PhD Scholarships @ Kingston University London

PhD SCHOLARSHIPS @ KINGSTON UNIVERSITY LONDON

Kingston University London is advertising ten PhD scholarship across the entire university, these are likely to be highly competitive. The scholarships covers a living allowance and UK/EU fees. Deadline is 18th March 2016

More information of the scholarship and the application can be found here: http://www.kingston.ac.uk/research/research-degrees/funding/phd-studentships-2016/

Kingston University is centre for non-mainstream economics and Political Economy research and has an active Political Economy Research Group (PERG http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/research/perg/). PERG is encouraging applications in all fields of heterodox economics and Political Economy, with particular interest in Post Keynesian and Marxist approaches, and on issues like financialisation, financial instability, stock flow consistent modelling, distribution and growth, development. Interested applicants are welcome to send draft proposal to potential supervisors for comments.

The Economics’ department guidance of PhD applications (that’s general information, not specific to these scholarships) can be found at http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/downloads/research-guidelines-economics.pdf

Political Economy Research Group (PERG)

The Political Economy approach highlights the role of effective demand, institutions and social conflict in economic analysis and thereby builds on Austrian, Institutionalist, Keynesian and Marxist traditions. Economic processes are perceived to be embedded in social relations that must be analysed in the context of historical considerations, power relations and social norms. As a consequence, a broad range of methodological approaches is employed, and cooperation with other disciplines, including history, law, sociology and other social sciences, is necessary. (http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/research/perg and https://www.facebook.com/PERGKingston)

MA Political Economy http://www.kingston.ac.uk/postgraduate-course/political-economy-ma/

MA Economics (Political Economy) http://www.kingston.ac.uk/postgraduate-course/economics-political-economy-ma/

MA International Politics and Economics http://www.kingston.ac.uk/postgraduate-course/international-politics-economics-ma/

MA Philosophy and Political Economy http://www.kingston.ac.uk/postgraduate-course/philosophy-political-economy-ma/

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/phd-scholarships

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

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 

Ruth Rikowski @ Academia: http://lsbu.academia.edu/RuthRikowski

Marx, Justice and Education

MARX, JUSTICE AND ALIENATION

A SPECIAL CALL FOR PAPERS

New Proposals: Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry

In spite of its clear and distinguished pedigree in European political philosophy and theology, the concept of alienation is now associated, almost exclusively, with Marxian critical theory and analysis. Yet, even within the orbit of Marxian thought the meaning and function of the concept of alienation has not always had a comfortable or stable position. Pointing to polysemic and intermittent use in the Paris Manuscripts, and the absence of explicit formation in Capital, Louis Althusser advised discarding alienation like other “old philosophical themes” (Althusser 1967.) Granted, there is a degree to which Marx’s own deployment of alienation has several different conceptions and connotations, but the Grundrisse and other textual sources provide evidence that alienation, its semantic elasticity notwithstanding, remained central to Marx’s political economic analysis and his theory of history, even while it appeared to ‘go underground’, so to speak, in his late thought.

Part of the confusion around this concept arises from the fact that Marx appears to use alienation as a kind of normative foundation, one which informs his various critiques. A central historical rendering tends to describe workers’ inability to fully realize their inner life in capitalist society outside of market forces, hence they are separated from their “species being.” Adopted from Feuerbach, and initially developed in the Paris Manuscripts, Marx tends to understand species-being as comprising the distinctive features of human being which when expressed facilitate the conditions for human life to flourish. The ability to freely make and create is central to this conception. But under capitalism the majority of people are unable to exercise their capabilities. In this respect, alienation is a normative assessment of the conditions of life and the potential possibility to fulfill necessary elements of them themselves. One can see residue elements of this sentiment in the language in and around the ideas associated with dignity, humanity, and human flourishing.

In terms of the analysis of capitalist social relations, Marx’s conception of alienation is narrower and is applied to studies of exploitation in the labour process. Alienation in this respect refers to how workers are separated or estranged, from their products. As a social system, capitalism is structurally dependent upon separating workers from their products and therefore requires dominating means to force workers to comply in the reproduction of capitalist social relations. Thus separation implies subordination. Additionally, there is a reconstructed rendering of alienation wherein Marx’s concept of alienation can be reduced to “the notion that people create the structures that dominate them” (Postone and Brennan 2009, 316). Herein, alienation is a process by which persons are co-opted to reproduce their subordinate conditions.

