Special issue of Critical Horizons on Simon Critchley's Neo-Anarchism

Critical Horizons: A Journal of Philosophy and Social Theory
Editor(s): Jay M. Bernstein, Emmanuel Renault, John Rundell
Print ISSN: 1440-9917
Online ISSN: 1568-5160
Institutional Price (Print and Online): £110.00
Individual Price: £30.00

VOLUME 10 (2009) ISSUE 2

**SPECIAL ISSUE**
Ethics of Commitment and Politics of Resistance:
Simon Critchley’s Neo-Anarchism
Edited by Robert Sinnerbrink and Philip A. Quadrio

Contents

Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance: Simon Critchley’s
Infinitely Demanding
Robert Sinnerbrink and Philip A. Quadrio

On Simon Critchley’s Infinitely Demanding: Ethics of Commitment,
Politics of Resistance
Alain Badiou

Neo-Anarchism or Neo-Liberalism? Yes, Please! A Response to Simon Critchley’s Infinitely Demanding
Robert Sinnerbrink

“Critchley is Zizek”: In Defence of Critical Political Philosophy
Matthew Sharpe

The Common Root of Commitment, Resistance and Power
Karin de Boer

Speaking to the People: Critchley, Rousseau and the Deficit in Practical Rationality
Philip A. Quadrio

Which Anarchism? On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Infinity for (Political) Life: A Response to Simon Critchley’s Infinitely Demanding
Nina Power

A Plea for Prometheus
Alberto Toscano

Humorous Commitments and Non-Violent Politics: A Response
to Simon Critchley’s Infinitely Demanding
Fiona Jenkins

Mystical Anarchism
Simon Critchley Read more...

Imperceptible Strategies, Unidentified Autonomous Organizations

:: A Drifting Seminar :: London, October 23rd,2009 ::

Anarchist and autonomous politics are often associated, in a kneejerk way, with a celebration of chaos and disorder: a rejection of all forms of organization. The reduction of radical politics to a cheap joke (‘anarchist organization, what’s that?’) comes to substitute for an actual understanding of autonomous organizational practices. Far from rejecting organization all together, the history of autonomous politics contains a wealth of different modes of organizing, from the formation of temporary autonomous zones to affinity group models, maroon communities to networks and collectives.

These are forms of organizing that not always acknowledged as being organizations because they do not conform to what it is assumed organizations necessarily are: durable, static, and hierarchical. This understanding of organization obscures and makes difficult an actual engagement with the merits and weaknesses of different forms of organizing. But what would be found if rather than working from a fixed and unchanging concept of organization, one that excludes temporary forms of organization from consideration, it was attempted to tease out the organizational dynamics from all the temporary alliances and alliances that appear and disappear?

Might it be possible that we are already enmeshed in a world of unidentified autonomous organizations, a milieu of potential liberation that has remained imperceptible because of a narrow understanding of what organizations are? And might it not be that this imperceptibly, rather than being a condition to be addressed as a problem, could rather be part of building of what Robin D.G. Kelley calls an infrapolitical sphere: a space for politics coming out of people’s everyday experiences that do not express themselves as radical political organization at all.

The aim of this encounter is to explore the connections between anarchism, autonomism, and the revolutions of everyday life, drawing out conceptual tools useful to developing and deepening the politics of these infrapolitical spaces and organization. How can we strategize and build from the connections and movements of the undercommons, working from everyday encounters to compose new forms of social movement? How can we connect and work between spontaneous forms of resistance without forcing them into some larger form that ossifies them?

This event will not be based around formal presentations, but rather will rather take the form of a drifting seminar. Participants will be asked to read several pieces of text that will form the basis of discussion and exploration.

Registration for the event will be approximately 10 quid. There will be some limited travel funding available. If you wish to be considered for this funding indicate this when you register.

