Culture, Power and Politics » Podcast

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.

This is the second of a series of online seminars hosted by the journal New Formations (current editor: Jeremy Gilbert) in Autumn 2021, organised by Rebecca Bramall and Jeremy Gilbert. The series marks the publication of the journal’s series of issues published under the title This Conjuncture and dedicated to the memory of Stuart Hall. This session features contributions from Anthony Barnett, Ellie Mae O’Hagan and Scott McCracken

This is the first of a series of online seminars hosted by the journal New Formations (current editor: Jeremy Gilbert) in Autumn 2021, organised by Rebecca Bramall and Jeremy Gilbert. The series marks the publication of the journal’s series of issues published under the title This Conjuncture and dedicated to the memory of Stuart Hall.Angela Merkel stands down as German Chancellor this autumn after 16 years in the role, but will Merkelism – the mode of crisis management that has dominated since the mid-2000s – continue to inform German politics? Fresh from the polls, join Moritz Ege and Alexander Gallas to discuss the legacies of Merkelism and the nation’s cultural-political future. Speakers: Moritz Ege is Professor of Cultural Studies and Popular Cultures at the University of Zurich. Moritz is the co-editor of two books: Against the Elites! The Cultural Politics of Anti-Elitism (with Johannes Springer, forthcoming) and Urban Ethics (with Johannes Moser, 2021). Alexander Gallas is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Kassel, and one of the editors of the Global Labour Journal. He is the author of The Thatcherite Offensive: A Neo-Poulantzasian Analysis (2015). Moritz and Alexander are the co-authors of The exhaustion of Merkelism: a conjunctural analysis, published as part of This Conjuncture.

An analysis of, and response to, UK Labour Party leader Keir Starmer’s project-defining pamphlet ‘The Road Ahead’. With Alan Finlayson and Jeremy Gilbert.

I volunteered to record a lecture on ‘Postmodernism’ after Tory minister Liz Truss denounced it this week. This is the long version. The short, 1-hour version immediately precedes this one in the feed, so feel free to skip back to that one instead ;). If you like this and want to show some appreciation, please consider donating a pound or two to The World Transformed. This isn’t their product, but I do a lot of work with them and they deserve support. Merry Christmas!

I volunteered to record a lecture on ‘Postmodernism’ after Tory minister Liz Truss denounced it this week. This is the long version. The long, 3-hour version follows next. I wouldn’t bother listening to this if you plan to listen to the long one. If you like this please throw a quid or two in the direction of The World Transformed. Merry Christmas!

  In January 2019 we were planning a public event with Anna Minton and Richard Seymour, discussing the aftermath of the December 2019 general election and the then-ongoing Labour Party leadership election. We had to cancel the event because of a problem with the venue and instead recorded a conversation between Anna, Richard and Jeremy as a podcast a few weeks later. This was all before the Covid-19 crisis struck and before the leadership election was resolved. Also, I had a heavy cold while we were doing it (no, it wasn’t Covid). Still, there were many interesting insights from Anna and Richard that we thought worth preserving, so here it is. Links: https://www.annaminton.com https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/observations/2020/03/rise-disaster-nationalism-why-authoritarian-right-resurgent https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/labours-defeat-and-triumph-johnsonism/   https://culturepowerpolitics.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/in-the-aftermath-of-defeat.mp3