[ecrea] Marxism (and related) Matters - November 20th and 21st 2013

> Call for Papers
>
> Marxism (and related) Matters
>
> Following the successful conference Marxism Matters, the Media 
Discourse Group at De Montfort University, and the MeCCSA Social 
Movements Network, is pleased to announce a new call for papers. This is 
the Social Movements Network first conference following its recent 
creation. Keynote Speakers to be announced shortly.
>
> (To subscribe to the MeCCSA Social Movements Network mailing list, 
please go to http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/MECCSA-SMN)
>
> The follow-up conference will be held at De Montfort University on 
the 20th and 21st November 2013, and will address a number of issues 
arising from the original event.
>
> As the first conference noted, the economy has been nominated in 
public debate as capitalist in nature, while Marxism (together with 
attendant perspectives) has once again become visible as a viable mode 
of critical analysis.
>
> Since 2011, a number of significant developments have taken place. It 
is now clear that austerity has been used as a weapon against the most 
vulnerable, while entire political systems have been subjugated to the 
rule of a trans-national bureaucratic elite, in some cases ‘temporarily’ 
supplanting the elected bourgeois parties that oversee the imposition of 
public sector cuts.
>
> Some commentators have argued that the pan-European resistance 
represented by groups like the Indignados has begun to decline, while 
others point to the renewed energy that is directed into the communal 
defence of those threatened with eviction and, in the case of those 
already dispossessed, with deportation.
>
> Meanwhile, Leftists have been driven to consider new initiatives and 
alliances, from the Left Unity project in the UK, through the revival of 
the Feminist/Socialist current represented by the re-launch of Beyond 
the Fragments, to the attempt to reconfigure the Leninist project 
(associated with theorists like Dean, Zizek and Badiou).
>
> Some activists on the Left have drawn inspiration from the 
Libertarian tradition, while others have attempted to emphasise the need 
to analyse the real location of ‘the enemy’ – not, they suggest, a 
distant ruling-class, but a more local managerial authority that can be 
identified and opposed.
>
> On the Right, meanwhile, xenophobia and ‘proto-fascist’ movements 
(electoral or otherwise) have thrown down a challenge to any form of 
rational or progressive assessment of the crisis. The State, as an 
‘ensemble of power’ centres (Jessop, 2008) appears especially 
formidable, as both outright repression and behavioural measures are 
used to pacify the social order.
>
> We welcome papers that address the following, though suggestions are 
welcomed from across the field of sociology, media and cultural studies, 
political economy and related fields:
>
> Social Movements and New Technology
> Socialist-Feminism
> The Occupy Movement
> LGBT organisation
> Online/Offline Activism
> Marxist Political Economy
> Theories of the State
> The Libertarian Communist tradition
> The ‘communist’ horizon
> The Portuguese Revolution (nearly) 40 years on
> Syndicalism and Workplace Activism
> The state of the trade unions
> Marxist perspectives on Austerity
> Violence and Resistance
> The Spanish Revolution
> The Dictatorship of the Markets
> Consensual decision-making
> Internationalism and Nationalism
> The Far Right
>
> Please send brief abstracts (c200 words) to Stuart Price 
((sprice /at/ dmu.ac.uk)<mailto:(sprice /at/ dmu.ac.uk)>) and Ruth Sanz Sabido 
((rsanzs /at/ dmu.ac.uk)). The closing date is 14th July 2013.



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