this video: Tax the Rich: A Critiquehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA21fu9Y4uA  



**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs
‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

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
Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski
Glenn Rikowski’s MySpace Blog: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski/blog

Glenn Rikowski’s paper, Critical Pedagogy and the Constitution of Capitalist Society has been published at Heathwood Press as a Monthly Guest Article for September 2012, online at:

Heathwood Press: http://www.heathwoodpress.com 




Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Race, Gender & Class 2013 Conference



RACE, GENDER & CLASS 2013 CONFERENCE
Race, Gender & Class 2013 Conference
in New Orleans March 7-9, 2013

Co-sponsored by Race, Gender & Class journal (Jean Ait Belkhir & Christiane Charlemaine), Center for African and African American Studies (SUNO), & Sociological Association Race, Gender & Class Section

The conference is being held at the University of New Orleans
Lodging would be avalaible on the UNO Campus
If you are willing to share a room, contact  Christiane Charlemaine
In the subject line please include: RGC Conference, room avail. to share

Conference Registration Fees
Early Bird Registration by January 18, 2013                                                                                         Student $70; Non-student $180
All presenters have to register by February 15, 2013 in order to be in the program. No exception!

Late Registration: Student $95; Non-student $205

All attendees and presenters are expected to register
Make Checks Payable to Race, Gender & Class Conference.
Mail to
Jean Ait Belkhir
University of New Orleans
Sociology Department
Milneburg Hall Room 170
2000 Lakeshore Drive

New Orleans, LA 70148

Call for Papers and Organizers
PLEASE SUBMIT PROPOSAL / ABSTRACT BY DECEMBER 1ST
Race, Gender & Class and the 2012 Elections

Do progressives have an alternative for America?
Abstracts (250-300 words) should be sent only electronically by December 1st, 2012 to Jean Ait Belkhir at rgcso@uno.edu. Presentations at the 2013 RGC Conference would be selected for publication in the Race, Gender & Class journal.

To volunteer to serve as an RGC conference organizer, please contact Dr. Jean Ait Belkhir
rgcso@uno.edu, Ph.: (504) 280 1209, Fax: (504) 280 6302

We hope to see you at the RGC 2013 conference in New Orleans!

Please forward this page to colleagues you think may be interested: http://rgc.uno.edu/conference.cfm

Preliminary List of Presenters / Attendees
Paul Banaheine Adjei, University of Toronto, pbanahene@yahoo.com
Meshia Babers, student, Texas A&M University, chanelle2g@neo.tamu.edu
John C. Berg, Suffolk University, johncberg@verizon.net
Gregg Barak, Eastern Michigan University, gbarak@emich.edu
Damon Bell, alildabadou@yahoo.com
George J. Sefa Dei, OISE University of Toronto, gdei@oise.toronto.ca  
Loren Delaney, Oise, University of Toronto, loren.delaney@mail.utoronto.ca
Lisa A. Eargle, Francis Marion University, leargle@fmarion.edu
Ashraf M. Esmail, Dillard University, New Orleans, ashesmail@aol.com
Michael D. Forster, The University of Southern Mississippi, Michael.forster@usm.edu  
Barbara Jensen, The University of New Mexico, bjensen@umn.edu
Nikki Jones, University of California Santa Barbara, njones@soc.ucsb@edu
Chelsi King, Alliant International University - Fresno, cking2@alliant.edu
Lena Krone, University of Education at Ludwigsburg, Germany, krone@ph-ludwisburg.de
Komanduri S. Murty, Fort Valley State Univeersity, murtyk@FVSU.EDU
Denise A. Narcisse, Yougstown State University, danarcisse@ysu.edu
Linda Williamson Nelson, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Linda.Nelson@stockton.edu
Martha E. Richmond, Suffolk University, Boston, mrichmond@suffolk.edu  
Rosanna Rios-Spicer, New Orleans Social Activist, evariv2011@gmail.com
Shirley Rombough, The University of Texas-Pan American, srombough@utpa.edu
Demetrius Semien, University of Cincinnati, demetriussemien@yahoo.com
David Scott, Student, University of Kansas, dmscott@gmail.com


