Enlightened Anarchism
An
inter-disciplinary event organized by Lapland University, in cooperation with
Cambridge University.
Keynote
Speakers:
George Katsiaficas, Wentworth Institute of
Technology
Alexandre Christoyannopoulos, Loughborough
University
With
Special Guest Speaker:
Dimitrios Roussopoulous
Lapland University, Rovaniemi Finland
Sept 12-14, 2014
Please send abstracts of no more than 500
words, including email address and institutional affiliation, to conference
organizers Ali Jones at ajones@ulapland.fi and Mika Luoma-aho at mika.luoma-aho@ulapland.fi by June 1,
2014.
Anarchism has recently become a topic of
scholarly focus, as social and political movements have become increasingly
active across Europe and North America. While traditional public opinion tends to
view anarchism as juvenile force of negation, violence or gleeful destruction,
it is nonetheless possible to examine a far more nuanced discourse, as espoused
by the social actors involved. In fact, many such groups are particularly
focused upon combatting fascism, perceived state corruption, the effects of
neoliberalism or globalization, or to dedicating themselves to fighting for
environmental protection, immigrant and refugee rights, or in other arena of
social justice. Many of these aims could be interpreted as not only in the
public interest, but also to constitute some of the cornerstones of democracy
itself. Indeed, despite the
traditionally discussed perceptions of anarchy, it is in fact possible to view
these social movements as highly engaged public citizens, which begs the
question of why they are ostracized and considered to be so politically
threatening. It further causes one to re-examine democracy and anarchy
categorically and philosophically.
This reconsideration further raises the
debate surrounding the use of political violence for achieving democratic
goals. This conference particularly wishes to open dialogue on these
discourses, especially the moral, and one could even say spiritual aims of such
movements.
Furthermore, analysis and recent
scholarship also asks whether anarchism must be “justified” by such moral
categories, or if it should attempt to remove itself from such dominating
discourses. As such, both moral and anti-moral interpretations are welcome, as
well as those papers interrogating this process of moral justification itself.
Focusing upon this notion of enlightened
anarchism, the conference presents a forum for discussing the moral,
anti-moral, religious, anti-religious, social justice, democratic and
anti-democratic, or purely revolutionary discourses of modern anarchists and social
movements.
The conference organizers are particularly
interested in placing these contrasting perspectives into fruitful and exciting
conversation. Some potential areas of focus include:
-Enlightened anarchism
-Political theology and social movements
-The use of anarchism to achieve the goals
of democracy
-The use of anarchy to combat perceived
corruption
-The justification of destruction for
purposes of social justice
-Discussions of anarchist violence
-The justification of violence for
achieving democratic or moral goals
-A re-examination of democracy and
anarchism
-Explicitly religious anarchism
-Explicitly anti-religious anarchism
-Anarchism as a non-religious morality
-Anarchism rejecting the category of
morality
-Other types of anarchism
- While papers on Marxism will of course be
considered, the conference organizers hope that they will relate to anarchism
in some way.
Selected papers from the conference will
then be compiled into an edited volume, and submitted to Cambridge University
Press or another international publisher by the end of 2014.
While travel
funding is unfortunately not possible, limited subsidized accommodations are
available. Presenters are encouraged to contact conference organizers Ali Jones
at ajones@ulapland.fi and Mika Luoma-aho at mika.luoma-aho@ulapland.fi with inquiries.
Keynote Speaker Biographies
George Katsiaficas has been active in social movements since 1969. A
target of the FBI's COINTELPRO program, he was classified "Priority 1
ADEX" (meaning in the event of a national emergency, people like him were
to be immediately arrested). For 11 years, he worked in Ocean Beach, California
as part of a radical countercultural community (described in Andre Gorz's book,
Ecology as Politics). He moved to
Berlin, after which he wrote two books: one on the global imagination of 1968
and another on European social movements. In these books, he developed the
concept of the “eros effect” to name the sudden and synchronous eruption of
insurgencies. For years, he was active in the cause of Palestinian rights.
Together with Kathleen Cleaver, he co-edited Liberation, Imagination and the Black Panther Party. A graduate of
MIT and UCSD (where he studied with Herbert Marcuse), he is currently based at
Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston and also in Gwangju, South Korea,
where he finished a 2-volume book, Asia’s
Unknown Uprisings. His web site is: http://www.eroseffect.com
Alexandre Christoyannopoulos is Senior Lecturer in Politics and
International Relations at Loughborough University, which he joined in 2010.He is the author of Christian Anarchism:
A Political Commentary on the Gospel, a seminal book which brings together
the writings of disparate Christian anarchists, Tolstoy in particular, and
presents a comprehensive exegesis arguing that Jesus’ teaching implies
anarchism. He has also published a number of articles, chapters and other
publications on Tolstoy and on Christian anarchism, and edited Religious
Anarchism: New Perspectives. He is currently working on a monograph on
Tolstoy’s political thought, and co-editing a new collection of essays on
anarchism and religion.A Fellow of the Higher Education Academy,
he also acts as Treasurer of the Anarchist Studies Network and officer of the
International Political Science Association’s research committee on Politics
and Religion.His website, which includes a full list of
publications (many of which are openly accessible online) and a more extensive
biography, can be accessed via http://www.christoyannopoulos.com.
