I don’t normally attend academic conferences but this looks interesting…
Discourses of Dissent- Social Theory and Political Resistance
www.discoursesofdissent.com
Public Symposium, Warwick Social Theory Centre
16th February 2011, 1:30pm-6:30pm, Drinks afterwards
Birmingham Midland Institute
Discourses of Dissent is a symposium, open to all, which explores the relationship between social theory and political resistance. In light of the coalition government’s austerity agenda and the emerging movement against it, the event asks how academic research (with a particular focus on social theory) can help inform and sustain political resistance.
In doing so it will confront a variety of pressing questions standing at the interface between theory and politics. How do theoretical justifications of austerity work to constrain public debate? How does the current government’s incongruous blend of neoliberal realism and superficial progressivism relate to what went before it? What resources can we find in social theory to critique the coalition’s agenda and it’s relationship to the wider crisis of late capitalism? How can academic research in general (and social theory in particular) aid the cultivation and propagation of positive discourses which would allow us to break out of the ever narrowing political and cultural horizons which have defined the public life of the UK over the last three decades?
Confirmed speakers are Steve Fuller, Dan Hind, John Holmwood, Ruth Levitas, Sasha Roseneil and Karen Rowlingson. More speakers are to be confirmed in the near future. The event is being organized by the Social Theory Centre at the University of Warwick and the BSA Theory Study Group. It takes place on the 16th February at the Birmingham & Midland Institute in central Birmingham.
