This event might be of interest to some - seems like it is calling out for a paper on the EDL and homonationalism...

Gavin

Dr Gavin Brown
Lecturer in Human Geography
University of Leicester

Staff profile: http://www.le.ac.uk/gg/staff/academic_brown.html
Research blog: http://placeofaspirations.wordpress.com

Chair of the Space, Sexualities and Queer Research Group of the RGS-IBG: www.ssqrg.net
________________________________________
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ant Ince [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 25 March 2011 10:41
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: 2nd CFP: Radical perspectives on fascism / anti-fascism

Hi all,

[with the usual apols for cross-posting...]

Please see below the second call for papers for this upcoming workshop
to be held at Queen Mary, University of London on Friday 20th May this year.

Please get back to me ([log in to unmask]) by ***Friday 1st April* with
an abstract (max. 200 words please) if you are interested in presenting
a paper or running a participatory workshop.

Cheers,

Ant

/////////

Anti-/Fascism in a Globalising World: Seeking Transformative Politics
beyond the Ballot Box

In Fascism and Big Business (1936), the anarchist Daniel Guerin traced
the intertwined trajectories of capitalism and the rise of European
fascist states in the 1920s and ‘30s. Guerin proposed that resistance to
fascism could not be adequately pursued through the structures of modern
politics because of their complicity in the rise of fascism itself.
Guerin’s analysis also suggests that in this era of recession and
crisis, the role of capitalism’s relationship with the state in
producing dynamics that nurture fascistic attitudes and organisations
may be key to making sense of fascism’s enduring presence. The
persistence of the British National Party and the growth of the
proto-fascist English Defence League illustrates that dominant forms of
anti-fascism and multiculturalism continue to flounder. These
approaches, focussing largely on government policy, cultural spectacles
and electoral agitation, often fail to engage with and develop
alternative imaginaries, relations and practices among those most likely
to support the likes of the BNP and EDL.

This interdisciplinary workshop, open to academics and non-academics,
seeks to explore the politics of contemporary fascism and efforts to
confront it intellectually, politically and physically. Following in
Guerin’s tradition, we encourage analyses and practices that eschew or
subvert capitalist and electoralist political imaginations and develop
radical alternatives; in particular the possibilities and pitfalls of
anarchist and anti-authoritarian approaches to combating fascism.

Key spaces of everyday life such as the workplace, community and home
have become implicated in the economically, socially and culturally
destabilising processes of globalisation and have become central sites
in responding to them. Recent studies have shown that global processes
shape both nationalist and internationalist practices and ideas,
fuelling the growth of far-right organisations, as well as fostering
grassroots everyday multiculturalisms and solidarities. The workshop
thus also considers the ways in which both fascisms and anti-fascisms
are related to experiences of globalisation and global processes, and
how these relationships may help or hinder efforts to promote free and
just societies.

Presentations that seek to make practical efforts to develop radical
alternatives and opposition to far-right politics are strongly
encouraged. All presentation formats will be considered, and
experimental or participatory contributions are especially welcome.
Possible presentation topics might include:

•    Critiques of policy-based or vanguardist forms of anti-fascism and
multiculturalism
•    The role of globalisation and geopolitics in the development of
contemporary fascisms and anti-fascisms
•    Anarchist or other horizontal/anti-authoritarian anti-fascisms
•    Crisis, recession and anti-/fascism
•    Grassroots / working class multiculturalisms and internationalisms
•    Everyday anti-/fascisms
•    Lessons from past anti-fascist struggles and strategies
•    Relations between fascism and discourses of ‘citizenship’
•    Workplaces, homes and communities as sites of anti-/fascist activity
•    Local or trans-national forms of community in anti-/fascist politics
•    Anti-/fascism and utopia

--

Anthony Ince
School of Geography
Queen Mary, University of London
Mile End
London
E1 4NS