44 research outputs found
Militantly âstudying upâ?: (ab)using whiteness for oppositional research
This paper develops the idea of militantly âstudying upâ. Through a discussion of research into the relationship between migrants and social/labour movements in Buenos Aires, Argentina, it explores the way in which my positionality both helped and hindered the (militant) research process. As the possibility for militant research seemed to recede, by interrogating the antagonisms bound up in the disjuncture between my perceived and my performed positionality, I was able to retain a commitment to militant research/research militancy. The movement to a form of oppositional (auto)ethnography was underpinned by an (ab)use of my whiteness. This touched on new possibilities for militant research, and also afforded further reflection on the structuring power of whiteness itself. Situating itself against-and-beyond discussions of militant research, this paper explores not only the rich potential but also the difficulties and limitations of such a methodology. In this regard it foregrounds discussion of failure as a key reflexive strategy. Ultimately it argues that there is potentially value in âstudying upâ within militant (migration) research, but that concerns surround the (re-)reification of the very identities and structures that are intended to be deconstructed
Multiplying Labour, Multiplying Resistance: Class Composition in Buenos Airesâ Clandestine Textile Workshops
Buenos Airesâ talleres clandestinos (clandestine textile workshops) are powerful sites of accumulation and resistance; a complex and communitarian migrant economy. The economyâs complexity is, however, masked by its spatiality, clandestinity, and the promotion of culturalist analyses that ignore intra-collective class differentials. This paper considers the âautonomy of migrationâ approach through the lens of âclass compositionâ to explore the talleresâ contours. Witnessed in the talleres is a clear âmultiplication of labourâ, yet approaching this multiplication compositionally highlights the multiple examples of resistance and refusal immanent to the workshop economy. But this dialectic of control and resistance transcends the workplace, with the talleres one node in a wider, socially reproductive borderscape. By developing a framework that neither condemns nor celebrates economic structures like the talleres, but instead unpacks their antagonistic nature, the paper highlights the benefits of (a)analysing the autonomy of migration approach compositionally, and (b)further geographical engagement with autonomist thinking
Towards a university of the common: reimagining the university in order to abolish it with the Really Open University
The autumn of 2010, in the UK, was characterised by a series of protests against the proposed tripling of university tuition fees and the removal of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA). These protests were set within a broader international background of contestation around universities and higher education reforms. The focus of this article lies on the activities of a group, which emerged within this context, called the Really Open University (ROU), and its efforts to engender a reimagining of the university. Specifically, this paper argues that the activities of the ROU were attempts to create new, radical imaginaries of the university and were linked to broader efforts to re-conceptualise knowledge production and pedagogy. The central point is that ultimately the ROUâs invitation to âreimagine the universityâ was a provocation to abolish the university in its capitalist form, through a process of reimagining the university, exodus from the university machine and creating of a university of the common
What is an Insurrection? Destituent Power and Ontological Anarchy in Agamben and Stirner
The aim of this article is to develop a theoretical understanding of the insurrection as a central concept in radical politics in order to account for contemporary movements and forms of mobilisation that seek to withdraw from governing institutions and affirm autonomous practices and forms of life. I will develop a theory of insurrection by investigating the parallel thinking of Giorgio Agamben and Max Stirner. Starting with Stirnerâs central distinction between revolution and insurrection, and linking this with Agambenâs theory of destituent power, I show how both thinkers develop an ontologically anarchic approach to ethics, subjectivity and life that is designed to destitute and profane governing institutions and established categories of politics. However, I will argue that Stirnerâs âegoisticâ and voluntarist approach to insurrection provides a more tangible and positive way of thinking about political action and agency than Agambenâs at times vague, albeit suggestive, notion of inoperativity
New Keywords: Migration and Borders
âNew Keywords: Migration and Bordersâ is a collaborative writing project aimed at developing a nexus of terms and concepts that fill-out the contemporary problematic of migration. It moves beyond traditional and critical migration studies by building on cultural studies and post-colonial analyses, and by drawing on a diverse set of longstanding author engagements with migrant movements. The paper is organized in four parts (i) Introduction, (ii) Migration, Knowledge, Politics, (iii) Bordering, and (iv) Migrant Space/Times. The keywords on which we focus are: Migration/Migration Studies; Militant Investigation; Counter-mapping; Border Spectacle; Border Regime; Politics of Protection; Externalization; Migrant Labour; Differential inclusion/exclusion; Migrant struggles; and Subjectivity