nettime Upcoming Essex Seminars on Capitalism the Social
Here’s information on two upcoming seminars at the University of Essex Centre for Work, Organization, and Society. Cheers, Stevphen 18/6 Seminar on Revaluing the Social in Contemporary Capitalism Monday June 18th, 2012 @ 3PM University of Essex Room 4SB.5.3 Centre for Work, Organization and Society (http://www.essex.ac.uk/ebs/research/emc) Seminar presentations by: Jason Read (University of Southern Maine) / George Tsogas (Cass, City University) / Stevphen Shukaitis (University of Essex) Abstracts General Relations: Transindividuality from Ontology to a Non-Economic Critique of Political Economy Jason Read (University of Southern Maine) In the Grundrisse Marx writes “Only in the eighteenth century, in ‘civil society,’ do the various forms of social connectedness confront the individual as a mere means towards his private purposes, as external necessity. But the epoch which produces this standpoint, that of the isolated individual, is also precisely that of the hitherto must developed social (from this standpoint, general) relations.” The contradiction Marx grasped between the increased interconnectedness of economic production and social isolation has only deepened into the twenty-first century: it is the era of commons, of digital connections, but also the era of neoliberal individuation, isolation, and precarious fragmentation. How then to make sense of an era of connection and isolation. I argue that the concept, or rather the problem, of transindividuation, makes possible a conflictual understanding of the genesis of both individuals and social relations. I say problem, or problematic, rather than concept, because transindividuality needs to be grasped in its broadest sense as an ontology of relations (Simondon, Spinoza); a critique of political economy (Marx, Virno, Stiegler); and a constitution of political subjectivity (Balibar, Negri). It is by thinking the interrelation of the ontology, economy, and political that we can think the constitution and transformation of the present. Cognitive capitalism, organization, and the labour theory of value George Tsogas (Cass) Stevphen Shukaitis (Essex) We address the reasons and methods for renewing a transfusion of ideas between Marxism and organisation and management theorising. We put forward a dialectical approach to the search for OM theories, by stepping outside disciplinary confines. The Marxian labour theory of value is put forward as the territory for such synthetical exchange to commence. For that task, we make the most of the autonomist Marxist tradition, inasmuch as it offers us a coherent explanation of the social foundations of post-Fordist, contemporary (cognitive) capitalism. We question the contemporary significance and relevance of the Marxian labour theory of value, in an era of deep capitalist crisis, and reach the assertion of the negation of value creation in cognitive capitalism: consumption precedes production and creates – rather than destroys – value. Our aim is to bring to the forefront of OM theoretical enquiry fundamental questions on the nature of labour, exchange relations and forces of production in contemporary, cognitive capitalism. -- 26/6 Seminar: Rise of the Flashpublics Tuesday June 26th, 2012 @ 4PM University of Essex Room LTB4 Centre for Work, Organization and Society (http://www.essex.ac.uk/ebs/research/emc) Rise of the Flashpublics: State-friended Social Media, User-Generated Discontent, and the Affective Transfer This presentation examines recent entanglements of social media and political dissent to explore mutations in network sovereignty. Using a number of recent examples (including the US State Department organized Alliance of Youth Movements, the uprisings in Iran and Egypt, KONY 2012, Occupy Wall Street, and the US police networks), it argues that we are witnessing a convergence of sovereign and network powers, one that expresses new modes of control while setting the conditions for new forms of evaluation and antagonism. Network alliances and coalitions have become key actors in constructing a public (now as “State-friended” movements) and dissuading dissent movements (“State-enemied” ones). More specifically, counter-radicalization can take place via creating what I call flashpublics (quickly mobilized networked alliances that distract and prevent other emergent networks). At the same time, these coalitions depend on social media spectators/participants, which are affective transfer points that exceed network capture. Bio: Jack Z. Bratich is associate professor and department chair of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers University. He is author of Conspiracy Panics: Political Rationality and Popular Culture (2008) and coeditor, along with Jeremy Packer and Cameron McCarthy, Foucault, Cultural Studies, and Governmentality (2003). His work applies autonomist social theory to such topics as audience studies, social media,
