Call for Papers APT 2014: Power in a World of Becoming, Entanglement & Attachment

June 2-3 2014, University of Warwick. Confirmed Speakers: Louise Amoore (Durham); William Connolly (Johns Hopkins); Christian Borch (CBS, Copehagen); Costas Douzinas (Birkbeck); Amade M'charek (Amsterdam); Luciana Parisi (Goldsmiths); AbdouMaliq Simone (Goldsmiths).

Authority and Political Technologies, 2014: Power in a World of Becoming, Entanglement and Attachment

June 2-3, 2014. University of Warwick  

Confirmed Speakers: Louise Amoore (Durham); William Connolly (Johns Hopkins); Christian Borch (CBS, Copehagen);  Costas Douzinas (Birkbeck); Amade M'charek (Amsterdam); Luciana Parisi (Goldsmiths); AbdouMaliq Simone (Goldsmiths).

Conference Organisers: Claire Blencowe & Illan rua Wall – Authority & Political Technologies (APT) Warwick  

Suggested Themes:

•     Biopolitics and Political Spirituality/Religion
•     Materialism and the Political Meaning of Entanglement
•     Authority, Sovereignty and Becoming in the (Post) Colony
•     Process and New Forms of Society(ism), Association and Being in Common
•     Necropolitics and Human Rights  

Recently, there have been various calls for a move beyond ‘post-structuralism’ (i.e. Foucault, Deleuze, cultural/critical theory), which had long been seen as the radical edge of the critical social sciences. Such calls are motivated in part by the sense that post-structuralist philosophies - which were forged against a backdrop of totalitarian rule and burgeoning welfare states in Europe - fail to offer moral or political purchase in the contemporary governmental landscape. Moreover, there is a sense that various concepts and theories have become reified and constraining – closing down the possibilities of critical thought. However, the issues that post-structuralist theory placed on the critical social science agenda have become more vital than ever - be that the concern for the complex and dispersed nature of power and agency; the imbrication of power and economics with knowledge and science; rethinking the relation between equality and difference; the political/contested/changing nature of embodiment, biology and ecology; or the efforts of states and others to establish and exercise power over life itself. We maintain that now is the time, not to reject post-structuralist perspectives, but to reinvigorate and transform those traditions through empirical and political work that is creatively engaged with current problems. The Authority & Political Technologies group at Warwick will host a series of annual events that bring together world leading, emerging and postgraduate scholars from across the social sciences whose work promises to renew post-structuralist critical thought through empirical scholarship. This year we invite papers on the theme 'Power in a World of Becoming, Entanglement & Attachment’. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the suggested themes above.  

Deadline for abstract submission March 10th 2014.  

For further information and updates see the conference website http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/rsw/authorityandpoliticaltechnologies/apt2014/