**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs
‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

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

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Teaching Marx: The Socialist Challenge


TEACHING MARX: THE SOCIALIST CHALLENGE

Announcing a forthcoming book: Teaching Marx: The Socialist Challenge
Edited by Curry Stephenson Malott, Mike Cole and John Elmore
To be published by Information Age Publishing
Critical Construction: Studies in Education and Society, see: http://www.infoagepub.com/series/critical-constructions 
Series Editor: Curry Stephenson Malott, West Chester University

“There is growing disillusionment with a social system where increasing productivity leads only to increased gaps between rich and poor, where reductions in social programs (retirement, health care, education) are the chief response an uninspired political sector can muster, and where non-sustainable exploitation of the Earth continues undiminished -- in short, as the looming, world-wide economic crisis draws nearer, the essays in Teaching Marx: The Socialist Challenge are critical reading. It is time for our teachers to prepare students not to take their place in an increasingly corrupt economy, but to bring about the fundamental changes we need to build an equitable, prosperous, sustainable future” -- Dr. Dennis Vickers, Humanities Department, College of Menominee Nation, Keshena, Wisconsin.
Teaching Marx: The Socialist Challenge is an extraordinarily important text at this juncture of world history. Functioning as more than just another pedagogical weapon to be used against the ideological structures of death and social hallucinogenics manufactured by the transnational capitalist class, it is a book that can provide fecund opportunities for teachers to re-learn how to put social and economic justice front and center in the agenda for educational reform by putting Marx front and center, where he belongs” -- Peter McLaren, Professor, UCLA and author of Che Guevara, Paulo Freire and the Pedagogy of Revolution

Teaching Marx: The Socialist Challenge provides a useful starting point for understanding the origins of today's global crisis of capitalism. Our work in public schools to encourage respectful dialogues between Indian and non-Indian students about local conflicts over land ownership, through the TERRA Institute, should encourage cooperative action to find common interests. This book reminds us to move those specific discussions to explorations of the causes of conflicts over land, including the imperatives of global capitalism” -- David Stanfield, TERRA Institute, www.terrainstitute.org

“As this book so clearly and illustratively points out, the work of Marx has always served as a critical tool for identifying and scraping away the residue of commodity relations as a means to an end of revolutionary purpose, and teaching Marx is therefore keynote to education becoming able to serve as a tool of liberation and revolution. The reasons for why this is so are very clear in the book. As its authors successively and in detail clearly point out, we are ‘educated’ to believe that we live in a meritocracy where god-given abilities and hard work afford position and reward, and the work of social institutions like the school play a key part in this. These institutions, as ideological apparatuses of the State, barrage us with propaganda and bombard us with ideas inside practices that are designed to convince us all that at the head of the equation of the constitution of the social and economic order is the work, skills, ideas, knowledge and commitment of individual people themselves and that the effort and competences of these individuals determine social position and the possibilities for economic reward and even social justice for all.
Put directly and simply, the book shows us how the public has been hoodwinked by the school and other social institutions to believe in the ethics of capitalism and its central ideological tenet that the present social order is natural and in the end inevitable and beneficial for us all. However, as well as critiquing the work of the school as an instrument of reproduction, the book also shows how and why the education system could and should challenge the anti-democratic perspectives that disguise and defend the current social relations of production and the ideological and material needs of the capitalist class. It offers that is an educational challenge to the inevitability and “correctness” of capitalism by showing how its laws can be made visible to ordinary people so the oppressive power of the capitalist class can be more correctly identified, challenged and defeated.  In this way the book both poses the question and provides answers concerning what role education can play in a possible future revolutionary moment: both as a “true” education as an act of liberation and as a dialectic lens for critiquing the world in which we live. Used appropriately the book can become a clear and fundamental ingredient for helping to create the possibilities for a more egalitarian and socially just world” -- Dennis Beach, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

