Group for Social Engagement Studies · 2016. 11. 6. · Igor Štiks Edinburgh College of Art, UK ... Igor Cvejić is a PhD Candidate in Philosophy at the University of Belgrade. His

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Group for Social Engagement StudiesEngaging Reflexivity, Reflecting Engagement

University of Belgrade

Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory

BROSURA IFDT.indd 1 10.11.2015 17:11:09

Petar Bojanić, Director of the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory

was founded to be the intellectual home of theorists and practitioners able to, above all, work together, building an entirely new, unique counter-institution. At the same time, they actively reached out to others, associations and parties, institutes and institutions alike, on occasion even providing counsel to the government, taking office or becoming otherwise engaged in state affairs. The ideas and development of entirely diverse philosophers and sociologists (M. Životić, M. Marković, Lj. Tadić, Z. Golubović, N. Popov, S. Stojanović, V. Pešić, Z. Ðinđić, V. Koštunica, D. Mićunović, K. Čavoški, B. Jakšić, S. Gredelj, T. Inđić, M. Savić and others) was always characterized by action and mutually supportive work, as well as its scrutiny and reconsideration. Public engagement, theory and studies in social action and commitment are our way forward and our task. To be engaged as a group with common aims in research and action – this is to encounter others on their own terms, be bound before others and enjoin others to work. It is equal measure engagement (the French word gage is pledge) and jeopardy (the word jeopardy comes from the French jeu parti, an evenly divided game) in seeking to be recognized and accepted by the other, in order to truly act as society’s mortgage.

The Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory


The Group was established in early 2014. And, as is often the case, its name predated its acts. We were founded as the Group for Social Engagement

Studies, but who were we? The performative act of naming produced a loose grouping out of several

men and women, strong individuals and ardent scholars with different aspirations, objectives and disciplinary constraints. The logic of the name imposed itself on us: were we to become an institution, an association or a centre? None of these: forced into sociality merely by being together, we wanted to understand what it means (to have power) to institute, and how we may dissociate and de-centre sociality itself? The we emerged in the process of intruding, traversing each other’s enclaves, interfering and opening spaces and fields of sociality: for the sake of people, thoughts and actions. This we is versatile, broad and delicate, as is the space for critical reflection on what it means to be socially engaged, the space where we encounter each other as an ever-widening group.

Adriana Zaharijević, Coordinator of the Group for Social Engagement Studies

Group for Social

Engagement Studies


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T he Group for Social Engagement Studies is conceived as a unique place for multidisciplinary research and cooperation between

academic organizations, public institutions, activist groups and media, aiming to provide productive reflection on the phenomenon of social (but also political, civic, and societal) engagement. The group combines theoretical and empirical research, realized by a community of philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, historians, etc. This multi-dimensional approach is crucial for the versatility of both the critical examination of the existing social practices and the efficiency of the proposed alternative polices, designed in common projects.

Reflection on social engagement as a field of theoretical and political action, in the broadest sense of the word, requires a wide range of topics and approaches. In the spirit of multidisciplinarity and dialogue, the group critically develops a domain of themes it considers to be vital for action and thought in contemporary society. Taking into account the conceptual and historical legacy of the term (public/civic) engagement, the group tackles a wide array of questions and ambiguities that surround this concept.

The strategic vision of the group is a scientific community which will encourage public engagement and critical thought, actively working on the expansion of the scope of public debates, advocating and aiming to provide systematic education on the history, contemporary dilemmas and forms of emancipatory practices and participation in social life. In that sense, the Group also focuses on the phenomena which present impediments to progressive change, hoping that the understanding of such impediments might facilitate the development of alternative forms of social agency and thought.

VISION


Publicly engaged theory and science. What are the topics, key issues and contexts in which scientific knowledge can become political or publicly engaged? What should be the approach towards the resulting dilemmas, such as the issue of the autonomy of the scientist, fundamental principles of scientific labour, objectivity, situatedness of knowledge, relationship between scientific and lay critique, etc.?

