Historical Materialism Sixth Annual Conference, 27-29 November 2009,
Central London
Another World is Necessary: Crisis, Struggle and Political Alternatives
Co-sponsored by Socialist Register and the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher
Prize
The world economy is traversing a sweeping crisis whose outcomes are
still uncertain, but whose scope is undeniable. The name of Marx is
now occasionally, if nervously, invoked in the financial press. The
neo-liberal project is being reconfigured, and some have even rushed
to pronounce it dead. Imperial strategies are being redrawn, while
ecological and food crises deepen on a global scale. This situation of
instability and uncertainty unquestionably lends itself to incisive
analyses drawing upon and critically innovating the traditions of
historical materialism. Critical Marxist theorists have already shed
considerable light on the mechanisms and tendencies underlying the
current crises and emphasised the conflicts and contradictions that
are emerging as they develop.
Following upon previous annual conferences which worked towards a
recomposition of an international Marxist intellectual sphere, this
year's Historical Materialism conference hopes to serve as a forum for
papers and debates that will gauge the capacity of contemporary
Marxism to confront this critical conjuncture and its multiple facets,
both analytically and politically. We hope that the conference will
serve not only as a collective investigation into the numerous global
scenarios of capitalist crisis, but also as the opportunity to inquire
- drawing on the political and conceptual reservoir of many Marxist
traditions - into the class formations, political forces and
organisational forms capable of responding combatively and inventively
to the current situation. While the hegemony of a one-dimensional neo-
liberalism demanded the affirmation that other worlds were possible,
the current crises require arguments to demonstrate how we might
achieve the other world that is now more than ever necessary.
In keeping with the multi-disciplinary and exploratory character of
the journal, we welcome abstracts on any matter of relevance to
critical Marxist theory, but will especially welcome papers responding
directly to the call, or dealing with some of the following issues
* Theories of crisis, and their history
* Neo-liberalism in retreat?
* Histories of class struggle, crisis, and revolution
* Socialist Feminist Responses to Crisis
* The future of the new imperialism
* 'Neo-Keynesian' responses to the crisis
* Environmental crisis and eco-socialism
* Left interventions in the crisis
* Utopian and non-utopian Marxisms
* Political agency and subjectivity
* Theories of political organisation
* Political economy and labour in contemporary cultural theory
* Class struggle and class composition today
* The geography and urbanisation of contemporary capitalism
* Non-Marxist traditions on the Left
* Marxist perspectives contemporary art, art history and visual culture
* Displacing crisis onto the Global South
* War, militarism, insecurity, and violence
* Immigration, migrant labour, and anti-racism
* Socialism in the Twenty-First Century
Note to all those who wish to propose papers and panels: instructions
will follow shortly on the procedure for proposals. PLEASE DO NOT SEND
THEM UNTIL THESE INSTRUCTIONS HAVE BEEN CIRCULATED.
Preference will be given to subscribers to the journal.
Please note also that participants are expected to attend the whole
conference - special arrangements for speaking on certain days only
cannot be made, except for very extreme circumstances.
Deadline for abstracts: 1 May 2009.
