Culture, Power and Politics » Podcast

What are the philosophical and political coordinates of a contemporary eco-socialism? What are the political, economic, cultural and philosophical implications of current debates over ‘degrowth’ and its alternatives? Should we be looking for new forms of sustainable growth, new definitions of economic progress, or completely new ways of conceptualising the desirable future?  Speakers  Richard Seymour, author of The Disenchanted Earth: Reflections on Ecosocialism and Barbarism  Jeremy Gilbert Stepped in at the last minute….

The pandemic exposed the insecurity and vulnerability of workers – from delivery riders to poorly paid culture industry freelancers – who struggled to access the protections afforded to workers on standard employment contacts. Can unions organise these precarious workers to fight for better conditions, or are their working lives simply too fragmented and isolated for collective action to work effectively?   Ridley Road Market Bar , 49 Ridley Road, London, E8 2NP 18:30-20:30. Free, no advance booking, all welcome. Speakers Callum Cant, postdoctoral researcher and author of Riding for Deliveroo Annika Weiss, freelance camera worker and PhD researcher on work in the culture industries

The high point of Left electoral success represented by Corbynism, the Sanders campaign, Mélenchon and others seems to have passed. Meanwhile, the climate and broader ecological crises intensify and much of the mobilisation around these issues – from XR to the school climate strikes to Just Stop Oil – originates outside of the conventional Left. How should the Left engage with the climate movement, and vice versa, at a time when the cost-of-living crisis and the largest wave of strikes for 30 years are also urgent priorities? Speakers Asad Rehman, Director War on Want Feyzi Ismail, Lecturer in Global Policy and Activism – Goldsmiths, University of London Robin Wells, director of Fossil Free London, a grassroots climate organisation

Recorded Live at the Ridley Road Market Bar, Dalston, London, on May 3rd 2023 WithAnthony Barnett, Founder of Charter 88 and open Democracy, author of many books including Taking Control: Humanity and America after Trump and the Pandemic and The Lure of Greatness: England’s Brexit and Trump’s America.  Laura Clancy, Lecturer in Media, Lancaster University. Author of Running the Family Firm: how the royal family manages its image and our money and the forthcoming What is the Monarchy For?

This is an audio recording of the event held to launch the book Hegemony Now: How Big Tech and Wall Street Won the World (and how we win it back). The seminar took place on January 11th at the October Gallery in London, and featured the book’s authors – Jeremy Gilbert & Alex Williams – along with guests Natalie Fenton, Will Davies and Jacob Mukherjee.

This is the last in the ‘This Conjuncture’ series of seminars hosted by the journal New Formations in Autumn 2021. Corporate ‘wokeness’ puts positive messages deriving from radical politics to work in the interests of consumer capitalism. Join Rosalind Gill, Akane Kanai, and Francesca Sobande, who will develop an analysis of ‘woke capitalism’ beyond the reductive charge of selling out. Speakers: Rosalind Gill is Professor of Cultural and Social Analysis at City, University of London. She is the author, co-author or editor of many books and articles, including Gender and the Media (2015) and Creative Hubs in Question: Place, Space and Work in the Creative Economy (2019, co-edited with Andy Pratt and Tarek Virani). Akane Kanai is Lecturer in Media and Communication Studies at Monash University. She is the author of Gender and Relatability in Digital Culture: Managing Affect, Intimacy and Value (2018). Ros and Akane’s article ‘Woke? Affect, neoliberalism, marginalised identities and consumer culture’ was published as a contribution to This Conjuncture. Francesca Sobande is Lecturer in Digital Media Studies at Cardiff University. She is the author of The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain (2020) and co-editor, with Akwugo Emejulu, of To Exist is to Resist: Black Feminism in Europe (2019).

with Gabriela Méndez Cota and Benjamín Arditi The electoral success of Mexico’s leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the MORENA coalition has given rise to both optimism and concern. While aspects of the agenda have proved transformative, Obrador is seen to have mishandled the pandemic and action on climate breakdown has been inadequate. Join Gabriela Méndez Cota and Benjamín Arditi for an assessment of recent political mobilizations in Mexico, drawing on conjunctural analysis and continental political thought. Speakers: Gabriela Méndez Cota is Lecturer in the Philosophy Department at Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de México. She is the author of Disrupting Maize: Food, Biotechnology and Nationalism in Contemporary Mexico (2016). Gabriela’s article ‘Policing the environmental conjuncture: structural violence in Mexico and the National Assembly of the Environmentally Affected’ was published as a contribution to This Conjuncture. Benjamín Arditi is Professor of Political Theory at the National University of Mexico. Amongst other works, he is the author of Politics on the Edges of Liberalism: Difference, Populism, Revolution, Agitation(2012).

Patriarchy in the digital conjuncture Digital platforms create new opportunities to express misogyny in increasingly extreme ways, intersect with the structures of patriarchy sustained in everyday life. In the form of misogynistic ‘rationalism’, these ideas also permeate the culture of Silicon Valley. Join Sarah Banet-Weiser, Ben Little and Alison Winch to discuss networked misogyny and male victimhood in the context of the growing power and influence of digital platforms. Speakers: Sarah Banet-Weiser is Distinguished Professor of Communication and Director of the Annenberg Centre for Collaborative Communication. Her books include Authentic: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture (2012), and Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny(2018). Ben Little is Lecturer in Media and Cultural Politics at the University of East Anglia. He is the co-author of The New Patriarchs of Digital Capitalism (2021) and Russell Brand: Comedy, Celebrity and Politics (2016, with Jane Arthurs). Alison Winch is Lecturer in Media Studies at the University of East Anglia. Her books include The New Patriarchs of Digital Capitalism (2021) and Girlfriends and Postfeminist Sisterhood (2013). Alison and Ben are the authors of ‘Patriarchy in the digital conjuncture – an analysis of Google’s James Damore’

The fourth seminar in the ‘This Conjuncture’ series hosted by the journal New Formations. With Gargi Bhattacharyya and Anamik Saha.

This is the third seminar in a series hosted by the journal New Formations, inspired by the journal’s special issues on ‘This Conjuncture’, dedicated to the memory of Stuart Hall. In this seminar Ashley Dawson, Ben Highmore and Kate Soper discuss our contemporary environmental conjuncture. The seminar is chaired by Jenny Taylor. For information about New Formations see https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/newformations.