nettime A number (13) The dOCUMENTA, the hEGEMON
A number (13) The dOCUMENTA, the hEGEMON Despite the fact a Critical Art Ensemble tries hard to get in touch with people's hearts and minds on the spot[1], despite the fact the TRA.FO 'fights' since years for a friendly, clean but un-cleared and pro-(street-)people gardening-claim on the bourgeois protestant churchyard where jerks, drunk and junkies meet[2], despite the fact WochenKlausur[3] had no other (better) 30.000,00 EUR-idea but steelwork ... pardon me! streetworkers for those subordinated subaltern, despite the word Competition is good for business at the Friedrichsplatz but everyone for themselves [4], despite the fact VW loves to sponsor the Grossveranstaltung and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann would adore it, despite the fact some Jakobs of the dada13[5] were based in Berlin and took part in (if you like) the Capital Gentrification Programme there and AND AND AND[6] are commoning (Liebe Bewohnerinnen und Bewohner Kassels / Dear Inhabitants of Kassel) before or after Detroit or Buenos Aires (?) and the local motley Living Without Armament Group fixated on Panzer[7] will be able to hand out home-baked Cookie Tanks under this umbrella in Europe's first theatre building in history, despite the fact of approx. 12 million dependent on state transfer payments in the FRG and June-September means no holiday at this point, despite all the activist's interconnectivities and the benefit for the town (who's town?), despite the hot summer drinks and the Nothern-Hesse Hotel Occupy Movement[8] and Kabul could be Kassel[9], despite some want to be part of it plus the matter that 13 is the number after 12 and before 14 and we are suspicious but not superstitious, will this be bad luck when it's in the end free riding little rat-shops, cheap cheating copycat stores and temporary homes[10] in the dirty parts of the postwar and prewar inner City without any right to the real city after such de-reconstruction, selling non-profitcultural glitchè (Klitsche)[11] stuff or fake residencies without any subsidies overworking in self-exploitation? What do we know? And who is this omnious we anyway? Besides this ontological questioning: As we know the Hegemon functions similar to a Block (Gramsci). The block must not necessarily be a politicial party (Gramsci's erminology was camouflage paying attention to the censor) but, embedded actor–network relations given, the great _it_ of the Hegemon is based on this projection of identity and hallucinates itself being able to incorporate any other smaller or weaker block or at least to till the field and leave traces (Beuys Stones, »Men Walking to the Sky« in several front gardens of Kassel suburbs) and to spur the echos of former and new prosperity. This leading walking to the sky is certainly not to be indentified with the offspaces's Off. At the end of the tube there is no Anti-Wall Street Party heaven waiting, there is the spirit of a citizen of honour waiting: August Bode (not Arnold Bode), the ingenious designer[12]. The first German tank in the so called World War I, the Kolossal Wagen, was a job for Wegmann Co.[13] In other words, any gap of social interaction in the district out there can be filled with bullets of anti-voids. Such anti-void is common in this town. Horrors of rememberances may be filled utterly with objects of significance. As the striving for leading the community indicates differences in social class structure art takes the lead[15] as mediator between the classes like Polaris[16] announces in a re-interpretation of the fameous scene of reconciliation[17] in _Metropolis_(Director: Fritz Lang). The movie was celebrated by members of the local educated class last (Bildungsbuerger) year -- the look and feel of the FRG's socio-futuristic message which pleads for a paradox ignorance in knowing, that Bildungsbuerger, the middle classes are aware of economic inequality only they see just a gap between rich and poor, that's how assets are rephrased into social capital. A real couch in terms. In strange concidence with the notorius Agenda 2010, which is Germany's austerity programme since 2004, a nearly complete copy of _Metropolis_ has been found in Buenos Aires in 2010. TJing this fact with the ideology of reconciliation the whole project can be considered the rediscovery of class-compromise, a project endangered middle classes like most.[18] Culture for all (Social Democrats) turns out to be the positivist slogan of the ruling close to the Artistic pragmatism of Artur Žmijewski[19] by which the group in the middle between right an left helps itself out. The interest of the state becomes the interest of its Biennials (...).[19] When the state succeeds to bind civil society's powers and buttom-up forms it (he or she?) wins in every sector. And if the state succeeds to shape and sculpt social contradictions into disarmed paradoxes it prevails ... its rhythm can take the shape of racist