While the idea of alienation has never quite disappeared from popular and scholarly consciousness, in recent years the impetus to understand these structures seems more urgent than it did only a decade ago. Indeed, when Leo Panitch, Greg Albo and Vivek Chibber argue that, for many, “crisis is the new normal” (Panitch, Albo, and Chibber 2012, ix), they articulate the conditions under which people both struggle to eke out the means of existence and make sense of the world today as well as the structural constraints which rigorously intercede and perpetuate social misery. 

Increasingly, capitalism is at the center of critical attention. This is evidenced by the fact that Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century, which details he inequalities generated under capitalism (hardly a revelation), seems to struck a chord in the popular press, so to speak. So to have Milanovic’s The Haves and the Have-Nots and Joseph Stiglitz’s The Price of Inequality. Unfortunately, these analyses, while detailing economic developments more broadly, are silent on issues of labor, working conditions, and the prospects for people to cultivate their inner life under contemporary capitalism. For this reason, alienation still nevertheless provides a useful focus to explore contemporary social thought. There is a need for old philosophical themes.

This special issue of New Proposals seeks to collect and showcase scholarship primarily concerned with using, refining, or deploying the concept of alienation. Given the diverse expressions of alienation we invite contributions that explore the historical, analytical, and practical underpinnings of the concept, its contemporary fate, and speculations on the trajectory of this idea.

Recommended Length:

Peer-Reviewed academic articles: 4’000-6’000 words.

Shorter comments and arguments: 1’500- 2’500 words

Please send queries and expressions of interest (including title, a 200 word abstract, a brief outline of the argument, affiliation, and contact details) via email to the co-editors.

Scott Timcke – snt2@sfu.ca

Graham MacKenzie – gsmacken@sfu.ca

Details at: http://newproposals.blogspot.ca/2014/09/old-philosophical-themes-marx-justice.html

‘New Proposals’: http://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/newproposals/index

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

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski 

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Rikowski?ev=hdr_xprf

Online Publications at The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.co.uk

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

Glenn Rikowski’s latest paper, Crises in Education, Crises of Education – can now be found at Academia: http://www.academia.edu/8953489/Crises_in_Education_Crises_of_Education

Glenn Rikowski’s article, Education, Capital and the Transhuman – can also now be found at Academia: https://www.academia.edu/9033532/Education_Capital_and_the_Transhuman

Marx Memorial Library:

Marx Memorial Library

MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY: POLITICAL ECONOMY FOR TRADE UNIONISTS

There is a series of four classes entitled Political Economy for Trade Unionists taking place in April and May as follows:

Tuesday 29 April - Today's Capitalist Crisis: Banks, Profits, Wages and Austerity

Tutor:  Jonathan White

Tuesday 6 May - The Assault on the Workplace: Rights, Conditions and Pay

Tutor: John McGee

Tuesday 13 May - The Law and Industrial Relations

Tutor: John Hendy QC

Tuesday 20 May - The Assault on Democratic Rights: The threat to labour's collective voice

Tutor:  Professor Marj Mayo

All classes begin at 6.30 in the Lecture Hall at the Library.  The Registration fee for four classes is £12.

Dr Laura Miller

Administrator

Marx Memorial Library

37a Clerkenwell Green

London EC1R 0DU

(Tel)  0207 253 1485

(Web site) http://www.marx-memorial-library.org

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

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academic.edu/GlennRikowski

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

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

Neoliberalism and Education Workshop

NEOLIBERALISM AND EDUCATION WORKSHOP

BISA IPEG/BLT Workshop and Film Screening: Education Meets Neoliberalism and the Political Economy of Precarity
Location: University of Middlesex (MDX), Hendon. Town Hall, Committee Room 3
Date and time: 14 February, 2014, 10.30 – 19.00

Co-sponsors: BISA-International Political Economy Group (IPEG, Convenor Phoebe Moore) and BISA- Learning and Teaching Working Group (BLT, Convenor Steven Curtis, London Metropolitan University, Higher Education Academy)
Local organisers: Phoebe Moore (MDX Law), Elizabeth Cotton (MDX Business), Merilin Nurmsalu (MDX Law)

All welcome. Please email Merilin Nurmsalu merilin.nurmsalu@gmail.com with interest in attending for catering purposes.

