APT 2014
Recently, there have been various calls for a move beyond ‘post-structuralism’ (i.e. Foucault, Deleuze, cultural/critical theory), which had long been seen as the radical edge of the critical social sciences. Such calls are motivated in part by the sense that post-structuralist philosophies - which were forged against a backdrop of totalitarian rule and burgeoning welfare states in Europe - fail to offer moral or political purchase in the contemporary governmental landscape. Moreover, there is a sense that various concepts and theories have become reified and constraining – closing down the possibilities of critical thought. However, the issues that post-structuralist theory placed on the critical social science agenda have become more vital than ever - be that the concern for the complex and dispersed nature of power and agency; the imbrication of power and economics with knowledge and science; rethinking the relation between equality and difference; the political/contested/changing nature of embodiment, biology and ecology; or the efforts of states and others to establish and exercise power over life itself. We maintain that now is the time, not to reject post-structuralist perspectives, but to reinvigorate and transform those traditions through empirical and political work that is creatively engaged with current problems. The Authority & Political Technologies group at Warwick will host a series of annual events that bring together world leading, emerging and postgraduate scholars from across the social sciences whose work promises to renew post-structuralist critical thought through empirical scholarship. In 2014 we invited papers on the theme 'Power in a World of Becoming, Entanglement & Attachment’. For updates on future actitvities watch this space or follow @APTWarwick or our partner websites.
The conference was supported by IAS, Sociology, Law, Warwick ESRC Doctoral Training Centre, and the Center for Interdisciplinar Methodologies.
Our inaugral conference took place on June 2-3, 2014
Listen to the plenary papers here
Follow us: @APTWarwick
Plenary Speakers:
- Louise Amoore (Durham)
- Christian Borch (CBS, Copehagen)
- Costas Douzinas (Birkbeck)
- Amade M'charek (Amsterdam)
- Luciana Parisi (Goldsmiths)
- AbdouMaliq Simone (Goldsmiths)
Parallel Sessions:
- Biopolitics and Political Spirituality/Religion
- Materialism and the Political Meaning of Entanglement
- Authority, Sovereignty and Becoming in the (Post) Colony
- Process and New Forms of Society(ism), Association and Being in Common
- Necropolitics and Human Rights
- Political Re/Imaginaries
- Silence, Spaces & Spiritualities of Power, Sovereignty & Law
Conference Organisers:
Claire Blencowe & Illan rua Wall
with Sam Burgum, Kathryn Medien, Chiara Livia Bernardi and APT.