Radical Space

By debra | Published: 17 June 2013
18 October 2013 16:00to20 October 2013 16:30

Our conference for 2013 will address the problematics of space both as concept and as lived social reality, with a particular emphasis on the tension between spaces of control in the context of contemporary neoliberalism, spaces of resistance and the apocalyptic spaces which emerge from war, forced migration and the failures of consumer capitalism.

What are the politics of space in contemporary contexts? How can we re-think space beyond the public/private divide? How do spatial arts re-configure space and the way in which it is experienced? What new configurations of space may emerge from burgeoning forms of community? How do the theatres of contemporary war force a re-assessment of spatial concepts? Is it still possible for the notion of virtual space to function in opposition to the striated space of contemporary cities?

We are pleased to announce that Deborah Dixon and Carl Lavery of Aberystwyth University,  Dimitris Papadopoulos (University of Leicester) and the independent artist Joanna Rajkowska have been confirmed as keynote speakers. The conference will also offer the chance to participate in movement workshops and performative explorations of space. Registration details and a full programme will be published here shortly.

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The Family in Crisis? Neoliberalism and the Politicisation of Parenting and the Family

By james | Published: 25 May 2013
28 June 2013
10:00to16:00

The family and, in particular, maternal behaviour, has long been subject to public scrutiny. However, since the mid-1990s heightened government and media concern with parenting practices has produced a series of escalating moral panics around child welfare issues. While overt parent-bashing and bewailing the demise of the ‘traditional’ family were once associated with the moral majority in the US and old-style Conservatives in the UK, government intrusion into and commentary on family life has become increasingly central to the discourse of all mainstream political parties. The assumption parental incompetency– rather than broader socio-economic conditions–is responsible for a range of social problems has been reflected in public policy and the rise of media commentary (in current affairs journalism and reality TV), on the subject of modern parenting. Read More »

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CCSR Annual Lecture 2013: Tariq Ali

By debra | Published: 15 April 2013
16 May 2013
17:30to19:30

TA_Cafe Oto_ 8_11_10 (1)CONFLICTING  LEGACIES, HUGO CHAVEZ AND MARGARET THATCHER: Neo-liberalism and new wars versus social justice and peace

Tariq Ali is a writer and filmmaker. He has written over two dozen books on world politics and history. His novels, including the series known as the ’Islam Quintet’, have been translated into many languages. He is a longstanding editor of the New Left Review and writes regularly for the London Review of Books and the Guardian

West Building, Ground Floor Theatre
University of East London Docklands Campus
DLR station: Cyprus

Refreshments will follow the lecture

ALL WELCOME      ADMISSION FREE

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Future Sex

By james | Published: 11 March 2013
24 April 2013
11:00to16:00

What does gender mean in an age defined by post-feminist ideologies, and in cultures that have been ‘sexualised’? Women may have been gaining economic, social and cultural entitlements in recent years, but post-Fordist economies continue to exploit gender inequalities. And whilst a variety of ‘new femininities’ have promised freedoms and opportunities, they have also articulated further responsibilities associated with being a woman in the twenty-first century. Similarly, the increasing visibility of so-called ‘softer’ masculinities and the continuing appeal of the metrosexual man seem to signal transformations in the idea of what it means to be a man. Yet such opportunities for softness and flexibility are unevenly available in economic conditions designed to install an equality of inequality. If men are becoming softer and women more post-feminist, how are we to understand the position of queer identities? Is homosexuality ‘disappearing’ in the drive towards homonormativity? Is there a place for gender dissent in lesbian and gay cultures, or do challenges to binary constructions of gender and domestic nuclearity no longer have any meaning in an era of gay marriage?

Read More »

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Public Policy

By james | Published: 10 March 2013
27 March 2013
18:30to20:30

Presented in association with Iniva, the fourth and final event in the Centre for Cultural Studies Research seminar series Culture & Polity explores the question of public policy. As the government’s austerity drive continues to whittle away arts funding while ministers question the very value of the arts, how should artists and arts bodies respond? What might a progressive arts policy look like? Is Britain’s cultural and creative sector under threat. Or will hard times inspire aesthetic and political radicalism?

Speakers: Tessa Jackson, Chief Executive Officer, Iniva; Áine O’Brien, Co-Director of Counterpoints Arts, London; Gavin Poynter, Professor and Chair, London East Research Institute, University of East London, and Cecilia Wee, London Regional Council of Arts Council England.

