1968/2008

Below is an announcement for another interesting discussion event hosted by the  http://www.49underground.org that identifies the “ruptures” related to 1968 as a significant historical moment in the development of free-market fundamentalist thought/policy.  

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Critical Responses to the Neo-Liberal/Post-Modern Era Part 1
Tuesday, July 17, 2007, 6:30-9:30 PM
The News and Letters Office
36 S. Wabash, Room 1440
Chicago IL, 60603 USA

In this forum we will try to grasp our present form of capitalism in its various guises from post-modernism to fundamentalism, from neo-liberal cosmopolitanism to left- nationalism, from imperial triumphalism to particularistic isolationism. We will take as a starting point two historical ruptures 1968 and 1973 and analyze changes in capitalism since that time, beginning with the seventies and early eighties.

The goal of this set of meetings is to theorize the present with particular attention to grounding contemporary ideologies in the socio-economic transformations since ‘68/’73 and criticizing the contemporary triumverate of antinomies: post-modernism/religious essentialism, Neo- liberalism/Left-nationalism or Chavismo, and Neo- Conservative Imperialism/Isolationism. We hope to develop, through these meetings, a political analysis adequate to this new regime of capital accumulation.

The discussion will be orgainzed around a single framing article that will be complimented by a number of 5-10 minute presentations of key texts that we hope will help us in grasping the problem of global-neo-liberal capital and its ideological manifestations.

Main Text
Moishe Postone, “Contemporary Historical Transformations: Beyond Postindustrial Theory and Neo-Marxism”

The main and article-length supplementary texts can be found at:
http://www.49underground.org/nextevents.php
The file format is large, so if you have difficulties
downloading it, please email peverett@uchicago.edu

Meeting Schedule:

Presentations:
1. Henri Lefebvre, _The Explosion_
2. Herbert Marcuse, “The Historical Fate of Bourgeois Democracy”
3. David Harvey, _The Conditions of Post-Modernity_
Discussion

Break

4. Andre Gorz, _Farewell to the Working Class_
5. Frederic Jameson “Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism” Discussion

Thanks, we look forward to seeing and hearing from you all.

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