Revised Call for Papers
The inaugural event of the MeCCSA Social Movements Network
Generations of Protest: Marxism Matters?
20-21 November 2013
De Montfort University
The current financial crisis has led to the global economy being clearly nominated as ‘capitalist’ in public and media debate and pushed Marxism back on the agenda as a viable mode of critical analysis. Yet new generations of protest have both abandoned and embraced histories of Marxism, socialism and anarchism. To what extent has recent protest brought back earlier political vocabularies? What has been the role of media in these shifts? Are we seeing new ‘post-capitalist’ and anti-capitalist practices and subjectivities emerge? What are potentials and pitfalls of these turns away from and beyond the language of Marxism? What kinds of inter-generational, coalitional and inter-movement possibilities are emerging? What obstacles to organising across lines of difference remain? And what roles do media and communication play in generations of protest?
We welcome papers that address questions, tensions and challenges in both historic and contemporary Social Movements. Topics could include but are not limited to:
- Social Movements and Media Technologies
- Socialist feminisms from the 70s to today
- Sexual Politics and Queer resistance
- The Occupy movement and its predecessors
- Trade Unions
- Autonomist Traditions
- Postcapitalism and 'Grow your own Economy'
- Theories of State power
- Syndicalism and Workplace Activism
- State violence and policing
- Consensus decision-making and its critiques
- International solidarity and the media
- In/visibilities of class and race
- The far right and re/turns to nationalism
- Uprisings and revolution
We are particularly interested in proposals that move beyond descriptive analysis to explore concepts and practices, asking what can social movement and media scholarship offer to activism and protest?
Please send abstracts of 250 words including your name, affiliation and email address to Ruth Sanz Sabido at [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>. The closing date is 31 August 2013.
|