Public role of social theory and its proponents. Does social theory generate social change, and how? How can theoretical knowledge be mobilised for the production of policies and/or public engagement?

Examination of the structure of everyday life experience, conducted at an intersection of different disciplines and perspectives in order to encompass the impact of

CORE CONCEPTS

the state, jurisprudence and institutions on particular experiences, as well as the impact of embodiment in a certain sex, skin colour, etc.

Public/private. Investigation of the borderlines between private and public spheres within which everyday experience is situated, with the aim of their defragmentation. How does public engagement change or conserve the public/private distinction? How are issues of security, structural violence and complex forms of domination related to historical and contemporary disfranchisement in the domain of the home?

Sexuality, body and gender. Understanding sexuality as a social and political phenomenon that can be genealogically interpreted in conjunction with the way the public (and the private) is formed, along with the development of knowledge

about the body, the political definition of citizenship, and the way gender intersects with comparable phenomena, such as class, skin colour, sexual orientation, ability etc. Examination of the meanings and mechanisms of political and civic community, focused on internal borders of citizenship (inclusion and exclusion from citizenship) and the forms of their overcoming.

Solidarity and resistance. Examination of the agency of individuals, citizens, groups and communities. Examination of the efficacy of public engagement in terms of (self-)emancipation and within (the limits of) solidarity and resistance.

Mapping of emancipatory practices and the critical examination of politics and models of social development.

Examination of historical circumstances of the emergence and development of social movements, their influence and relevance today. Focus on new social movements and their (non)emancipatory tendencies.

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ADVISORY BOARD

Étienne Balibar Professor Emeritus, Université de Paris X – Nanterre, France

Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim Professor of Sociology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany

Mladen Dolar Professor of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Roberto Esposito Professor of Theoretical Philosophy, Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, Italy

Maurizio Ferraris Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy and Education, University of Torino, Italy

Jean François Kervégan Professor of Philosophy, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France

Peter Klepec Research Advisor, Institute of Philosophy, Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Slovenia

Martti Koskenniemi Academy Professor of International Law, University of Helsinki, Finland

Massimo La Torre Professor of Legal Philosophy, University of Catanzaro, Italy

Nicholas Onuf Professor Emeritus, Department of Politics and International Relations, Florida International University, USA

Jo Shaw Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh, UK

Jonathan Wolff Professor of Philosophy, University College London, UK

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BOARD OF FRIENDS

Gil Anidjar Columbia University, USA

Jeffrey C. AlexanderYale University, USA

Athena AthanasiouPanteion University of Socialand Political Sciences, Greece

Patrick BaertUniversity of Cambridge, UK

Milica Bakić HaydenUniversity of Pittsburgh, USA

Ana Dimiškovska TrajanoskaSkopje University, FYR Macedonia


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Kristen GhodseeBowdoin College, USA

Stef JansenUniversity of Manchester, UK

Tatjana JukićUniversity of Zagreb, Croatia

Predrag KrstićUniversity of Belgrade, Serbia

Sanja Milutinović BojanićCAS, University of Rijeka,

Croatia

Snježana Prijić-SamardžijaUniversity of Rijeka, Croatia

Simon Susen City University, London, UK

Igor ŠtiksEdinburgh College of Art, UK

Alenka ZupančičSlovenian Academy of

Sciences and Arts


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COMMUNITYAdriana Zaharijević obtained her PhD at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade, in the field of gender and politics. Her background is in political philosophy, feminist theory and Victorian studies, and her research revolves around genealogy of citizenship, sex and class. She is the author of two books (Who is an Individual? Genealogical Inquiry into the Idea of Citizen, 2014, and Becoming a Woman, 2010, both published in Serbian) and more than forty articles and book chapters. She has also edited several books, most important being Somebody Said Feminism? How Feminism Affected Women in 21st Century (four editions). She is part of a vibrant regional feminist activist scene.

