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CAPPE
Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics
University of Brighton, UK
5th International Interdisciplinary Conference
Politics of Fear; Fear of Politics
Wednesday 15 ¬ Friday 17 September 2010
Second Call for Papers
We live in a world that is dominated by fear. We are increasingly afraid to
walk in our city streets, populated as they are by feral youths,
drug-dealers and surveillance cameras. The threat of global warming and
climate change is ever-present, and accompanied by the even greater fear
that we¹ll be too late to do anything about it. Then of course there¹s
terror: frightened of a Taliban invasion, apparently, we are still fighting
in Afghanistan after eight years and pursuing a worldwide ³war on terror².
And if that¹s not enough, we are becoming ever more afraid of alcohol, of
food, of being too fat, of being too thin; and afraid even of sex. In this
climate of fear, it is not surprising that we should also have become
terrified of politics, in case we suddenly have to think about an idea, let
alone act on it. Our politicians appear as afraid of politics as we are:
which is one reason they¹re privatizing everything in sight, so as to evade
responsibility for it. As for ideas, they really are terrifying, and our
young people have to be protected from them at all costs. In short, the
³anti-ideological² determination to take the politics out of politics is
closely related to the social, cultural and intellectual dominance of fear
as the leitmotif of our everyday lives.
This avowedly interdisciplinary conference seeks to do two things: to
describe and analyse what might be termed the contemporary spheres and roles
of fear as it is played out both in social, cultural and intellectual life
and in day to day life; and to offer ways of escaping those fears. Likely
themes might be the following, although the conference is by no means
limited to these:
€ The history of fear as an organising principle of social life.
€ The ideological role of fear.
€ The fear of ideology.
€ Fear of the other; fear of ourselves.
€ Surveillance, anti-social behaviour orders and the ³underclass².
€ ³Food fascism² and the fear of pleasure.
€ Medicine and the inculcation of fear.
€ Anti-education in schools and universities.
€ The fear of ideas, in both the everyday and the academic worlds.
€ Fear of the body.
€ Fear of the mind.
€ Fear in the media; in film; in literature; in art.
€ The sophistical undermining of critical thought and theory.
€ Fear of radicalism in politics.
€ Fear of catastrophe.
€ Capitalism and catastrophe.
€ Fear of financial collapse.
€ The representation of fear and the fear of representation.
€ The architecture of fear.
We anticipate that these and related issues will be of interest to people
working in, among others, philosophy, ethics, political theory, politics,
sociology, social policy, literature, cultural studies, history, art,
architecture,
photography, geography, psychology, planning, refugee studies, urban studies
and area studies.
Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be emailed to Nicola Clewer by 22
February: [log in to unmask]
Decisions will be communicated by 3 March.
The conference fee is £210. This includes refreshments, lunch on Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday and a buffet dinner on Thursday in a local venue.
There are a limited number of places available for graduate students and for
people who have no institutional affiliation at the reduced price of £105.
Please indicate if you wish to be considered for one of these when
sending your abstract; or contact Nicola Clewer: [log in to unmask] as soon
as possible.
Please note: the conference fee does not include accommodation.
Reasonably priced en-suite accommodation in student halls of residence will
be available on a first come, first served basis for a minimum of three
nights. (Further information regarding university accommodation will be
provided at the registration stage.) Otherwise delegates are welcome to make
their own arrangements.
Please note: unfortunately we are unable to offer travel grants.
For updates and further information about the centre please visit the CAPPE
website:
www.brighton.ac.uk/CAPPE
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