Ranciere, Politics, Aesthetics, and OOO | Larval Subjects . Over at Intra-Being and Algorithm and Contingency, both Andre and Robert have written some interesting posts responding to the recent discussion of OOO and politics. In his post, Robert rightly worries that Ranciere’s politics is too human centered. As Robert writes: Whilst Levi’s mediations on Ranciere’s political schema are noteworthy and promising, the outcome of Ranciere’s manoeuvres, (particularly in his, very current and influential visual aesthetic criticism: see The Emancipated Spectator and The Politics of Aesthetics) are not only contingent on human behaviour (which Levi notes) but are also contingent on a wholly relational indeterminate system. This is quite right: Ranciere perpetually speaks of humans as that around which politics revolves. I call the distribution of the sensible the system of self-evident facts of sense perception that simultaneously discloses the existence of something in common and the delimitations that define the respects parts and positions within it.
Chomsky: Thinking Like Corporations is Harming American Universities The following is an edited transcript (prepared by Robin J. Sowards) of remarks given by Noam Chomsky last month to a gathering of members and allies of the Adjunct Faculty Association of the United Steelworkers in Pittsburgh, Penn. On hiring faculty off the tenure track That’s part of the business model. The effective owners are the trustees (or the legislature, in the case of state universities), and they want to keep costs down and make sure that labor is docile and obedient. The idea is to divide society into two groups. This idea is sometimes made quite overt. At the time, everyone regarded Greenspan’s comment as very reasonable, judging by the lack of reaction and the great acclaim he enjoyed. That’s the way you keep societies efficient and healthy from the point of view of the corporations. That’s one aspect, but there are other aspects which are also quite familiar from private industry, namely a large increase in layers of administration and bureaucracy. On the love of teaching
Introduction to Object Oriented Ontology | The DEW Lab This introductory guide to Object Oriented Ontology is an on-going collection of central theses and surrounding debates. If you’d like to submit a text, blog, or discussion thread that you think is particularly useful to the would-be OOO scholar you can post a link in the comments or email me at steve[at]thedewlab.com If you’re interested in OOO then there are few scholars better equipped to guide you than Levi Bryant, Ian Bogost and Timothy Morton. In 2010 all three scholars presented on a panel at the RMMLA conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This 90 minute recording offers an accessible introduction to OOO (Bryant – 0-36:37), the influence of OOO philosophy on scholarly practices (Bogost – 36:27-105:44), as well as the resonance between object oriented ontology and climate change (Morton – 105:44-134:31) Lexicon here Intrigued? OOO is one of those rare projects to unfold, one may even say gestate, in the open forum of the world wide web. “Operational closure is not a happy thought.
Culturas de cualquiera | No hay poder capaz de fundar el orden por la sola represión de los cuerpos por los cuerpos. Se necesitan fuerzas ficticias Live Blog: Saskia Sassen, "Immigrants and Citizens in the Global City" | Blogs Hi Archinect! The sultry r&b is playing, and Saskia Sassen is in front of the gold curtain this Friday night for the keynote lecture of the conference, "Ethics of the Urban: the City and the Spaces of the Political." This is the third in a series of conferences organized by Dean Mostafavi, including Ecological Urbanism (2009) and In the Life of Cities (2011). [View the talk at the GSD's YouTube Channel.] [Photo: Brixton riots, London, April 1981. © Manchester Daily Express/Science and Society. From the GSD website.] 5:15: videos are playing. 5:19: Mohsen makes introductions. 5:23: These opening remarks are called "Agonistic Urbanism." Frank Lloyd Wright's "Broadacre city": it's agriculture as part of a city; at the same time, it's a kind of anti-urbanism. "One last word on the title of the conference," because the notion of "ethics" is there. The conference is organized around a series of localities. 5:33: Saskia Sassen starts. "The citizen is an unstable subject. Habeas corpus is gone.
Jacques Rancière on Radical Equality and Adult Education - The Encyclopaedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory (edited by M. Peters, B. Zarnic, T. Besley and A. Gibbons) - EEPAT Juha SuorantaUniversity of Tampere, Finland Abstract French philosopher Jacques Rancière's (1940—) has furthered the idea of radical equality in his book The Ignorant Schoolmaster (1991) in which he studies his countryman’s Joseph Jacotot's (1770—1840) ideas on teaching and learning without authorities entitled the basic statement being as follows: “teach what you don't know.” In particular Rancière criticizes sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s reproduction thesis as too deterministic and French reformist educational policies in general. More positively Rancière develops and defenses an enlightened idea of radical equality, which is useful in re-evaluating the overall project of modernity in terms of education as one of its grand narratives as well as developing new autonomic spheres of learning and participation. Free and Chained The philosophical strands of adult education are many but in the following I divide them in two. Who's Jacques Rancière? Higher and Lower Intelligence Finally
Henry A. Giroux: neo-liberalism’s nemesis Henry A. Giroux: neo-liberalism’s nemesis. Henry A Giroux is well-known for his explorations of critical pedagogy, neo-liberalism and the condition of young people. Doug Nicholls reflects on his contribution and continuing significance. contents: introduction · henry giroux – background · some key themes · publications · about the writer · how to cite this piece Henry Armand Giroux (1943 – ) is currently Global Television Network Professor of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Canada. Henry Giroux, background. Henry Giroux was born September 18, 1943, in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of Armand and Alice Giroux. Henry Giroux won a basketball scholarship to a teacher training college. Returning to higher education and studying critical educational theory and practice, Henry Giroux received a Doctorate from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1977. Some key themes Where I grew up learning was a collective activity. Publications Giroux, Henry A. (1983).
Overcoming the Shock Doctrine By Soy Pública / guerrillatranslation.org Lately, we’ve been talking about the techniques of manipulation used by the government and mass media, regarding the privatization of public education, and all public benefits. In these first months of legislature, the better part of this manipulation has been aimed at rendering us into a state of shock, after which, intimidated and paralyzed, we would not react against the losses of rights brutally imposed on us. Naomi Klein explains in her book, “The Shock Doctrine”, how neo-liberalism, unable to convince people by means of argument (since these neo-liberal measures are essentially anti-people), has only been able to impose itself via coups d’etat, declarations of war, situations of catastrophic natural disaster, or other traumatic phenomena, leaving the public in the grip of anxiety and fear. And what, if not fear, are they trying to inoculate us with in this country? Learned Helplessness, a weapon of mass destruction It’s terrible, isn’t it?
Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, and the Importance of the Interior Quote of the Week By Hans Teerds “The French have become masters in the art of being happy among ‘small things,’ within the space of their own four walls, between chest and bed, table and chair, dog and cat and flowerpot, extending to these things a care and tenderness which, in a world where rapid industrialization constantly kills off the things of yesterday to produce today’s objects, may even appear to be the world’s last, purely humane corner.” -- Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition During my first reading of Arendt’s The Human Condition, this particular quote attracted my attention, probably since I’m trained as an architect and sensible to these kind of imaginable, tangible examples. U.S. family enjoying a musical evening at home - late 19th century (Source: ipernity) Acknowledging this development, the modern individual found himself confronting a new separation between living and working, between the (domestic) interior and the workplace. But there is more to it.