Why universalism

This is a defence of a universalist position against many who have critiqued it - for example, against post modern critiques and identity theory critiques

Editorial: Why Free Speech?

Many of us struggle to make sense of what is without doubt a deepening global socio-economic and political crisis, and at the heart of this crisis lies an unprecedented and multi-directional assault on freedom of speech. But what is free speech? How should it be exercised and to what ends? These are more difficult questions to navigate in contexts of growing divisions in society, the crises of state governabilities, people’s governmentalities and disparities in power and wealth. Debates about freedom of speech are not new; however, the form they take now seems particularly vindictive and violent. Across the world, we are witness to disturbing moves to curtail free speech in liberal democracies and totalitarian states alike and among left wing as well as right wing movements. As recent events show, free speech is the first casualty of all forms of authoritarianism including religious fundamentalism. And from this flow a range of other crackdowns on civil society and serious human rights violations that cannot be challenged. This is why the debate on freedom of speech has become increasingly urgent

Basic Channel and Timelessness: Negotiating Canonisation, Resemblance and Repetition in House and Techno

In the related musical worlds of house and techno, there is rarely a shortage of new sounds to complement and complicate what is already a saturated archive. Across a wide spectrum of scenes, from the adamantly underground to the unabashedly mainstream, tracks seem to appear almost as reliably and consistently as the kick drums that characterise the sound. Of course, much of this material has only fleeting significance. Functional, generic ‘DJ tools’ circulate for a short period, before being replaced by similarly ephemeral tracks. Attali’s notion of ‘repeating’ comes to mind, in which ‘the minor modification of a precedent’ becomes the thinly disguised replacement of innovation (1977: 109). Yet, within this ever-expanding cultural cache, certain tracks have managed to attain a greater longevity, forming what may tentatively be thought of as a canonic repertoire. Here I employ the concept of canon in Katharine Bergeron’s prescriptive sense, to denote a ‘locus of discipline’ that constructs standardised values and behaviours, within prescribed and internalised networks of power (1992: 2-4). This formulation emphasises the nature of canons as on-going, cultural processes of construction, and thus as necessary sites for reflexive critique

Reassembling difference? Rethinking inclusion through/as embodied ethics

This paper considers inclusion through the lens of embodied ethics. It does so by connecting feminist writing on recognition, ethics and embodiment to recent examples of political activism as instances of recognition-based organizing. In making these connections, the paper draws on insights from Judith Butler’s recent writing on the ethics and politics of assembly in order to re-think how inclusion might be understood and practiced. The paper has three inter-related aims: (i) to emphasize the importance of a critical reconsideration of the ethics and politics of inclusion given, on the one hand, its positioning as an organizational ‘good’ and on the other, the conditions attached to it; (ii) to develop a critique of inclusion, drawing on insights from recent feminist thinking on relational ethics, and (iii) to connect this theoretical critique of inclusion, re-considered here through the lens of embodied ethics, to assembly as a form of feminist activism. Each of these aims underpins the theoretical and empirical discussion developed in the paper, specifically its focus on the relationship between embodied ethics, the interplay between theory and practice, and a politics of assembly as the basis for a critical reconsideration of inclusion