Conference: The Luddites, without Condescension

Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities
The Luddites, without Condescension - A Conference on the 200th Anniversary of the Frame-breakers’ Uprising
Friday 6th May 10am - 6pm
Room B34
Birkbeck Main Building

This event is free and open to all

In the Spring of 2011 Birkbeck will host a one-day conference to mark the 200th anniversary of the uprising of the handloom weavers in the dawn of the industrial revolution under the command of the mythic General Ludd. Even though the movement was sparked by skilled artisans, “luddite” has ever since been a byword for technophobes facing backwards and mindless rejection of progress. The conference will gather historians of luddism and others interested in what in 1800 was called “the machinery question”, to consider not only the historical luddites, urban and rural, but also contemporary movements of direct resistance, north and south, to capitalist modernization – for example, anti-nuclear movements, opposition to agricultural transgenics, resistance to big dams. The concluding session will address the issue of modernity itself, its model of temporality and the assumption that history is future-directed.
Speakers: Amita Baviskar, Iain Boal, T.J. Clark, Peter Linebaugh
More information

Julia Eisner
Administrator
Institute for the Humanities (BIH)
Institute for Social Research (BISR)
Birkbeck,
University of London
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HX
T: (0) 20 7631 6612
E:j.eisner@bbk.ac.uk