Website: http://www.bisa-ipeg.org/uncategorized/education-meets-neoliberalism-and-the-political-economy-of-precarity/

This workshop will critically examine the political economy of current changes in education policy in the United Kingdom and internationally as it has impacted and impacts marginalized groups as well as educators. Discussions will touch on the political economy of precarity and ask difficult questions about the flexilisation of the labour market and how it is reflected in every level of education from early schooling to adult, community, higher and trade union education and training. Participants will look at changes to education in all levels of education from secondary to University, adult, community and trade union education including the depoliticisation of pedagogies and curricula. Further challenges are brought about through introduction of new technologies including distance learning, online administration and new performance indicators, all of which we will argue can be appropriated for critical use.
The changing role of educators will be assessed as we look at critical pedagogies, the seen purpose for private involvement in education and the concept of ‘employability’, internships and possibilities for critique and intervention. In that light we invite educators, public intellectuals and trade unionists who look at the need for specific absences to be revisited. This also includes critical investigations around the understanding of the dangers of precarity for mental health, the costs of precarity for educators and students, political trade union education and the waning of working class and disability representation in recent education policy as well as the classroom.

This event is intentionally set to run the day after a very important event on similar themes run by Maureen Spencer, Heather Clay and Alan Durant entitled  ‘The state, the university and liberal education: a complex relationship between piper and tune’ on Hendon campus on 13th February. Please email Christiana Rose for more details about this c.rose@mdx.ac.uk .

14th February programme:
10 – 10.30 Coffee/tea, registration

10.30 – 11.30 Plenary speaker: Matthew Watson University of Warwick, 'Taking the Classroom into the Community'
Chair: Phoebe Moore

11.30 – 12.30 Plenary speaker: Mike Neary University of Lincoln, 'Pedagogy of Excess: an alternative political economy for student life'
Chair: Steven Curtis

12.30 – 1.15 Lunch. Over lunch, Steven Curtis, Politics and Economics Lead for the Higher Education Academy (HEA) will take the opportunity to chat to participants about the support that the HEA offers university educators.

1.15 – 3.15 The Future of Trade Union Education (Workshop one)
Plenary speaker: Jo Cain, Head of Education for Unison, on the future of trade union education: perspectives from Unison
Chair: Elizabeth Cotton
Participants: Ian Manborde, Elizabeth Cotton, Martin Upchurch, Education for Action (Phoebe Moore, Kirsten Forkert, Miguel Martinez Lucio), Industrial Officer PCS, NUT, organiser for domestic workers

3.15 – 5.15 Community Education and beyond (Workshop two)
Plenary speaker: Joyce Canaan, Birmingham Radical Education (BRE(A)D) on critical thinking and practice and countering capitalist 'realisms'
Chair: Steven Curtis
Participants: Annabel Kiernan, Dave Hill, Johnna Montgomerie, People’s Political Economy (Laura Hill and Sarah Kunz)

5.15 – 7.00  Film screening We will screen, and Director Luke Fowler will lead a discussion about his incredible 61 minute film ‘The Poor Stockinger, the Luddite Cropper and the Deluded Followers of Joanna Southcott’ which is a beautiful documentary about the Marxist historian Edward Palmer (E. P.) Thompson, who was employed by the Workers’ Education Association (WEA) from 1946, aged 24, to teach adults in the industrial towns of the West Riding. These WEA classes were open to people for whom university education was not previously available.
See: http://lux.org.uk/collection/works/poor-stockinger-luddite-cropper-and-deluded-followers-joanna-southcott

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'Cheerful Sin' – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

The New Left Book Club: http://rikowski.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/the-new-left-book-club-call-for-papers/

Glenn Rikowski at Academia: https://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski   

'Capital' Against Capitalism

‘CAPITAL' AGAINST CAPITALISM

NOW ONLINE OPEN ACCESS
SPECIAL ISSUE ON 'CAPITAL' AGAINST CAPITALISM: NEW RESEARCH IN MARXIST POLITICAL ECONOMY 

Journal of Australian Political Economy (JAPE)
Issue no 70, Summer 2012/13

http://australianpe.wix.com/japehome#!current/c1cok

The special issue includes:

- Introduction by Elizabeth Humphrys and Jonathon Collerson (Guest Editors)
- Mike Beggs on zombie Marx and modern economics
- Humphrey McQueen on the ‘massiness’ of capital and David Harvey
- Thomas Barnes Damien Cahill overview recent Australian scholarship on class
- John Pardy looks at class and schooling in Australia
- Marcus Banks provides a Marxist analysis of Workfare
- Elizabeth Humphrys looks at unfree labour in the early Australian colonies and whether the colonies can be considered ‘capitalist’ from inception
- Mike Donaldson writes on socialist strategy, modes of production and social formations in 'Capital’
- Thomas Barnes looks at Marxism and informal labour
- Alan Freeman asks how to integrate financialisation into Marxist accounts of the rate of profit
- Jean Parker looks at neoliberalism through the prism of Marx
- Don Munro looks and land and 'Capital'
- Richard Westra writes on 'Capital' as dialectical economic theory
- Andy Higginbottom looks at ‘structure and essence’ in 'Capital' Vol 1 — extra surplus-value and the states of capitalism

First published: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/jape-2014-special-issue-on-capital-against-capitalism-new-research-in-marxist-political-economy

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Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales); and at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo (new remix, and new video, 2012)  

'Cheerful Sin' – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

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

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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

Glenn Rikowski’s MySpace Blog: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski/blog

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Europe Against Austerity Conference

EUROPE AGAINST AUSTERITY CONFERENCE

The European left gathers in London to debate responses to the economic crisis in Europe
Europe Against Austerity Conference
1st October, 10am-5pm, Camden Centre, Bidborough Street, London WC1H 9AU

In the last two years Europe has seen waves of strikes, mass demonstrations, student radicalizations, civil disobedience and even riots in response to government austerity policies.

Struggles have broken out against cuts to pensions and raises in the retirement age, increased post-school education charges, reduced welfare payments, privatisations and falling living standards.

Is there an alternative to cuts and privatisation? What does the left say to the crisis of the Eurozone? What were the fundamental economic causes of the ‘great recession’ and does the left have a different way out? Is the European left as nationally fractured as its governments increasingly are?

This conference brings together the main left political, trade union and campaigning forces across Europe in the widest such forum since the meetings of the European Social Forum.

It will be an unparalleled opportunity to hear what the alternative voice from across Europe from West to East, South to North.

Speakers will include representatives of Die Linke (the German Left Party), the European Left Party (http://www.european-left.org/), Partie de Gauche (the French Left Party), Sinn Fein, the European
Attac network, (http://www.attac.org/en/what-attac) and anti-austerity campaigns and left parties from Denmark, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Eastern Europe joining British trade unionists (including Len McCLusky general secretary of Unite), and Jeremy Corbyn MP.

The conference is now a free-standing European-wide initiative with support across the EU and beyond. For a full list of current supporters see here: http://www.europeagainstausterity.org/conference-supporters/

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All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
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MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com/
Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski
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Systems of Accumulation

SYSTEMS OF ACCUMULATION

Call for Paper and Panel Proposals

For “Beyond the Crisis”, First International Conference in Political Economy organised by the International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy in conjunction with the Greek Political Economy Association

Rethymnon, Crete, 10-12 September 2010

A key challenge for scholars working within critical and Marxist traditions of political economy is making the transition from an understanding of abstract categories such as class and value to an understanding of the more concrete historical forms of class relations and capital accumulation in particular time and place.

The idea that particular Systems of Accumulation evolve over time has been developed in order to understand specific forms of capital accumulation, the role played by the state and finance, and how this impacts more widely on economy and society. There are a number of ways in which a system of accumulation may be conceived. These include the Regulation School and its concept of a Regime of Acumulation (Boyer, 1990), commonly used with reference to understanding neoliberalism; the Social Structures of Accumulation approach (Kotz, McDonough and Reich 1994); as well as the study of South African Political Economy as a specific system of accumulation developed by Fine and Rustomjee (1996).

The idea remains underesearched, however, despite is potential relevance and application to a number of debates across the social sciences. These include understanding the relationship between the national and the global within capitalism which forms an important part of debates about globalisation; discussions of so-called ‘varieties of capitalism’; or debate about market and bank based systems of finance.