For registration and information contact: stevphen [NO SPAM] autonomedia [DOT] org / Sponsored by the Anarchist Studies Network & Minor Compositions

Sponsored by the Anarchist Studies Network (www.anarchist-studies-network.org.uk) & Minor Compositions (www.minorcompositions.info).


SCHEDULE:
To be posted shortly. Begins at 12pm outside Pogo Café in Hackney.

READINGS:
Roger Farr (2007) “The Strategy of Concealment.”
Stefano Harney (2008) “Governance and the Undercommons.”
The Invisible Committee (2007) The Coming Insurrection.
Dimitris Papadopoulos (2006) “Who’s Afraid of Immaterial Workers? Embodied Capitalism, Precarity, Imperceptibility.”
Dimitris Papadopoulos, Niamh Stephenson, and Vassilis Tsianos (2008) Escape Routes: Control and Subversion in the 21st Century. London: Pluto Press. Read more...

Anarca-Islam

"As an anarchist and a Muslim, I have witnessed troubled times as a result of extreme divisions that exist between these two identities and communities. To minimize these divisions, I argue for an anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian Islam, an ‘anarca-Islam’, that disrupts two commonly held beliefs: one, that Islam is necessarily authoritarian and capitalist; two, that anarchism is necessarily anti-religious. From this position I offer ‘anarca-Islam’ which I believe can help open-minded (non-essentialist/non-dogmatic) Muslims and anarchists to better understand each other, and therefore to more effectively collaborate in the context of what Richard JF Day has called the ’newest’ social movements. [..] In light of anarchism’s identification as a pluralistic tradition, it follows that Anarca-Islam is an Islamic reinterpretation of anarchism, and more particularly post-anarchism." --Mohamed Jean-Veneuse


Read Mohamed's M.A Thesis At the Anarchist Library (http://theanarchistlibrary.org/anarca-islam) Read more...

CFP: First North American Anarchist Network Conference

The 1st North American Anarchist Studies Network Conference

Association Nord-Américain des Etudes Anarchistes

Asociación Norteamericana de Estudios Anarquistas

When: November 21st and 22nd, 2009

Where: Hartford, Connecticut USA: at Charter Oak Cultural Center (21 Charter Oak Ave.)

We are pleased to announce the beginning of the North American Anarchist Studies Network (NAASN). We see this as a space to develop theoretical and empirical work that pays critical attention to anarchism and items of interest to the anarchist milieu. Likewise, we see the creation of this network as a way for North American anarchists who do scholarly work to be able to support each other in our endeavors and create a space for critical dialogue and reflection.

This conference, then, is not only a place for us to discuss our research, dialogue with one another in panels, and educate ourselves through presentations. It is also a place for discussing the development and future course of the NAASN–so if you would like to be involved, please do so! As well, this provides us with a venue for discussing the role of the theoretician and the researcher in the larger project of dismantling capitalism, the state, and domination in all of its forms.

We are calling for papers, panels, and presentations to be given at the founding conference. Creativity in format and presentation is encouraged, as are submissions from people who may not currently have a university affiliation. As anarchists, we want to disrupt rather than perpetuate the lines drawn between the official academy and the production of knowledge. Papers, panels, and presentations should focus on work on anarchism or topics of interest to the anarchist milieu. Importantly, we see this as an occasion for dialoguing with one another to learn and grow, and would like to avoid sectarianism, personal attacks, and debating-to-win.

Please send proposals and/or abstracts with a brief bio to the conference organizers: Jesse Cohn, Luis Fernandez, Nathan Jun, Deric Shannon, and Abbey Willis at anarchiststudies@hotmail.com . Please keep descriptions and/or abstracts under 500 words. All proposals and abstracts are due by October 10, 2009. Likewise, vendors and organizations may email us at the above address to arrange for table space.

For a new world, free of institutionalized coercion and control! And for a present living and organizing in ways that embody that future as best we can!

The Organizers for the 1st North American Anarchist Studies Network Conference

For up-to-date information, please visit: http://naasn.wordpress.com Read more...