Monthly Archives: December 2010

An edition of e-flux edited by Irit Rogoff, focused on education.

/// MAKING A LONDON RADICAL EDUCATION WORKBOOK ///
Sunday, 16th January, 11am – 5pm
The Drawing Room, Tannery Arts, Brunswick Wharf, 55 Laburnum Street,
London E2 8BD
020 7729 5333
The Radical Education Forum and sound art collective Ultra-red
invite you to two days of presentation, discussion and reflection on
radical education in the UK. The workshops will be broken into
sessions in which radical educators in the UK will present histories
and techniques of radical education, and facilitate discussion about
their links to social movements and social change. Sessions will be
recorded, transcribed and collaboratively edited to create a Radical
Education Workbook to be published in 2011. If you would like to
present or attend, please RSVP to
radicaleducationforum@gmail.com

SOAS, University of London, 12th March 2011

This conference is concerned with control.  On what it means today –
under globalised late capitalism – to take or be in control of
institutions, whether political, economic, or academic.  We are
concerned with theorising how to take control, and on what to do when
we take it.  We want to focus not on the dangers of control – since
the corrupting effects of power have been amply theorized – but rather
on what it means to take responsibility and effect change, and what
this change could be.

That is, how can a vision for society be enacted in practical terms?
What is the role of democratic participation in this process of
mastering social change?  And how do we remain accountable as we take
control.  Does taking control mean working against, within or beside
the existing institutional structure?

This question remains under-theorised in contemporary critical
political theory – which often remains limited to the critique of the
status quo. Without the impulse to take responsibility and take
control, this critique becomes meaningless – it results in a de facto
acceptance.  Where projects like the ‘Idea of Communism’ stop, this
conference seeks to take the next step.  It must be situated along
work such as the Turbulence Collective’s ‘What it means to win’ volume
and Erik-Olin-Wright’s ‘Envisioning Utopias’.

We are clear that the idea of communism remains important and a
project to be fought for.  However in the strategic question we are at
an impasse, how to take control and implement a new communism? The
vanguard model seems discredited, but the model of the multitude seems
non-committal, a mere waiting for things to gradually come together,
resulting in a de facto withdrawal from the social. Even more than
this impasse, in times of late capitalism the very meaning of what
being in control entails is no longer clear.  We want to move from
thinking about the idea of communism to implementing it.

This event is organised by ES: Philosophy Research Collective with support from the Department of Politics and International Studies, SOAS and the Department of Politics, Goldsmiths

For more information see http://takingcontrol2011.wordpress.com

For a New Europe: University Struggles Against Austerity
Sunday, December 12, 2010
European Meeting of University Movements: Paris, 11-13 February 2011

From London to Vienna, from Rome to Paris, from Athens to Madrid, a new Europe is emerging. Students and precarious workers, citizens and immigrants, the multitudes are fighting for their lives and future in the front lines against the crisis.

Struggling to reappropriate their rights and the shared wealth that they create everyday. Rebelling against the austerity measures that exploit our present and rob us of our future. Raging against the arrogance of power.
Following the collective consensus of last years’ “Bologna Burns” meetings in Vienna, London, Paris and Bologna and this years’ “Commoninversity” held in Barcelona, Edu-Factory and the Autonomous Education Network join the call for a European meeting for all groups who are involved this common fight to create a powerful network of European of university struggle and beyond. A transnational space to discuss and develop our collective political capacity to counter the attacks against the university and social welfare and to build a new future for everyone.
Through conferences and workshops, panels and assemblies, we will propose the discussion around the key topics of the university, autonomous knowledge production, self-education, networking struggles, transnational political organization and the common.
The time is now upon us to rise up, together, collectively and singularly, to reclaim our lives and build a New Europe based on rights and access. The time has come for us to reclaim what is ours: the common.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: info@edu-factory.org

Watch this space for exciting news!