“This collection by Malott, Cole and Elmore’s is a very timely contribution to the current revival of Marxism in education. The authors engage seriously with the ideas of Marx – from his theory of capitalist crises to the increasing impoverishment of the working class – and debunk many of the commonly held myths about Marxism. The compilation of writings provide a devastating rejoinder to those who believe that we can only make changes within the present system and show how this crisis has made discussion of socialist alternatives, in education and society, an urgent necessity. They argue that, in Marx’s words, the educators need to get educated and find ways – through their students, through what they teach, and through their political activism – to feed into wider movements of social change” -- Marnie Holborow, author on Marxism and Language, Dublin City University, Ireland.

“A spectre haunts the contemporary capitalist classroom: the ghost of Karl Marx. This volume explores the implications of opening the classroom door to Marx’s ideas, theories and outlook on capitalist and post-capitalist life. It does this in an engaging and thought-provoking manner, providing conceptual foundations and inspiration for teachers seeking to generate a critical edge and relevance to classroom activities in the current crisis of capital. Malott, Cole and Elmore have produced a book desperately needed by teachers, students, teacher-trainers and administrators in educational institutions dissatisfied with the apologetics and evasions of mainstream capitalist pedagogy” -- Glenn Rikowski Senior Lecturer in Education Studies, University of Northampton, UK.  
**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

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

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Council for the Defence of British Universities



COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF BRITISH UNIVERSITIES

The formation of the Council for the Defence of British Universities (CDBU) was announced in The Guardian on Thursday 8th November. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/nov/08/coalition-thinkers-fight-marketisation-universities

From the CDBU website:

Defending A World-Class System

Universities are amongst Britain’s most successful institutions. They currently occupy four of the top six places in the QS/USNWR World University Rankings, three of the top ten of the Times Higher World University Rankings, and two of the top ten in the Academic Ranking of World Universities, with all the others going to US institutions.

They mark the ‘frontier of possibility’, according to a recent EC-sponsored study, for the efficient production of both high quality research and highly sought-after graduates:

* They also rank amongst the best systems globally in performing all the other functions expected of a great university system aside from research
* They attract more international students than any university system but the US, and a higher proportion of international students than any other system but Australia

Yet the character of Britain’s universities is being radically altered.

For decades, UK universities have been bound by increasingly restrictive management practices, loaded with endlessly augmented administrative burdens, and stretched virtually to breaking point. Now, in the two years since the publication of the Browne Review‘a radical reform of the higher education system’has begun, designed to change its character fundamentally, permanently, and virtually overnight.

Although these radical changes were planned in detail before the last election, no democratic mandate for them was ever sought. Although opposed by student protests, devastated by scholarly criticism, and unsupported by even the most elementary analysis of the empirical evidence, these changes are being driven forward relentlessly without benefit of Parliamentary debate or public scrutiny.

Why has opposition to these changes proved so ineffective?

The basic answer is surprisingly simple. In the protracted recession of a knowledge economy, where knowledge is money and growth is elusive, powerful forces are bending the university to serve short-term, primarily pragmatic, and narrowly commercial ends. And no equal and opposite forces are organised to resist them.

The UK higher education sector is crowded with bodies representing the interests of one academic group or another: The Russell GroupUniversities UKMillion+, The 1994 GroupUniversity Alliance, the UCU, and the NUS, to name a few.

But no organisation exists to defend academic values and the institutional arrangements best suited to fostering them.

The problem is not that academic values are obsolete: in an increasingly complex world, they are as valid and important as ever. But after decades of subordinating them to other priorities, it can no longer be taken for granted that every educated person understands the enormous value to society as a whole of maintaining places devoted primarily to the pursuit of understanding and to the transmission of that pursuit to the next generation.

The CDBU has been established to fill this void.

Academic values need fresh reformulation and skilful advocacy by influential figures both in and outside the academic world. Scores of these figures have now come together to form the nucleus of the Council for the Defence of British Universities.


