Anarchist Studies Network Conference 2.0: ‘Making Connections’ 3 – 5 September 2012

Anarchist Studies Network Conference 2.0: ‘Making Connections’ 3 – 5 September 2012

http://anarchist-studies-network.org.uk/

We live in interesting times. The Arab Spring, Occupy X and anti-austerity protests are only the latest and most visible examples in a long tradition of grassroots social movements in which ordinary people create democratic alternatives to hierarchy and inequality. Here and everywhere, people are getting together and making connections between their own everyday experiences and wider patterns of relationships and power, official and unofficial. They (or we) are making connections with each other, personal and political.

New patterns evolve as people experiment with different ways of organising, of relating, of connecting, of thinking. Scholars, artists and activists observe, theorise and participate in various ways, helping to make connections, both in social movements and in the movements of everyday life. Feminists, in particular, have foregrounded intersectional approaches to power, privilege and oppression. Race, class and gender; sexuality, ecology and (dis)ability; age, species and faith — each of these and more interconnect in numerous ways, both subtle and overt.

1. Anarchism and War (1/2)
Stuart Mason Building, Room SMB103 1.    Alex Prichard (Coventry) ‘When is war just? Proudhon on War and Justice’ 2.    Carl Levy (Goldsmith) ‘Errico Malatesta and the First World War: 1914-1919’ 3.    Pietro Di Paola (Lincoln) ‘Freedom Press and the amnesty campaign for
deserters after WW2′
2. Bodily Anarchy
Stuart Mason Building, Room SMB008 Facilitator: Jamie Heckert Often, anarchist practices of writing and otherwise engaging with the world focus outward on social patterns. In this workshop, participants will be invited to look inward, to witness the ways in which we might hold ourselves back from freedom, equality and vitality, and to release them. The session will begin with basic relaxation exercises, some gentle physical warm-ups followed by movement and interactive exercises designed to help people feel a sense of connection with their own bodies and with the other people in the room. The session design draws on insights and practices from yoga, ecopsychology and anarcha-feminism.
3. Anarchism in Different National Contexts (1/2)
Stuart Mason Building, Room SMB010 1.    Roy Krøvel (Oslo and Akershus University College, Norway): ‘Norway’s 19th
century nationalist anarchists’ 2.    Grzegorz Piotrowski (Södertörn University, Sweden): ‘Anarchist movement in
post-socialist context’ 3.    Christian Fröhlich (Södertörn University, Sweden): ‘Anarchist movement in
contemporary Russia’

5. Real Democracy and the Revolutions of Our Time (1/7)
James France Building, Room CC014
Real Democracy and the Revolutions of our Time
1.    Peter Snowdon (Provinciale Hogeschool), ‘The Revolution Will be Uploaded: vernacular video and the Arab Spring’
2.    Laurence Davis (University College Cork), ‘Real Democracy and the Revolutions of our Time’
3.    Uri Gordon (Loughborough), ‘Democratic Deficit in the Israeli Tent Protests – An Insider’s View’
6. ‘No Master but God?’ Exploring the Compatibility of Anarchism and Religion (1/7) James France Building Room CC109 Anarchist Biblical Studies
1.    Justin Meggitt (Cambridge) ‘Anarchism, anachronism and the historical Jesus’ 2.    Mark McHenry (Wales, Lampeter) ‘An Anarchist Critique of Isaiah’s
Revolution – Developing the Anarchist Hermeneutic in Mainstream Biblical
Studies’ 3.    Danny Nemu (Independent) ‘Scribes and Kings: Scriptural Translation and
Interpretation in the Service of Empire’
7. Anarchism and Disability (1/2)
James France Building Room CC110 1.    Jess Bradley (Students for Sensible Drug Policy and University of
Manchester, UK): ‘Drugs and Bodily Autonomy: how the state controls
treatment through the institution’ 2.    Steve Graby (University of Leeds and Disabled People’s Direct Action
Network, UK) and Anat Greenstein (Manchester Metropolitan University,
UK): ‘Social dis-order: autistic experiences of/in radical political activism’ 3.    Shelly Rhian (Cambridge): ‘Resisting capitalism and state’s control of our
bodies and care’

8. Anarchism and War (2/2)
Stuart Mason Building, Room SMB103 1.    Uri Gordon (Loughborough) ‘Anarchists Against the Wall’ (provisional title) 2.    Anthony T. Fiscella, ‘Anarchism, Empire and the War in Libya’.
9. Social Technology (1/2)
Stuart Mason Building, Room SMB008 This session will address the all too often divided realms of technological critique and practice through a hybrid engagement with theory-based presentations, practical demos and participant-led discussions and activity. Final content will be confirmed at the conference.
10. Anarchism in Different National Contexts (2/2)
Stuart Mason Building, Room SMB010 1.    Magnus Wennerhag (Södertörn University, Sweden) and Adrienne Sörbom
(Stockholm University & Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden): ‘Between adaptation and a new contentiousness: The case of the anarchist and autonomist movement in Sweden’
2.    Mari Kuukkanen (University of Helsinki, Finland): ‘Politicization by direct action: the contemporary anarchist movement in Finland’
11. IWW (2/2)
Stuart Mason Building, Room SMB104
What now for workplace organising? Contemporary wobbly experiences 2: the nuts and bolts of IWW organising This second panel will take the form of a workshop outlining the IWW approach to organising in contemporary British workplaces. We will set out what we view as current IWW strategy, the practicalities of setting up and running an IWW branch, and the current state of the union. We will also outline some key legal rights and campaign strategies that education workers might use in their current struggles. The workshop will seek to identify ways in which activists and radical educators can use the IWW to increase their effectiveness
12. Real Democracy and the Revolutions of Our Time (2/7)
James France Building, Room CC014
Lessons from the Occupy Movement
1. Aragorn! ‘First Lessons of Occupy 2011’ 2.    David Osborn (Rising Tide North America/Portland State University)
‘Anarchist Interventions in the Occupy Portland Movement’ 3.    Anna Szolucha (National University of Ireland, Maynooth), ‘People on the
Move: Occupy as a Temporary Space of Participative (Un)Learning’
13. ‘No Master but God?’ Exploring the Compatibility of Anarchism and Religion (2/7) James France Building Room CC109 Religious and Anarchist Philosophy/Philosophers

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