Theory-Action:Lancaster Knowledge Laboratory from Below Call, England, 4-6, 2005

 Mon, 6 Jun 2005 10:58:05 -0700
From:   "stevphen shukaitis" <stevphen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
Subject:        Lancaster Knowledge Laboratory from Below Call
To:     EPHEMERA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Making Global Civil Society:
Grassroots Practice and Academic Theory of Globalisation from Below

A weekend gathering for activists and academics.

November 4, 5 & 6 2005
Lancaster University, North West England.

With support of the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) at Lancaster 
University, the ?Knowledge Laboratory on Globalisation from Above and 
Below? is happy to invite you, your affinity group, your collective, or 
your organisation to contribute to its first event.

The aim of the gathering is to discuss key aspects of the historical 
development of the capitalist economy that drives globalisation from 
above such as enclosures, (precarious) labour, structural violence,
colonialism, and their justifying cultural imagery ? and to make visible 
alternative architectures of social organisation emerging through the 
processes of globalisation from below, that is, through grassroots 
movements cooperating to create a global civil society based on human 
rights and mutual aid, and to restore the (intellectual) commons, in the 
street, on the land, and in cyberspace.

We are particularly interested in contributions that relate people's 
experiences of, perspectives on, motivations for, and frustrations with 
their involvement in grassroots movements. The idea is to bring together 
firsthand accounts of the successes and failures of social, cultural and 
political projects and experiments with theoretical elaborations by 
academics trying to understand the the reality of globalisation and the
connections between its manifestations from above and below. We hope to
create an atmosphere in which practice can inform theory and where
theoretical academic perspectives can facilitate a reflection on activist
practices.

If you are engaged in world changing activities, such as running a social
centre or otherwise occupied/squatted space, if you are organising
nonviolent direct actions, building campaigns, or an ecovillage (or living
in one), or doing anything of the experimental kind that we all want to
see more of, or if you are working in an NGO on community building
projects or other forms of practical projects, such as development or with
indigenous peoples, then get in touch and suggest a contribution or
presentation.

Academic presentations should be in areas relevant to social movements, 
such as:

? conceptions of global civil society, counterpublic sphere and
counterhegemonic movements
? the dynamics of enclosing knowledge and genetic material
? history and change of precarious labour
? resisting enclosures, resisting precarity, constructing alternatives ?
transformations of colonialism: biocolonialism, TRIPs and structural 
adjustment
? networked databases, biometrics, and border control
? subversive and transhuman uses of technology
? reclaiming/liberating urban spaces and rural land
? sexual politics, discourse, and resistance
? radical media and art collectives
? self-organisation and consensus processes conceptually
? human rights as community building, form of resistance, and as global 
vision of movements

Participation is limited to a hundred people. A LIMITED AMOUNT OF TRAVEL 
GRANTS AND FREE ACCOMODATION FOR ACTIVISTS ARE AVAILABLE CONTACT US NOW.

SEND SUGGESTIONS FOR WORKSHOPS, PRESENTATIONS, AND PAPERS (MAX. 1 PAGE) 
TO: n.moeller [at] lancaster.ac.uk
Further info will be made available on http://knowledgelab.blogspot.com

Costs, incl. (predominantly organic and vegan) Friday dinner, Saturday 
lunch and dinner:

Volunteers/unpaid activists: Free
Unfunded students: Donation
Funded students, Lancaster academics: £15 (additional donation welcome!)
Representatives of smaller NGOs: £35 (negotiable)
Representatives of bigger NGOs: £65
Academics: £65


--------------------------- v ---------------------------
"Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of humankind. Our 
schoolbooks glorify war and hide its horrors. They inculcate hatred in the 
veins of children.? 
--------------------------- v --------------------------- 
"El nacionalismo es una enfermedad infantil. Es el sarampion de la humanidad. 
Nuestros libros escolares glorifican la guerra y esconden sus horrores. Ellos 
inculcan odio en las venas de los niños."

-- Albert Einstein. In: Sagan, Carl (1980). Broca's Brain: Reflections on the 
Romance of Science: El cerebro de Broca: Reflexiones sobre el romance de la 
ciencia. New York: Ballantine Books, p. 37.


                
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