Dear all,

I recently posted the details of a workshop we are organising at Keele University to the CGF 
(the message is included below, in case anyone missed it the first time round). We have 
now finalised all the aspects of the workshop. The conference is to be held on the 6th 
November, 1996, starting at 10am and finishing at 5pm. 

Professor Robert Cooper (director of the Centre) and Professor John Law (Professor of 
Sociology and Social Anthropology, Keele) will give keynote lectures at the start of the day. 
The rest of the day will be made up of short papers from participants, and workshop 
discussion. Details of the timetable for the day will posted to the participants nearer the 
workshop.

There will be a small cost of 5 pounds for the conference, to cover costs and to hopefully 
provide some financial help to postgraduate attendants.

If you are interested please write to me either to my email or snailmail address (my 
address is at the bottom of this email), or via our email application form which you will find 
at our website:
http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/stt/home.htm

We will be getting back to all those who have contacted us soon. Thanks

Simon Naylor

>CSTT ONE DAY WORKSHOP - 'Technologies-Representations'
>
>CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
>
>Dear all,
>
>Now the CGF seems to be back on-line I would like to draw peoples' attention to the 
>first in (hopefully) a series of workshops run by the Centre for Social Theory and 
>Technology, Keele University. To give some context to this Centre: It was set up in 
>1995 as a floating centre, comprising of individuals from Sociology, Management, 
>Geography, and Anthropology, and run by Professors Robert Cooper and John Law. 
>Although a programme of larger conferences has been put in place (see another recent 
>email of mine to the CGF) we felt that it would also be good to organise an 
>interdisciplinary 'space' where young researchers with common interests in social 
>theory could come together.  (In line with this thinking, this workshop is being 
>organised by myself, a postgrad. in Geography and Olaf Boettger, a postgrad. in 
>Sociology).
>
>Here are some notes on the broad themes of the workshop:
> 
>>This workshop is intended to be about technologies and representations. We want to 
>>provoke discussion and debate into how both these notions construct, sustain and/ or 
>>disintegrate our worlds. We would specifically like to consider their mutual 
>>constitution; to suggest that the two terms might work in different sets of 
>>constellations (and often without the intentions of those `employing' them) to force us 
>>into a re-consideration of their operations, forms and effects. Bearing these ideas in 
>>mind, we want to suggest two particular forms of coalition. (We do this acutely aware 
>>that we are also setting up false and maybe reductive dichotomies.) 
>>The first is about the technologies of representation. As has been consistently argued 
>>by post-structuralist philosophers and social theorists (amongst others), 
>>representations are never simply mimetic. Rather than merely reflecting power-
>>knowledge relations, representations are actually tied up in that power-knowledge 
>>nexus. As such they are also always partial, positioned, political and poetic. The 
>>technologies (or modalities) of knowledge play a very important role in the 
>>construction of these knowledges. Moreover, these technologies are not immune or 
>>removed from the web of these power-knowledge relations. Technologies - whether 
>>they be `scientific' instruments (from the astrolabe to the thermometer to the 
>>computer), a discrete set of ordered knowledges (a disciplinary framework for 
>>instance) or a particular form of `recounting' (a travelogue or a landscape picture) are 
>>also always constituted through that knowledge formation. In other words, the 
>>constitution of a representation is also bound up in the constitution of the technology 
>>itself. As such, where we must consider the technologies of representation so too 
>>must we take into account the representations of technology(ies). So, where the 
>>workshop is about exploring the mutual constitution of both notions, it is also about 
>>the re-constitution of both terms, not so much as grounded categories, but as fluid 
>>and mutable effects.
>
> We feel that a number of key inquiries emerge which might feed debate (although 
>>you might be able to think of others, of even disagree with our ideas):
>>1) an exploration of the social geographies and histories of particular 
>>technologies of representation
>>2) exploring the social constitutions and geographies of material technologies; 
>>their spaces (the Internet?), places (a laboratory?) and social relations.
>>3) considering the roles representations and technologies play in the 
>>construction of particular knowledges and power relations.
>
>>The workshop is primarily aimed at giving early-career researchers, i.e. 
>>postgraduate students or junior lecturers, an opportunity for informal discussion of 
>>issues related to their research. 

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Geography Department, Keele University
email: [log in to unmask]
phone: (01782) 621111 ext. 7028
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