Call For Papers
Conference: CASCA 2014
Dates: April 30 - May 3
Location: York University, Toronto, Canada
Plenary: "Unsettled Politics and Radical Potential: Figuring the Impulse to Act"
http://casca2014.apps01.yorku.ca/plenary/
Organizers: Othon Alexandrakis (York University, oalexand@yorku.ca), Daphne Winland (York University, winland@yorku.ca), Antonio Sorge (York University, asorge@yorku.ca), Maya Shapiro (York University, shapirom@yorku.ca)
Novel, unconventional and unexpected sites of resistance continue to complicate the global political scene calling into question taken-for-granted understandings of cooperative action. The objective of this symposium is to examine the taking up of creative political action among the precarious, dispossessed, humiliated – action informed by unexpected imaginings and constellations of desires that does not fit into identitarian or communitarian frames. Our point of departure is the "coming political" grounded in the subjective experience of a de facto politically qualified agent struggling to make a life worth living. The Symposium features three volunteered panels, each of which will explore our central theme, the impulse to act, through critical reengagements with: (1) political locations; (2) the political collective; and (3) political sensibilities.
Moving Targets: The Radical Potential of Migrant Activism in Uncertain Times
Organizer: Maya Shapiro, York University
Discussant: Sara Shneiderman, Yale University
Structures and experiences of migration increasingly constitute the raw material for radical political action(s) directed at national and supranational entities. Uncertainty figures into these actions and processes in especially salient ways as both the goals of activism as well as activists themselves are 'moving targets,' defined by conditions of liminality, instability and/or modes of becoming. This panel considers how patterns and processes of mobility configure political action, exploring how uncertainty is not an abstract notion, but an empirical reality that is well-known, carefully considered and sometimes used as a tool for change by migrant activists and their allies. Presenters on this panel may take up a variety of questions related to fluctuations in borders, citizenship and/or activist collectives. All will address the radical potential of migrant activism and the ways in which it confronts, circumnavigates and/or depends upon uncertainty to carry out visions of a different future.
Panel # 2
Rivalling Powers: Alternative Configurations of the Political Sphere
Organizer: Arne Steinforth, York University
Discussant: Kabir Tambar, Stanford University
Across present-day societies, the moral legitimacy of nation-states as well as their agents appears to be the subject of increased scrutiny, critique, and challenge. The forms of public action and resistance this triggered ranges from large-scale political movements and organized protests all the way down to subversive grassroots discourse. In the process, people overcome different kinds of repression in order to reconstitute themselves as political actors, finding novel points of convergence and creating alternative rationales of imagined landscapes of power. The injustices that motivate their action, the frames of reference within which they are articulated, and the common ground they generate along the way provide valuable ethnographic data of the shared notions, desires, needs, and visions that drive processes of social transformation in their respective local settings. The central concern of this panel is the politics of pluralism – whether as a reaction to times of increased social insecurity or as resurgence of previously existing alternative configurations of the political sphere. Contributors are invited to address a range of issues including (but not limited to) considerations of cosmology and politics, utopianism, and other shared visions of a more desirable political future.
Panel # 3
Alternatives to Acquiescence: Unsettling Legitimacy and Resisting Emergent Ordinaries
Organizer: Antonio Sorge, York University
Discussant: Neni Panourgiá, Columbia University
Political movements and activist programs in the twenty-first century disrupt the reconfigurations of political authority that define late modernity, and seek to provide alternatives to often calamitous emergent ordinaries. They interrogate the claimed necessity for public austerity and the entrenchment of market imperatives in governance, effectively unsettling the legitimacy of the neoliberal state. Notably, the range of agendas that constitute these alternatives knows little to no bounds, and spans across the political spectrum, reflecting dissatisfaction from numerous quarters. Panelists will take up the issue of lived changes in political topography and topology, as well as responses to the rise over the past decade in insurgent agendas driven by parochialism and xenophobia, examining the alternatives presented within micro-social sites of resistance to these troubling shifts in the global political landscape.
Proposal Submissions for Volunteered Panels:
If you are interested in presenting a paper, please submit your paper proposal including title, an abstract (max 150 words), your name, email address and affiliation to oalexand@yorku.ca no later than February 7th. Do not forget to indicate which panel you would like to join. Successful applicants will be notified by March 3rd.
