Australians reading French theorists!!! snigger snigger,
Well listen up, mate. We do not talk like we have escaped from BBC1, and
we might add an unnecessary expletive to the odd sentence,
but some of us take political theory pretty seriously.
Are you suggesting that the geographical distance between China (Mao),
Paris (Althusser, Badiou), London and Melbourne makes some difference to
our capacity to comprehend?
We also have a distinctive political culture.
In fact, the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) has had an
extraordinary influence on Australia's political history.
Its activities have always been clandestine:
Rule No. 1 : never show you hand.
Rule No. 2 : do your political work were you are and where you skills can
make the most impact .. (ie this is an issue of labour productivity)
Rule No 3: serve the people (interpreted as the ends do not
justify the means)
(not necessarily in that order)
For academics that means not wasting 30 years of training running around
building barricades - leave that to the undergrads.
It means not working out of context, as in academics taking over
local-level community action groups to enhance their CVs
It means working systematically to expose the distortions of the
think-tanks and their supporters, using the tools of analysis that we
have been lucky enough to develop.
Think it through!
Sally Weller
09:06 PM 7/02/2007, you wrote:
I've heard that Australian
translations of French social theory are
absolutely THE latest thing...!
;)
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers
[
mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Rachel Bethany
Hughes
Sent: 07 February 2007 00:55
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: reading Badiou
Some geographers may be interested in an English translation of part
of
Badiou's 'Logiques des mondes' (2006) titled 'Logic of the site'
that
appeared in Diacritics in 2003 (Fall-Winter). Also, a double issue of
the
journal Cosmos and History dedicated to 'The Praxis of Alain Badiou'
has
recently appeared in book form:
http://www.re-press.org/
For this geographer, the most accessible introduction to Badiou is
the
Introduction to 'Infinite Thought' (2003) - though be warned it is
written
by two Australian translators of Badiou in Aussie English, mate.
Rachel Hughes
--
Dr Rachel Hughes
Program in Geography
School of Social and Environmental Enquiry
The University of Melbourne
--
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Dr. Sally Weller
Economic Geography
School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Studies
221 Bouverie Street
University of Melbourne
Parkville VIC 3010
AUSTRALIA
Phone +613 8344 0626
Fax +613 9349 4218