The aim of this call for papers and panel proposals is to link together researchers in the field to further this research agenda both theoretically and in its application to specific cases of historical and contemporary relevance. This is a large area of research, and as such we welcome papers of an exploratory nature as well as those which are more developed. In particular we would welcome papers and proposals around the following themes:

* Consideration of different theoretical approaches to Systems of Accumulation;

* Addressing theoretical gaps in the literature on Systems of Accumulation, particularly in relation to Systems of Accumulation and Value Theory;

* The application of a Systems of Accumulation approach to specific case studies, both historical and contemporary

Please send abstracts and panel proposals to susan.newman@wits.ac.za and samantha.ashman@wits.ac.za by the 31st March 2010.

For more information about the International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy (IIPPE) go to http://www.iippe.org

Sam Ashman
Senior Researcher
Corporate Strategy and Industrial Development (CSID)
School of Economics and Business Sciences
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Private Bag 3, Wits 2050
South Africa
E: Samantha.Ashman@wits.ac.za
T: +27 - 11 - 717 – 8026; F: +27 - 11 - 717 – 8136; C: +27 - 72 - 558 - 0139

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Wavering on Ether: http://blog.myspace.cim/glennrikowski
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon at: http://rikowski.wordpress.com/cold-hands-quarter-moon/
The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Socialist Studies

SOCIALIST STUDIES

Socialist Studies: The Journal of the Society for Socialist Studies has just published its latest issue at: http://www.socialiststudies.com/index.php/sss.

This issue is a "re-launch" of the journal, featuring expanded content, a new design, additional reading and navigation tools, and an option to download or print the entire issue as a single file. We hope these changes make the journal more useful, and welcome your comments.

We invite you to review the Table of Contents here and then visit our web site to review articles and items of interest.

Thanks for the continuing interest in our work,
Chad D Thompson & Elaine Coburn, Editors
Socialist Studies: The Journal of the Society for Socialist StudiesVol 5, No 2 (2009)

Table of Contents
http://www.socialiststudies.com/index.php/sss/issue/view/14


Frontmatter
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Volume 5, Number Two: Frontmatter ... admin admin


Editorial Note
Re-Launching Socialist Studies
Elaine Coburn, Chad D Thompson

Editorial
What is Socialism? What are Socialist Studies?
Elaine Coburn

Articles

Philosophy at the Service of History: Marx and the need for critical philosophy today
Jeffrey Noonan

SPECIAL SECTION ON RETHINKING LENINISM:

Introduction
Alex Levant

Leninism: It's Not What You Think
Paul Kellogg

Strategy, Meta-strategy and Anti-capitalist Activism: Rethinking Leninismby Re-reading Lenin
Stephen D'Arcy

Lenin's Aggressive Unoriginality, 1914-1916
Lars T Lih

Media, Arts, and Culture

Ipsographing the Dubject; or, The Contradictions of Twitter
Mark A McCutcheon

Review Essays

Social Science and the Afghan War: Canadian Perspectives
Jerome Klassen

The Political Economy of Food
Ian Hussey

Book Reviews

Aziz Choudry et al. Fight Back: Workplace Justice for Immigrants
Sheila Wilmot

G.A. Cohen. Why Not Socialism?
Frank Cunningham

Terry Gibbs & Garry Leech. The Failure of Global Capitalism: From Cape Breton to Columbia and Beyond
Adam Belton

Roberto J Gonzalez. American Counterinsurgency: Human Science and the HumanTerrain
Ryan Toews

Sean P. Hier et al. Racism and Justice: Critical Dialogue on the Politics of Identity, Inequality, and Change
Amanda Glasbeek

Jasmin Hristov. Blood & Capital: The Paramilitarization of Colombia
Henry Veltmeyer

Fuyuki Kurasawa. The Work of Global Justice: Human Rights as Practices
Elaine Coburn

Judy Rebick. Transforming Power: From the Personal to the Political
Tammy Findlay

Göran Therborn. From Marxism to Post-Marxism?
William K Carroll

Mark P Thomas. Regulating Flexibility: The Political Economy of Employment Standards
Bryan Mitchell Evans

Calls for Papers and Proposals

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MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com