CFP: Resistance to Finance

"Polygraph: An International Journal of Culture & Politics", an annual interdisciplinary publication affiliated with the Literature Programme and edited by humanities graduate students of Duke University, is planning an issue (no. 24) on "Resistance to Finance", to be published in 2012, and has released a call for papers. They particularly invite contributors with a background in political theology.

www.duke.edu/web/polygraph/cfp24.html

Description: "What does financial capitalism demand of us in thought and in action today? Financial capital is one of the fundamental structuring forces in our world. Evidence of this is ubiquitous: the severity and extent of the most recent global financial crisis, the collapse of whole national economies (as in Greece and Iceland), the steadily progressing securitization of pensions and savings, a growing volume of derivatives trading that already dwarfs 'real' global GDP. Yet many critical accounts of corporate globalization, free trade, neoliberalism, and so on all too rarely emphasize the fact that high finance constitutes the very condition of possibility of capitalism as we know it. Other available forms of economic critique, from world-systems theory to dependency theory to theories of Empire, often do grant high finance the central role that it in reality occupies, but rarely go beyond critique to directly address the question of resistance. Too often, critique remains mired in highlighting isolated acts and agents of malfeasance rather than producing totalizing, systemic claims with real leverage.

"We now know this state of affairs to be in need of immediate rectification. We also know that action is demanded, but its contours are not yet well defined. The clout of finance capital has received ample attention in Marxist economics, neo-classical economics, and other quarters – yet the accounts produced thus far of what is to be done have been less than satisfactory. What political responses on the part of on-the-ground social movements and both current and potential bodies of governance are necessary? Are some already underway but obscured from view? What alternative economic futures can we begin to construct out of the wreckage of the most recent crisis and the structural shifts that produced and accompany it? Is it necessary to break the global economy of its speculative bent and return it to its 'real' roots, or is this antithesis, stemming from Hilferding's classic critique of 'fictitious capital,' fundamentally ill-conceived? Should the focus of political action be shifted away from past struggles – against multinational corporations, free trade, and the powerful political allies of both – in the direction of the financial crux of the global economy? What would such a change in focus entail?

"Potential topics: Financial capitalism and Marxism (The continued efficacy or potential obsolescence of previous critical outlooks [world systems theory, Empire theory, etc.] in confronting global finance; The centrality of the question of global finance in any meaningful
critical engagement with globalization; Systemic global inequality, post-Fordism and crisis); Resistance (Forms of political subjectivity capable of comprehending and acting within [and against] high finance as it stands; What is the role of the state in confronting financial capital?; Real and hypothetical political movements and direct action; Strategies of flight and subtractive action, whether individual [e.g. walking away from mortgage contracts] or institutional [e.g. Argentina's post-crisis debt restructuring]; Alternative financial institutions and orders (Jacques Sapir's recent call for a 'new Bretton Woods' system [akin to Antonio Negri's call for a 'new New Deal']; Microfinance and financial decentralization; The global Tobin tax on of [sic] financial transactions and other forms of regulation; Neo-Luddism and the return to the 'real' economy; Radical political economy and the pursuit of anti-capitalist alternatives); Other (Historical perspectives on high finance, dealing with periodization, secular trends, particular crises and institutions, and exemplary modes of resistance; Mystification, abstraction and the 'new' digital/virtual economy; Epistemological barriers to adequate critique of the global financial system; Perception and belief as primary structural forces in the financial system; Artistic representations of the financial world as possible critical tools; Socio-political underpinnings of the financialization of the world)"

"Polygraph" welcomes work from a variety of disciplines, including political economy, critical geography, cultural anthropology, political theology, science studies, and systems theory. They also encourage the submission of a variety of formats and genres, i.e. field reports, surveys, interviews, photography, essays, etc.

Please e-mail complete manuscripts to the editor of this issue, Lucas Perkins (Duke University): lucas.perkins@duke.edu

Deadline: 31 January 2011

CONF: Space & The Event

Interdisciplinary workshop "Space & The Event" of the Social and Cultural Geography Group in the Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2 Gower Street, London, 26 May 2010, 2.00-6.00 pm

Concepts of 'the event' have taken on an increasingly important role in recent continental political thought in the work of Badiou, Deleuze, Derrida, and Heidegger, amongst others. Although these concepts of 'the event' are multiple and resist consensus all have become central to debates on the nature of political transformations, the political importance of ontological questions, the relationship between order and sovereignty, and the renewed interest in political theology. Whether they have been articulated in relation to appropriation, becoming, rupture, or otherwise, these ideas have largely focused on explicitly temporal understandings of 'the event'. This workshop aims to discuss how 'the event' may be read spatially, and what possibilities this may open for re-thinking radical politics. What effect might an examination of 'the event' have on our understanding of the relationship between space and politics? Conversely, how could a consideration of spatial politics effect our assessment of the nature, scope, and relevance of 'the event'? What bearing does the relationship between space and 'the event' have on other crucial relationships such as between politics and the political, difference and universality, transcendence and immanence, and spatial boundaries and political subjectivities? It is hoped that this discussion may create openings for new understandings of political strategy and spatial practices and enriched conceptions of 'the event'.

The workshop brings together a select interdisciplinary group of academics and graduate students, drawn from across geography, political theory, philosophy, and international relations to consider the relevance of this approach to concepts of 'the event'. General discussion will open out from a series of short papers by speakers addressing the theme in relation to their own work and theoretical approaches: Mustafa Dikeç (Royal Holloway) will discuss Jacques Rancière, Alberto Toscano (Goldsmiths) will discuss Alain Badiou, and, provisionally, Marcus Doel (Swansea University) will discuss Deleuze and Badiou, with J.D. Dewsbury (University of Bristol) acting as respondent.

Please note that this is a closed event with very limited seating available. If anyone wishes to attend or would like any further information on the event, please contact the convenor, Rory Rowan (Royal Holloway): r.h.rowan@rhul.ac.uk

Access to the Gower Street building requires a code which can be obtained at the issue desk of Royal Holloway's building on the corner of Gower Street and Montague Place.

Light refreshments will be provided during at a mid-point break in the programme.