Taking Control conference

Taking Control: registration now open
SOAS, University of London, 12th March 2011
Keynote: Professor Jodi Dean
Other speakers include: Professor Peter Hallward, Dr Alberto Toscano, Dr Paul Blackledge

This conference is concerned with control. On what it means today – under globalised late capitalism – to take or be in control of institutions, whether political, economic, or academic. We are concerned with theorising how to take control, and on what to do when we take it. We want to focus not on the dangers of control – since the corrupting effects of power have been amply theorized – but rather on what it means to take responsibility and effect change, and what this change could be. That is, how can a vision for society be enacted in practical terms? What is the role of democratic participation in this process of mastering social change? And how do we remain accountable as we take control. Does taking control mean working against, within or beside the existing institutional structure?

This question remains under-theorised in contemporary critical political theory – which often remains limited to the critique of the status quo. Without the impulse to take responsibility and take control, this critique becomes meaningless – it results in a de facto acceptance. Where projects like the ‘Idea of Communism’ stop, this conference seeks to take the next step. It must be situated along work such as the Turbulence Collective’s ‘What it means to win’ volume and Erik-Olin-Wright’s ‘Envisioning Utopias’.

We are clear that the idea of communism remains important and a project to be fought for. However in the strategic question we are at an impasse, how to take control and implement a new communism? The vanguard model seems discredited, but the model of the multitude seems non-committal, a mere waiting for things to gradually come together, resulting in a de facto withdrawal from the social. Even more than this impasse, in times of late capitalism the very meaning of what being in control entails is no longer clear. We want to move from thinking about the idea of communism to implementing it.

The event is free to attend but registration is essential. Please email takingcontrol2011@gmail.com

Organised by ES: Philosophy Research Collective With support from the Department of Politics and International Studies, SOAS Department of Politics, Goldsmiths For more information see http://takingcontrol2011.wordpress.com