The return of faith and reason to laïcité; Régis Debray and 'le fait religieux'

In 1985, Marcel Gauchet wrote of the ‘retour du religieux’ as an end to the social role of religion and the beginning of its privatisation. However, far from an indication of the withering of religion on the vine of modernity, the return of a religious discourse was resurrected by the democratisation of the ‘croyant’ in the mid-1980s. The ‘âge égalitaire’, coupled with the specificity of the ‘croyant’, created a platform on which to challenge the model of laïcité in contemporary France. This discourse sought to re-appropriate reason from the logic of secular objectivity and postmodern self-reliance, and re-signify it within a Catholic theological language of belief and faith. The transmission of religious ‘knowledge’ would also be seen to compete for intellectual equality with the forms and transmission of knowledge approved by laïcité in the republican school. Régis Debray's report to the Ministry of Education in 2002 on the teaching of the ‘fait religieux’ in French schools advances this debate by defending the introduction of the study of religion in school from the perspectives of theological rigour, the indivisibility of knowledge (the coexistence of ‘témoin’ and ‘savant’), and the inextricable links between faith and reason in their production of knowledge with a valid claim for public consumption

Towards an Ethics of Distance: Representation, Free Production and Virtuality

This article takes it inspiration from a crisis between Deleuzian free production and representation in contemporary virtual and digital culture. The aim is to sketch a different ethics to the ethics of difference between free production and representation as described by Deleuze and Guattari and invoked by Michel Foucault in his preface to Anti-Oedipe. This article outlines the case for an ethical relationality between these two structures which reflects the socio-political and ethical exigencies of our virtual and digital cultures: specifically, an ethics of relationality derived paradoxically from the distance inscribed in ethical philosophy. Drawing on an amalgamation of Ricoeurean ethics and social constructionism in a definition of selfhood, I argue for the need to stand back from the distanciating effects of the virtual revolution – not with a view to approximating the cultural politics of specificity in the logic of representation – but to see in the gap in "distance from" specificity, a space of ethical and philosophical agency wherein lies the value-added of otherness

The sexual and theological ethics of gay marriage in France: a dialectic between autonomy and universalism

The debate on gay marriage has gathered pace globally and particularly in France. Here, the secularization of marriage as an ‘acte laïque’ has furthered progress towards a political and juridic recognition of gay marriage. The Catholic church (Vatican) has opposed this development in its re-enforcement of Catholic sexual ethics and the distinction it draws between secular and religious definitions of marriage. Complicating this distinction is the per-ception of a trend towards post-secularism in France where religion is making a return to democratic debates on citizenship and gender, and raising concerns over the status of the civility of the marriage act. The focus of this article is to look at gay marriage from the perspective of con-temporary ethical and theological thinking. Specifically, I aim to examine alternative discourses that open up new ways of configuring gay marriage through an examination of concepts of integrity, responsibility and asceti-cism, and critically the ethical relationship between autonomy and norms

Film/TV Industries-Academia Discussion Forum: Discussion highlights and proposed next steps

in December 2019, a group of key stakeholders in the Film/TV industries and employability teams within academia, convened to discuss the 'non-creative' roles and skills required within the screen industries. The aim was to address the skills gaps within the screen industries and the knowledge gap within the employability teams. This paper highlights the key findings that came out of that forum and offers suggestions for next steps. In March 2020, a working group convened at Middlesex university to take this initiative forward

Film/TV Industries - Academia discussion Forum: Non-Creative Roles in the Screen Industries

Many employability teams within academia do not fully understand the idea that many organisations and employers in the screen industries need non-creative skills and offer non-creative work e.g. legal, finance, business, catering, construction, health and communications. This conference brought together key stakeholders from both sectors to learn about the non-creative opportunities that exist within the screen industries and to discuss potential collaborative opportunities to address the key issues

Film/TV Industry-Academia Roundtable Discussion

In December 2018, the inaugural 'Film/TV Industries-Academia Roundtable discussion was hosted by Middlesex University and Film London. The aim was to bring together key stakeholders from the industry/academic sectors - from across the UK - to discuss the findings of the 2018 'Listening Tour Report' (see in repository) and to collaborate on possible solutions. This meeting was the first of 3 such meetings...the others being in 2019 and 2020 (see relevant ppt in Repository). This presentation was delivered by Co-Chair, Dr Edward McCaffrey and this conference was the first UK-wide conference of its kind for this type of collaborative initiative

Connected Campus for Creative Industries Slide Deck

The Connected Campus for Creative Industries (aka Creative Campus Network) is a joint academia/screen industries initiative to help bridge the gap between the two, with the aim of addressing the many shared issues each face e.g. diversity & inclusion, graduate employability, industry skills gaps and knowledge exchange. This presentation was given by Edward McCaffrey, the conference Chair and organiser, at the beginning of the event, in Dec 2020, as a way of updating the conference guests on progress and to invite a discussion. This conference was the third such UK-wide academia/screen industries conference for the Creative Campus Network

Covid-19 Guidelines for student productions at FE/HE levels

A detailed set of guidelines for working safely and appropriately under Covid-19, when undertaking a Film/TV production at universities and/or FE Colleges. These guidelines were written by Dr Edward McCaffrey, at Middlesex University, with the support of ScreenSkills and colleagues from several other academies. It also has the support of industry stakeholders, including Film London, Pact and the UK Screen Alliance