See the CDBU website at: http://www.cdbu.org.uk

**END**

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

Glenn Rikowski’s paper on higher education, Life in the Higher Sausage Factory:

Rikowski, G. (2012) Life in the Higher Sausage Factory, Guest Lecture to the Teacher Education Research Group, The Cass School of Education and Communities, University of East London, 22nd March, online at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=articles&sub=Life%20in%20the%20Higher%20Sausage%20Factory.


Friday, November 2, 2012

Discourse, Power & Resistance in Education - Conference 2013


DISCOURSE, POWER & RESISTANCE IN EDUCATION – CONFERENCE 2013

Discourse, Power, Resistance: DPR 13      
DISCOURSES OF INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION
9 - 11 April, 2013 – University of Greenwich, United Kingdom

Power can be a wonderful thing, as Terry Eagleton told the DPR conference in 2008: wonderful and essential for the achievement of our best and most generous purposes. But it can also be abused.
A widespread abuse of power is to organise the social world into groups that are included and others that are excluded, using the discourse of the powerful group, like subtly barbed wire, to distinguish the insiders from the outsiders on the grounds of gender, ethnicity, age, wealth, sexuality, class and other grouping. Communities may then disintegrate. The excluded members may seek to be admitted to the privileged group by learning and adopting its discourse; or they may resist this assimilation and celebrate their difference in defiant counter-cultures of their own.

What is the scope of research, learning and teaching in this contested space? What knowledges and methodologies should be included or excluded, and why? These are the issues the conference will consider.

Exchanging words and papers is a powerful academic practice at the heart of DPR. But the conference is about the discourses of inclusion and exclusion, so images, music, performance, display, story-telling - the variously imaginative ways of sharing our understanding - must have their space. DPR13 will include the contributions of the creative and performing arts so that the conference tells and shows a freshly inclusive vision.

Preparations and plans for DPR13 are already well under way with over 60 abstracts accepted and more coming in daily. The Second Call for Papers is Friday 21 December. This is not a deadline but we strongly encourage delegates planning to offer papers, workshops, posters or exhibition work to send abstracts as soon as possible. Details of 12 projects and seminars already in preparation are posted on the website.

Further proposals are being developed and will be posted soon. For further information or to discuss ideas, please contact Jerome Satterthwaite by email at jnsatterthwaite@gmail.com

Conference website for full details and registration: dprconference.com

Power and Education journal: www.wwwords.co.uk/POWER

**END**

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
Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies - Volume 10 Number 2 (2012)


JOURNAL FOR CRITICAL EDUCATION POLICY STUDIES: VOLUME 10 NUMBER 2 (2012)

Volume 10, Number 2: October 2012 – Now Out!

Some excellent and timely articles in this issue of Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies: Glenn Rikowski


ISSN 1740-2743 Online version / ISSN 2051-0959 Print version

The Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies (JCEPS) is a peer-reviewed international scholarly journal published by The Institute for Education Policy Studies (IEPS). The free, online version is published in association with the University of Athens (Greece). The print version (available on subscription or purchase - click on the Subscriptions and Purchasing link is published by IEPS). JCEPS will have three issues per annum, as from 2013. The journal website is www.jceps.com 

Enquiries should be addressed to dave.hill@ieps.org.uk or naomi.hill@ieps.org.uk

The Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies (JCEPS) seeks to develop Marxist and other Left analysis of education. JCEPS seeks and publishes articles that critique global, national, neo-liberal, neo-conservative, New Labour, Third Way, postmodernist and other analyses of policy developments, as well as those that attempt to report on, analyse and develop Socialist/ Marxist transformative policy for schooling and education from a number of Radical Left perspectives. JCEPS also addresses issues of social class, 'race', gender, sexual orientation, disability and capital/ism; critical pedagogies, new public managerialism and academic / non-academic labour, and empowerment/ disempowerment.


CONTENTS:



Mike Neary and Sarah Amsler
Occupy: a new pedagogy of space and time?
















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