May 2, 2013, by criticalmoment

In Formation: Reading Group on the Kilburn Manifesto

Hi All,

I’m forwarding a message from Professor Stephen Legg over in Geography who, with others, is organising a reading group in response to the ‘Kilburn Manifesto‘ you may have seen mentioned in the Guardian. It’s a timely and much-needed attempt to think through and take seriously alternatives to the neoliberal consensus that is allowing a great deal of damage to be done very quickly and without much – or enough – resistance. Anybody involved with critical theory should engage with this. Steve has asked that you indicate your intention to attend so he can keep track of numbers. If you want to go then, drop him an email on Stephen.Legg@nottingham.ac.uk

Best Wishes,

Colin

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Dear all

You may have seen last week that the guardian trialled the launch of the “Kilburn Manifesto”: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/24/kilburn-manifesto-challenge-neoliberal-victory

The manifesto is an attempt to get us thinking about alternative futures in the context of the credit crunch, austerity Britain, and the resurgence of the political and economic forces that, many would argue, got us in to this mess in the first place. http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/journals/soundings/manifesto.html

The manifesto has been launched with an introduction (“After neoliberalism: analysing the present”) written by Stuart Hall, Michael Rustin and Doreen Massey (a geographer who has visited the School several times and gave a school seminar a few years back). Subsequent chapters are going to published on a monthly basis:

Doreen Massey Vocabularies of the economy (May)
Michael Rustin Relational welfare (June)
Stuart Hall and Alan O’Shea Neoliberal common sense (July)
Beatrix Campbell Feminism and the new patriarchy (August)
Ben Little Generational politics (September)

I thought they might form a good basis for an ongoing discussion within and  beyond the School of Geography, and not just by economic geographers! As such, I’ve booked A11 for 12pm on Tuesday 7^th in Highfield House. The opening chapter will be discussed, you can find it here:

http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/journals/soundings/pdfs/s53hallmasseyrustin.pdf

Anyone can come, but just so I can keep a track of numbers could you let me know if you’re coming. Myself, Alex, Shaun, Andrew and Adam will coordinate/introduce the chapters, though we hope to get people involved from other schools/depts., so please circulate widely, all welcome!

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