(Reminder: deadline February 7th)Call For Papers
Conference: CASCA 2014
Dates: April 30 - May 3
Location: York University, Toronto, Canada
Plenary: "Unsettled Politics and Radical Potential: Figuring the Impulse
to Act"
http://casca2014.apps01.yorku.ca/plenary/
Organizers: Othon Alexandrakis (York University, oalexand@yorku.ca),
Daphne Winland (York University, winland@yorku.ca), Antonio Sorge (York
University, asorge@yorku.ca), Maya Shapiro (York University,
shapirom@yorku.ca)
Novel, unconventional and unexpected sites of resistance continue to
complicate the global political scene calling into question
taken-for-granted understandings of cooperative action. The objective of
this symposium is to examine the taking up of creative political action
among the precarious, dispossessed, humiliated – action informed by
unexpected imaginings and constellations of desires that does not fit into
identitarian or communitarian frames. Our point of departure is the
"coming political" grounded in the subjective experience of a de facto
politically qualified agent struggling to make a life worth living. The
Symposium features three volunteered panels, each of which will explore
our central theme, the impulse to act, through critical reengagements
with: (1) political locations; (2) the political collective; and (3)
political sensibilities.
Panel #1
Moving Targets: The Radical Potential of Migrant Activism in Uncertain Times
Organizer: Maya Shapiro, York University
Discussant: Sara Shneiderman, Yale University
Structures and experiences of migration increasingly constitute the raw
material for radical political action(s) directed at national and
supranational entities. Uncertainty figures into these actions and
processes in especially salient ways as both the goals of activism as well
as activists themselves are 'moving targets,' defined by conditions of
liminality, instability and/or modes of becoming. This panel considers how
patterns and processes of mobility configure political action, exploring
how uncertainty is not an abstract notion, but an empirical reality that
is well-known, carefully considered and sometimes used as a tool for
change by migrant activists and their allies. Presenters on this panel may
take up a variety of questions related to fluctuations in borders,
citizenship and/or activist collectives. All will address the radical
potential of migrant activism and the ways in which it confronts,
circumnavigates and/or depends upon uncertainty to carry out visions of a
different future.
Panel # 2
Rivalling Powers: Alternative Configurations of the Political Sphere
Organizer: Arne Steinforth, York University
Discussant: Kabir Tambar, Stanford University
Across present-day societies, the moral legitimacy of nation-states as
well as their agents appears to be the subject of increased scrutiny,
critique, and challenge. The forms of public action and resistance this
triggered ranges from large-scale political movements and organized
protests all the way down to subversive grassroots discourse. In the
process, people overcome different kinds of repression in order to
reconstitute themselves as political actors, finding novel points of
convergence and creating alternative rationales of imagined landscapes of
power. The injustices that motivate their action, the frames of reference
within which they are articulated, and the common ground they generate
along the way provide valuable ethnographic data of the shared notions,
desires, needs, and visions that drive processes of social transformation
in their respective local settings. The central concern of this panel is
the politics of pluralism – whether as a reaction to times of increased
social insecurity or as resurgence of previously existing alternative
configurations of the political sphere. Contributors are invited to
address a range of issues including (but not limited to) considerations of
cosmology and politics, utopianism, and other shared visions of a more
desirable political future.
Panel # 3
Alternatives to Acquiescence: Unsettling Legitimacy and Resisting Emergent
Ordinaries
Organizer: Antonio Sorge, York University
Discussant: Neni Panourgiá, Columbia University
Political movements and activist programs in the twenty-first century
disrupt the reconfigurations of political authority that define late
modernity, and seek to provide alternatives to often calamitous emergent
ordinaries. They interrogate the claimed necessity for public austerity
and the entrenchment of market imperatives in governance, effectively
unsettling the legitimacy of the neoliberal state. Notably, the range of
agendas that constitute these alternatives knows little to no bounds, and
spans across the political spectrum, reflecting dissatisfaction from
numerous quarters. Panelists will take up the issue of lived changes in
political topography and topology, as well as responses to the rise over
the past decade in insurgent agendas driven by parochialism and
xenophobia, examining the alternatives presented within micro-social sites
of resistance to these troubling shifts in the global political landscape.
Proposal Submissions for Volunteered Panels:
If you are interested in presenting a paper, please submit your paper
proposal including title, an abstract (max 150 words), your name, email
address and affiliation to oalexand@yorku.ca no later than February 7th.
Do not forget to indicate which panel you would like to join. Successful
applicants will be notified by March 3rd.
