Bateson "An ecology of mind" in Maynooth

Gregory Bateson's daughter Nora Bateson will present the film An Ecology of Mind in NUI Maynooth's Hume Theatre 7 on Tuesday Oct 9th at 7.00 pm, and will stay for Q and A afterwards. 

See http://www.anecologyofmind.com/bateson/ for background information

The significance of Gregory Bateson was summarized by Frijof Capra:

To use a popular phrase, Bateson taught us how to connect the dots, and this is critical today not only in science but also in politics and civic life, as most of our political and corporate leaders show a striking inability to connect the dots. For example, if we improved the fuel efficiency of our cars by just 3 mpg, which could be very easily done, we would not have to import any oil from the Persian Gulf. But instead, they prefer to fight a war that kills tens of thousands of innocent people, while the greenhouse gases produced by our cars increase the force of hurricanes that make millions homeless and cause billions of dollars of damages.

Bhopal Now: Firsthand Reflections on the Third Decade of a Continuing Disaster

The world's worst industrial disaster took place on the night of 2nd-3rd December, 1984, when poisonous gases leaked out from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in the city of Bhopal in India, killing thousands immediately and leaving an estimated one hundred thousand people permanently disabled. The afterlife of the disaster has also been remarkably poisonous -- a delayed and corrupt court settlement has brought grossly inadequate compensation to a mere fraction of the survivors through a slow and tortuous claims process; Union Carbide Corporation has successfully managed to evade liability through corporate shape-shifting after being bought out by Dow Chemical; adverse health effects and birth defects due to gas exposure continue to proliferate in Bhopal; dangerous contaminants still seep into the air, water and soil from the abandoned and festering Union Carbide factory.

However, the unremitting struggle for justice waged by survivors' groups through these decades is also a key fact about the Bhopal disaster. The first session of this workshop will feature presentations on current conditions by two representatives of Bhopal survivors' groups, and the second session will consider social movements and memorialisation in the context of Bhopal.

Saturday, 29 September 2012, 10.30 am to 4 pm
Kimmage Development Studies Centre, Kimmage Manor, Whitehall Road,
Dublin 12 (Workshop will be held in the Old Manor Building)

Session 1 (10.30 am to 12.30 pm)
Chair and Translator: Chandana Mathur, Anthropology NUI Maynooth 

Speakers:
Safreen Khan, Children Against Dow-Carbide, Bhopal
Balkrishna Namdev, Gas Peedit Neerashrit Pension Bhogi Sangarsh Morcha, Bhopal

Lunch (12.30 pm to 1.30 pm)

Session 2 (1.30 pm to 3.30 pm)
Chair: Tom Campbell, Kimmage Development Studies Centre 

Speakers:
Tomas MacSheoin, independent scholar, author of 'Asphyxiating Asia'
Pawas Bisht, Culture and Media Analysis Research Group, Loughborough University

Final Roundtable (3.30 pm to 4 pm)

All are welcome.
RSVP and queries: anthropology.office@nuim.ie

Dublin reading group on "the commons"

This reading group is starting on Tuesday, 25th September (not Wed 17th as previously announced) in the seminar room in Johns Lane, off Thomas St (Dublin 8).

Theorists of enclosure have described and analyzed its spokespeople, legal bases, economic rationalities, political implications and philosophical underpinnings. The same cannot be said for the commons, which are often discussed ambiguously in terms of 'anti-enclosure', outside the limits of private property and commodification.

In the contemporary context, where the distinction between public and private has become weak and the logic of enclosure extends over new areas of social and ecological life, the potential significance of the commons, as a potent idea to mobilize behind and a material form to live by, appears great. Yet the characteristics of the commons are under-explored. Who are the spokespeople of the commons? What rights does it lay claim to and how? What forms of exchange, production and distribution does it employ? What regimes of property does it use? What forms of social and ecological relations does it enact and express? 

These seem to be important political questions which we would like to explore by discussing a wide-range of sources on the commons. While we will draw on contemporary theories of the commons our main concern is to 'thicken' the concept by looking at and examining concrete examples drawn from historical and contemporary research.

Structure

This is a very brief sketch of how the seminar will be organized in terms of general themes. While we have certain readings (and films) in mind the more precise direction and content of the seminar should be worked our and agreed on by the participants.

The first part of the seminar will provide an overview and discussion of some recent texts on the concepts of the commons and enclosure. While there are various interpretations of the commons we want to concentrate on that dimension which is excessive to the state and capital, and the ways this results in moments of conflict or struggle. This is in contrast to a more managerial, neoliberal conception of the commons framed in terms of 'governance of the commons.'

The second part of the seminar, up to Christmas, will focus on historical and contemporary articulations of the commons. This will involve looking at empirical research on contestations over the use, value and meaning of different spaces, bodies and resources.

After Christmas, the focus will turn to questions relating to the politics of the common: the relationship between the commons and the state (public); the issue of inclusion and exclusion, and the possibility of a 'common commons' framed in terms of 'common rights'. We have readings in mind but, again, the precise structure of this part of the seminar will be determined by the participants.

Preliminary reading list

 Blomley, N. (2008). Enclosure, Common Right and the Property of the Poor. Social & Legal Studies, 17 (3) : 311-331.

Caffentzis, G. (2010). The Future of the Commons : Neoliberalism's 'Plan B' or the Original Disaccumulation of Capital? New Formations, 23, 23-41.

Dalakoglou, D. & Vradis, A. (2012). Spatial legacies of December and the right to the city. Revolt and Crisis in Greece. AK Press: London.

De Angelis, M. (2003). Reflections on alternatives, commons and communities or building a new world from the bottom up. The Commoner.

De Angelis, M. & Stavrides, S. (2010). On the Commons: A Public Interview with Massimo De Angelis and Stavros Stavrides. E-Flux.

Eizenberg, E. (2012). Actually Existing Commons: Three Moments of Space of Community Gardens in New York City. Antipode, 44, 3, 764-782.

Federici, S. (2004). Caliban the Witch. Autonomedia, New York.

Johnson, C. (2004). Uncommon Ground: The ‘Poverty of History’ in Common Property Discourse.

Development and Change, 35(3): 407–433

Linebaugh, P.  (2007). Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Linebaugh, P. (2012). Nedd Ludd and Queen Mab: Machine-Breaking, Romanticism, and the Several Commons of 1811-12. Oakland, CA: Retort Pamphlet Series.

Linebaugh, P. and Rediker, M (2000). The Many-Headed Hydra. Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden history of the Revolutionary Atlantic. Beacon Press, Boston.

May, T. (2010). ‪Institutions of Equality. In Contemporary Political Movements and the Thought of Jacques Rancière: ‪Equality in Action. Edinburgh University Press.

McCarthy, J. (2005). Commons as Counterhegemonic Projects. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 16, 9-24.

Thompson, E.P. (1991). Customs in Common. The New Press, New York.

Films

Brownlow, K. & Mollo, A. (1975). Winstanley.

Hamilton Kennedy (2008). The Garden.

Varda, A. (2000). The Gleaners and I.

Watkins, P. (2000). La Commune (Paris, 1871).

 

Occupy theory, occupy strategy

An interesting collection with contributions from some great people now available for free download here on the anniversary of the first Occupy Wall St.