Ana Birešev received her PhD in sociology from the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. Her research interests include social theory, political sociology, critical sociology of domination, sociology of critique, critical discourse analysis. She is the author and coeditor of several books, including Orionov vodič: otkrivanje dominacije u sociologiji Pjera Burdijea [Orion’s Guide: Discovering Domination in the Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu], Priroda, etika, politika: ekološke (pre)okupacije i (pre)orijentacije [Nature, Ethics, Politics], Social and Cultural Capital in Western Balkan Societies, Corruption and Social Development, as well as numerous articles in professional journals and contributions to edited volumes in Serbia.


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Marjan Ivković completed his undergraduate and MPhil studies of sociology at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. He defended his PhD thesis at the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom in February 2014. He has taken part in international academic conferences and seminars. Marjan’s research interests include contemporary social theory, particularly the social-theoretic aspects of Critical Theory, debates within the epistemology of social sciences, theories of social domination and different contemporary approaches to social critique.

Igor Cvejić is a PhD Candidate in Philosophy at the University of Belgrade. His main research topics include theories of emotions, classical German philosophy and aesthetics, currently with a focus on Kant’s philosophy. His interests also cover a wide range of social and political theories, including theories of property and private/public distinctions. He has published several articles and translations, and taken a part on several international conferences. He is currently completing his thesis entitled “Kant’s Theory of Feelings”.


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Mark Losoncz is a PhD candidate at the Department of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad. He completed part of his doctoral research at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris. His main fields of interest are political philosophy, philosophy of law, ethics and contemporary philosophy. Apart from that, his current research focuses on the problem of time in the philosophy of Bergson and Husserl. After publishing his first book, he began to bear the burden of editing books.

Igor Krtolica graduated at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France) where he also completed his PhD thesis on the early works of Gilles Deleuze. His main research fields include 20th century French and German philosophy and their roots in classical continental philosophy. His current research lies within the field of political philosophy (typology of social structures, development of capitalism) and epistemology (theory of philosophy and sciences, physical as well as social, aiming to explore the political impact of thought). This year he runs a seminar with Guillaume Sibertin-Blanc at the Collège International de Philosophie on “Minor literatures” (2014-2015).


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Aleksandar Matković is a PhD student at the University of Novi Sad, Department of Philosophy. His background is in post-structuralism and contemporary Marxism. He deals mainly with contemporary critiques of political economy, philosophy of economy and theories of biopolitics. He has lectured on topics of debt economy, European integrations and social policies of peripheral Balkan states. He used to translate a lot and conducts research into sound synthesis and aesthetics of noise music.

Tamara Petrović-Trifunović is a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Belgrade. She specializes in critical discourse analysis and has participated in several research projects dealing with the study of political communication and media discourse. Currently, she is working on her thesis on the interplay of politics, culture and class in the symbolic struggles of contemporary Serbian society. Her other research interests lie in the fields of sociolinguistics and cultural sociology but also involve subjects such as politics of remembrance and emancipatory practices.


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Srđan Prodanović obtained his PhD in Sociology at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, where he previously finished his BA and MA studies. Presently, his research is primarily focused on theoretical inquiry into the notion of common sense and its relevance to social theory. His research interests also include: contemporary social theory, philosophy of social sciences, (neo)pragmatism, symbolic interactionism, sociology of everyday life.

Gazela Pudar Draško read sociology at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, where she completed her PhD thesis on intellectuals and nationalism. She is also active in the NGO sector, and has worked as a consultant/researcher in numerous projects within the Council of Europe, UNHCR, UNDP, Development Initiative Group SeConS, Center for Ethics, Law and Applied Philosophy and the European Youth Center. Her research interests range from nationalism, studies of societal actors, intellectuals, to problems of social inclusion. In general, her engaged work focuses on youth and social policy research.


