Dear Tariq, Thanks for sending this round. I've always found 'speculation' to be a very productive and Janus-faced notion, articulating that which (politically) might have been in the past, as much as that which (profitably) could be in the future. For me, the former sense is aligned with the kind of heterongeous, open sense of space that many of us are interested in. I look forward to reading the dossier. Happy New Year to you too! Best wishes, David * * * Dr David Lambert Reader of Caribbean History, Department of History, University of Warwick http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/cas/staff/lambert <https://legacyowa.warwick.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/cas/staff/lambert> ________________________________ From: A forum for critical and radical geographers on behalf of Tariq Jazeel Sent: Wed 11/01/2012 17:24 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: 'Speculative Life' on Social Text website Dear All List members may be interested in the new dossier on 'Speculative Life' (eds. Jayna Brown and Alexis Lothian) recently published on the Social Text website. An extract from the intro is pasted below: "In our dystopian present, the term speculation is associated with an epistemology of greed, a sanctioned terrorism, and new dimensions of imperialism based in the domination of abstract futures. But speculation means something else for those who refuse to give its logic over to power and profit. The contributors to this Periscope dossier investigate the playful, inventive, and engaging acts of speculative imagination, even as they critique the erasures, exclusions, and failures of speculative cultural production. With contributions from Jayna Brown, Alexis Lothian, Moya Bailey, Tamara Ho, Alex Weheliye, Tavia Nyong'o, Elizabeth Turgeon, Andrea Hairston, and an interview with China Miéville. Co-edited by Jayna Brown and Alexis Lothian." Full access: http://www.socialtextjournal.org/periscope/speculative-life/ Happy new year! -- Dr. Tariq Jazeel Senior Lecturer in Human Geography Department of Geography University of Sheffield Winter Street Sheffield S10 2TN Tel +44(0)114 222 7969 Fax +44(0)114 222 7907 http://www.shef.ac.uk/geography/staff/jazeel_tariq/index.html