Other News

Dr Edward Page has written an expert comment on the recent global school climate strikes for Politics Reconsidered.

On Friday 15^th March, schoolchildren worldwide took the day off school in order to gather at more than 2000 events to register their protest against inaction on the part of adults, policymakers and world leaders in tackling global climate change. At the epicenter of the climate protests, Greta Thunberg, the founder of the climate strike phenomenon, addressed the crowd in central Stockholm: ‘we are facing an existential crisis, the largest mankind has ever faced. Those of you who have ignored this crisis know who you are and are most guilty. It is not the young who are responsible for this strike. We are striking to have a future and we will not stop.”

Across Sweden, and in over 120 countries, the climate strikers spoke of their hopes and fears and endorsed a range of policy measures and behavioral changes that older generations had resisted: higher taxes for petrol and aviation fuel, fewer trips by plane, phasing out of one-time plastics, and a reduction in meat consumption were all championed. At partner events in Australia, other children demanded a moratorium on new coal-mines and natural gas projects, as well as renewable only energy production by 2030. Writing in The Guardian, Thunberg and others explained that ‘these strikes are happening today… because politicians have failed us. We’ve seen years of negotiations, pathetic deals on climate change, fossil fuel companies being given free rein to carve open our lands, drill beneath our soils and burn away our futures for profit...Politicians have known the truth about climate change and they’ve willingly handed over our future to profiteers whose search for quick cash threatens our very existence’ (Thunberg et al 2019).

Two of the most striking elements of the protests were, first, the diverse but eminently achievable measures that many of the schoolchildren demanded (reductions of meat consumption, decreased use of consumer plastics, shift to renewables, and reduces use of carbon intense energy, are all eminently achievable and have been promoted by many environmental groups and green political parties, if with very limited success; and, second, the focus on the ‘existential crisis’ caused by an inadequate climate response run by, of, and seemingly for, older generations who will not face the consequences of their failure.

Continue reading here: https://politicsreconsidered.net/2019/03/20/youth-climate-strikes-a-climate-game-changer/

Stuart Elden has been awarded a British Academy/Leverhulme small grant for a project entitled ‘The Early Foucault: Retracing Intellectual History through Archival Sources’. This work builds on his recent books on Foucault’s later career – Foucault’s Last Decade (Polity, 2016) and Foucault: The Birth of Power (Polity, 2017) – in a study of his intellectual formation. The research will involve working with archives of Foucault’s papers in Paris and Normandy, his personal library held at Yale, and papers and libraries of research collaborators in Tübingen, Princeton and Irvine. It will also involve a visit to the Carolina Rediviva library in Uppsala, where Foucault researched his History of Madness. The research will lead to a book entitled The Early Foucault (under contract with Polity), and the initial work for a book on Foucault’s career in the 1960s.

More detail on the project on the early Foucault can be found on Stuart’s blog.

Gary Goertz, Professor at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, is visiting Warwick on 13 March, 2019. Prof. Goertz is a highly influential scholar on issues of conceptual development, causal mechanisms and multi-methods research. Professor Goertz will present work from his forthcoming, completely revised book, Social Science Concepts: A User’s Guide. Earlier versions of this book have served as a touchstone for students of political science and social sciences more broadly.

Professor Goertz will give a small workshop with faculty (including post-docs) and Ph.D. students (2:00-3:30, Ramphal Building, R0.03 on “Guidelines for Constructing and Evaluating Complex Concepts”), and present at the closing session of the Politics and International Studies Department seminar for term 2 (4:00 – 5:30 pm. Ramphal building R0.03 on "Three Schools of Conceptualization and Measurement: with Applications to Global Indicators such as related to Poverty and Human Well-being").

Interested colleagues are invited to write to the co-organizers Tom Long t.long.1@warwick.ac.uk and Maria Koinova m.koinova@warwick.ac.uk to RSVP and for further information. A flyer of Prof. Goertz talk at 4 pm. is attached here.

The Warwick Annual Debate on the Future of International Political Economy takes place on Wednesday March 13th at 5pm in S0.12.

This year's debate will challenge some of the common interpretations of Brexit, whilst offering up a wider range of ways in which we can better understand it, including through gender, post-colonial and new institutionalist lenses. By broadening our vision and placing Brexit within longer term political, cultural and economic contexts, the debate will shed light on Brexit as a process, and on what it means for the political economy of Britain and Europe.

We have, again, a great line-up of speakers: Professor Roberta Guerrina, University of Surrey; Professor Ben Rosamond, Copenhagen University; Dr Nadine El-Enany, Birkbeck University of London; and Dr Muireann O'Dwyer, University of Warwick. All welcome!

Stuart Elden's study of George Canguilhem has been published by Polity Press in their Key Contemporary Thinkers series.

Georges Canguilhem (1904-95) was an influential historian and philosopher of science, as renowned for his teaching as for his writings. He is best known for his book The Normal and the Pathological, originally his doctoral thesis in medicine, but he also wrote a thesis in philosophy on the concept of the reflex, supervised by Gaston Bachelard. He was the sponsor of Michel Foucault's doctoral thesis on madness. However, his work extends far beyond what is suggested by his association with these thinkers. Canguilhem also produced a series of important works on the natural sciences, including studies of evolution, psychology, vitalism and mechanism, experimentation, monstrosity and disease.

Stuart Elden discusses the whole of this important thinker's complex work, including recently rediscovered texts and archival materials. Canguilhem always approached questions historically, examining how it was that we came to a significant moment in time, outlining tensions, detours and paths not taken. The first comprehensive study in English, this book is a crucial guide for those coming to terms with Canguilhem's important contributions, and will appeal to researchers and students from a range of fields.

"The patience, clarity, and erudition we expect of Stuart Elden's books are on full display in this exceptional work. More than a simple introduction, Canguilhem enables readers to see the outlines, stakes and details of the works of an important thinker."

John Protevi, Louisiana State University

"This impressive and meticulously researched volume which includes a wealth of references to archival material provides the first comprehensive introduction in English to a figure recognized as a seminal influence by postwar French thinkers, including Foucault and Althusser."

Clare O’Farrell, Queensland University of Technology