New Call for Papers: Anarchism, Labor Unions, and Working People
Click on Call for Papers above
London Anarchist Bookfair - 18/10/08
The ASN will be represented at the bookfair and will be running a stall for Anarchist Studies
ANARCHISTS ORGANISE PISS-UP IN BREWERY (01/08/08)
To celebrate the second birthday of the establishment of ASN in November 2007, members organised a tour of Nottingham's Castle Rock Brewery. Hangovers contributed to it taking this long to post up the announcement.
Jamie Heckert, 'Listening, Caring, Becoming: Anarchism As an Ethics of Relationships'
Anarchism is frequently considered to be alternatively a political ideology, a social movement or a form of political culture. Drawing on queer and feminist writings as my own experience both in anarchist politics and in sex education, I suggest that thinking of anarchism as an ethics of relationships is consistent with key elements of the tradition as well as offering fruitful insights for everyday relationships. Anti-state, anti-capitalist, anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-hierarchical, anti-authoritarian, anarchism and other forms of radical politics are criticised for being anti-everything, begging the question, what is anarchism for? While on one hand offering utopian visions of life after capitalism, the anarchist tradition is also firmly grounded in everyday practices of relationships. In anarchist critiques of speaking for others and in practices of collective organising, I see a radical commitment to listening. In offering challenges to institutionalised competition and in demonstrating the benefits of mutual aid, I see a radical commitment to care. In undermining the 'false futures' of neoliberalism and stories of the 'end of history' and in practices of individual and collective empowerment and transformation, I see a radical commitment to becoming. As an ethics of relationships, anarchism might not only evade criticism as utopian or nihilist, it may provide a profound source of inspiration for the everyday challenges of our relationships with ourselves, each other and the earth.
Anthony McCann, 'Listening as a Methodology: the possibilities of gentleness in the social sciences'
In this paper I will offer a discussion of 'listening' in ways that might inform methodologies in the social sciences, in particular the disciplines influenced by anthropological ethnography. Is 'participant observation' unnecessarily limiting as an epistemological stance within disciplines that allow us to privilege context? In light of recent work in the anthropology of the senses, might 'sensitive presence' be a more appropriate way to think about the epistemological aspirations of anthropological fieldwork? What might be some political consequences of holding to either 'participant observation' or 'sensitive participation'? To what extent might models of action research provide us with helpful thinking about the possibilities of helpful sensitivity in research relationships? What thinkers in nursing, healthcare, and social work might be helpful in providing a more systematic role for notions of presence, listening, respect, and sensitivity in methods and methodologies in the social sciences? If listening or 'sensitive presence' were to be foregrounded in the social sciences, what might be the consequences for our understandings of power, and for understandings of our power?
Deleuze spoke of "the indignity of speaking for others." Resisting any clear distinction between the personal and the political, this panel aims to explore the dignity of listening to others speak for themselves(and of being listened to). Although not usually set out in these terms, listening can be understood as a key ethic/practice of anarchist(ic) traditions. For ecological anarchisms, including primitivist, permaculturist, pagan and those inspired by deep ecology, this is expressed through listening to the land, to acknowledging the connection between human and more than human worlds. In the Zapatista's Other Campaign, it is demonstrated through a focus on listening to the struggles of others and supporting their capacity for autonomy rather than electoral campaigns to become representatives. In anarcha-feminisms and radical psychologies, learning to listen to oneself, to acknowledge one's own emotions and needs, is crucial to unlearning a patriarchal hierarchy of the rational over the emotional and to resist individualising pathologisation. Listening is also central to anarchist cultural politics, and political culture, in areas such as music and storytelling. Proposals for papers and other forms of presentation on any aspect of listening in relation to anarchism are welcome.
For further information or to submit titles or abstracts of proposed contributions, please contact: Jamie.Heckert@gmail.com