June 13, 2005
Making Global Civil Society
nu o va cia tox.
> CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS AND INTERVENTIONS
>
> Making Global Civil Society:
> Grassroots Practice and Academic Theory of Globalisation from Below
>
> A weekend gathering for activists and academics.
>
> November 4, 5 & 6 - 2005
>
> Lancaster University, North West England.
>
> With support of the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) at Lancaster
> University, the "Knowledge Laboratory on Globalisation from Above and
> Below" is happy to invite you, your affinity group, your collective, or
> your organisation to contribute to its first event.
>
> The aim of the gathering is to discuss key aspects of the historical
> development of the capitalist economy that drives globalisation from
> above - such as enclosures, (precarious) labour, structural violence,
> colonialism, and their justifying cultural imagery - and to make visible
> alternative architectures of social organisation emerging through the
> processes of globalisation from below, that is, through grassroots
> movements cooperating to create a global civil society based on human
> rights and mutual aid, and to restore the (intellectual) commons, in the
> street, on the land, and in cyberspace.
>
> We are particularly interested in contributions that relate people's
> experiences of, perspectives on, motivations for, and frustrations with
> their involvement in grassroots movements. The idea is to bring together
> first-hand accounts of the successes and failures of social, cultural
> and political projects and experiments with theoretical elaborations by
> academics trying to understand the reality of globalisation and the
> connections beween its manifestations from above and below. By letting
> academics listen to narratives from global civil society we hope to
> create an atmosphere in which practice can inform theory and where
> theoretical academic perspectives can facilitate a reflection on
> activist practices.
>
> If you are engaged in any form of social, political, or cultural
> activism and have a story to tell, issues to explore, or anything else
> you would like to share in this forum, then get in touch and suggest a
> contribution or presentation.
>
> Academic presentations should be in areas relevant to social movements,
> such as:
>
> * conceptions of global civil society, counter-public sphere and
> counter-hegemonic movements
>
> * the dynamics of enclosing knowledge and genetic material
>
> * history and change of precarious labour
>
> * resisting enclosures, resisting precarity, constructing alternatives
>
> * transformations of colonialism: biocolonialism, TRIPs and structural
> adjustment
>
> * networked databases, biometrics, and border control
>
> * subversive and transhuman uses of technology
>
> * reclaiming/liberating urban spaces and rural land
>
> * sexual politics, discourse, and resistance
>
> * radical media and art collectives
>
> * self-organisation and consensus processes conceptually
>
> * non-central, non-hierarchical networks and governance; network-centric
> thinking
>
> * human rights as community building, form of resistance, and as global
> vision of movements
>
>
> Participation is limited to a hundred people. A LIMITED AMOUNT OF
> TRAVEL GRANTS AND FREE ACCOMODATION FOR ACTIVISTS ARE AVAILABLE -
> CONTACT US NOW.
>
> SEND SUGGESTIONS FOR WORKSHOPS, PRESENTATIONS, AND PAPERS (MAX. 1 PAGE)
> TO: n.moeller [at] lancaster.ac.uk
>
> - further info will be made available on
> http://knowledgelab.blogspot.com (download .pdf file of this call from
> there, too!)
>
> Costs, incl. (predominantly organic and vegan) Friday dinner, Saturday
> lunch and dinner:
>
> Volunteers/unpaid activists: Free
> Unfunded students: Donation
> Funded students, Lancaster academics: £20 (additional donation
welcome!)
> Representatives of smaller NGOs: £35 (negotiable)
> Representatives of bigger NGOs: £65
> Academics: £65
Posted by alijosius at 12:14 AM | Comments (1)