stevphen writes "CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS AND INTERVENTIONS

Making Global Civil Society:
Grassroots Practice and Academic Theory of Globalisation from Below

A weekend gathering for activists and academics.

November 4, 5 & 6 2005
Lancaster University, North West England.

With support of the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) at Lancaster University, the “Knowledge Laboratory on Globalisation from Above and Below” is happy to invite you, your affinity group, your collective, or your organisation to contribute to its first event.

The aim of the gathering is to discuss key aspects of the historical development of the capitalist economy that drives globalisation from above such as enclosures, (precarious) labour, structural violence, colonialism, and their justifying cultural imagery – and to make visible alternative architectures of social organisation emerging through the processes of globalisation from below, that is, through grassroots movements cooperating to create a global civil society based on human rights and mutual aid, and to restore the (intellectual) commons, in the street, on the land, and in cyberspace.

We are particularly interested in contributions that relate people's experiences of, perspectives on, motivations for, and frustrations with their involvement in grassroots movements. The idea is to bring together firsthand accounts of the successes and failures of social, cultural and political projects and experiments with theoretical elaborations by academics trying to understand the the reality of globalisation and the connections between its manifestations from above and below. We hope to create an atmosphere in which practice can inform theory and where theoretical academic perspectives can facilitate a reflection on activist practices.

If you are engaged in world changing activities, such as running a social centre or otherwise occupied/squatted space, if you are organising nonviolent direct actions, building campaigns, or an ecovillage (or living in one), or doing anything of the experimental kind that we all want to see more of, or if you are working in an NGO on community building projects or other forms of practical projects, such as development or with indigenous peoples, then get in touch and suggest a contribution or presentation.

Academic presentations should be in areas relevant to social movements, such as:

– conceptions of global civil society, counterpublic sphere and counterhegemonic movements
– the dynamics of enclosing knowledge and genetic material
– history and change of precarious labour
– resisting enclosures, resisting precarity, constructing alternatives
– transformations of colonialism: biocolonialism, TRIPs and structural adjustment
– networked databases, biometrics, and border control
– subversive and transhuman uses of technology
– reclaiming/liberating urban spaces and rural land
– sexual politics, discourse, and resistance
– radical media and art collectives
– self-organisation and consensus processes conceptually
– human rights as community building, form of resistance, and as global vision of movements

Participation is limited to a hundred people. A LIMITED AMOUNT OF TRAVEL GRANTS AND FREE ACCOMODATION FOR ACTIVISTS ARE AVAILABLE CONTACT US NOW.

SEND SUGGESTIONS FOR WORKSHOPS, PRESENTATIONS, AND PAPERS (MAX. 1 PAGE) TO: n.moeller [at] lancaster.ac.uk
Further info will be made available on http://knowledgelab.blogspot.com

Costs, incl. (predominantly organic and vegan) Friday dinner, Saturday lunch and dinner:

Volunteers/unpaid activists: Free
Unfunded students: Donation
Funded students, Lancaster academics: £15 (additional donation welcome!) Representatives of smaller NGOs: £35 (negotiable)
Representatives of bigger NGOs: £65
Academics: £65"