Venue: PS2, Iniva, Rivington Street, London

Admission £7/£5

Read More »

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City and Space

By debra | Published: 11 February 2013
6 March 2013
17:00to19:30

This is the third seminar in our Culture and Polity series in which our invited speakers will be examining the city both as a concept and as a space marked by social and cultural divisions and in which conflicting notions of community emerge. Has the economic downturn restructured the suburb from paradise to pressure cooker, making it the new inner city precariously perched on the edge? What are the political consequences of the impact of privatisation on city space? The award-winning film-maker John Smith will also present his film ‘Blight’ which revolves around the building of the M11 Link Road in East London, which provoked a long and bitter campaign by local residents to protect their homes from demolition. Read More »

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Security, Community & Democracy

By debra | Published: 15 December 2012
6 February 2013
14:00to16:30

This is the second seminar in our Culture & Polity series in which our invited speakers will be examining the post-neoliberal subject as produced by the strategies of behavioural economics, security screening and the discourse of virology. What is the meaning of community and the social under these conditions? What forms of governance emerge from new techniques of securitisation and behaviour management and what are the implications for democratic processes? Read More »

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Digitisation and Value

By debra | Published: 14 November 2012
5 December 2012
14:00to17:00

This is the first seminar in our Culture and Polity series, interrogating urgent questions of cultural change in the context of new forms of community, contemporary commodity forms and government policy.

This session will bring together a range of perspectives on the question of digitization and value, from the spheres of media and cultural studies, digital arts practice, and open source enterprise. To what extent do networked digital technologies enable new forms of human subjectivity, social organization and expressive new forms of culture? Do digital production tools and networked communications provide new modalities of intensity and sensation? Or do the materialities of digitization merely extend the field of neoliberal authority? Can technology offer new tools for building communities and potentially emancipate impoverished groups and environments? How do we conceive of value in a digital world? Read More »

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Pat Thomas “Listen, Whitey!” talk

By timl | Published: 3 October 2012
15 October 2012
18:30to20:30

INIVA, Rivington Place London EC2A 3BA
Entry: £6/3
Book here

Pat Thomas spent five years in Oakland, CA, researching Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975. Befriending members of the Black Panther Party, Thomas discovered rare recordings of speeches, interviews, and music by noted activists Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver, Elaine Brown, The Lumpen and many others. He also tracked down the forgotten history of Motown Records and its Black Power subsidiary label, Black Forum, along with little known strands of Black Consciousness poetry, inspired religious recordings, and numerous regional and privately pressed Black Power 7″ soul singles from across the United States.

Presentation: Pat Thomas (author Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975)
Respondent: Dhanveer Brar (Goldsmiths, “Masculinity, Blackness and Performance in Mid to Late 20th Century African American Popular Music”)
Presented in association with INIVA.

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Music, Politics, Agency 4: Music, Creativity and Capitalism

By jeremygilbert | Published: 22 June 2012

Wednesday 27 June 2012

EB.1.03, UEL, Docklands Campus, 11:00-18:00

11:00-13:00: Commerce, Creativity and Capitalism

Mark Fisher, author of Capitalist Realism

Jeremy Gilbert, author of Anticapitalism and Culture, CCSR/UEL

Chair: Tim Lawrence

13:00-14:00

Lunch

14:00-16:00: Music and Neoliberal Capitalism

Dave Hesmondhalgh, author of Creative Labour, University of Leeds

Timothy Taylor, author of The Sounds of Capitalism, UCLA

Chair: Tim Lawrence

16:00-18:00: Panel discussion: Musicianship, Capitalism and Cultural Policy

Graham Jeffrey, University of the West of Scotland

Douglas Lonie, Youth Music

Ewan Pearson, DJ/producer

Cecilia Wee, Arts Council

Chair: Jeremy Gilbert

With thanks to the School of Arts & Digital Industries and the Higher Education Innovation Fund.

All welcome. No registration required.

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  • CCSR Publications

    Anticapitalism and Culture by Jeremy Gilbert

    Technoculture The Key Concepts by Debra Benita Shaw

    Edinburgh Companion to Virginia Woolf and the Arts by Maggie Humm

    Hold On To Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973-92 by Tim Lawrence

    Snapshots of Bloomsbury by Maggie Humm

    Visceral Cosmopolitanism by Mica Nava
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