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Jelena Vasiljević holds a PhD in Socio-cultural Anthropology. Her main research themes include politics and practices of citizenship, politics of memory, identity politics, narratives and everyday life. Jelena was a Research Fellow and later a Research Collaborator for the CITSEE (ERC funded project on citizenship in the former Yugoslav states) project at the University of Edinburgh. Her current research lies within the fields of political anthropology, anthropology of policy, anthropology of law and citizenship studies.


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TEAM

Petar BojanićDirector of the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory

Nataša NastićSecretary of the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory

Zorica NedeljkovLibrary Services

Dušan BoškovićPhotographer, Video-recording

Marilea PudarPhotographer

Nikola StevanovićDesign

Branislav RadakIT

Edward DjordjevicLanguage Editor


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ACTIVITIES


PRECURSORY ACTIVITES – the grouping of the Group

OPEN DISCUSSIONS

Open Discussions is a format of public debates that was first launched in December 2012 by a group of younger scholars, many of whom are now gathered in the Group for Social Engagement Studies. Their motive was to periodically organize panels on important social and political issues, from both academic and activist viewpoints, in an open, engaged manner that would allow anyone interested to come and take part in the conversation.

Open Discussions are organized in a form of a round table, with open public calls to everyone who is interested in coming, where moderators give a brief introduction to topics to be discussed and then channel the discussion to allow everyone present an opportunity to share their thoughts or expertise, to comment on others’ viewpoints, and to constructively contribute to the debate.

So far, seven Open Discussions have been organized at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory:

December 10, 2012 – “The role of knowledge today: politics of education and science – potentials for change”, “New political subjectivity: (new?) frameworks for (old) political categories and identities”, “Interventions in public space: the city, politics, economy and the struggle for remembrance”, “What is radical in radical democracy?”

January 19, 2013 – “(Anti)nationalism and (anti)fascism”, “Social (de)mobilization: global crisis, resistance and the possible answers”, “Social (de)mobilization in Serbia and in the region today: local contexts, intellectual debates and (new) political movements”

March 1, 2013 – “Is there an end of history? Old and new socio-economic models”, “Crisis, resistance and violence”, “Activism: the salon and/or the streets”

April 30, 2013 – “The city as a space of class struggle”, “Strategies of urban struggles”

July 2, 2013 – “Love, sexuality and marriage”, “Motherhood, parenthood, family and capitalism”

March 3, 2014 – “Narratives on the Bosnian spring: “The forum as a model of organization and political mobilization”, “The possibilities of the political articulation of social discontent”.

February 11, 2015 – “Syriza – its possibilities and limits”

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We have organized:

LECTURES

Simon Susen | June 26, 2015 | Reflections on the ‘Postmodern Turn’ in the Social Sciences

Maeve Cooke | June 26, 2015 | The Perils of Social Critique

Anselm Jappe | June 26, 2015 | End of a Family Quarrel: Overcoming Capital and Labour

Catherine Samary | June 25, 2015 | The apolitical veil of ordoliberal capitalism and the strategic recomposition of Europe

Alex Demirovic | June 25, 2015 | On the edge: the question of the end of capitalism

G. M. Tamás | June 25, 2015 | Capitalism and Democracy: Is Capitalist Democracy An Oxymoron?

Ugo Mattei | June 25, 2015 |Beyond capitalist law and toward the ecology of law

Rainer Kuhlen | June 24, 2015 | Commons-based information markets as a means both for innovation in the economy and for progress in science

Laurence Fontaine | June 24, 2015 | Are markets and democracy compatible?

Wolfgang Merkel | June 24, 2015 | Is capitalism compatible with democracy?

Gérard Duménil | June 24, 2015 | Neoliberal Managerial Capitalism: Its Class Foundations and Economic and Political Prospects after the Crisis

Zoran Janković | June 23, 2015 | Emmanuel Levinas. Money and Community: measuring the unmeasurable. Money as justice, time and usury

Kristen Ghodsee | June 22, 2015 | The Left Side of History: Remembering the Victims of Communism After the Crises of Capitalism

Jodi Dean | June 8, 2015 | The Communist Horizon

Mladen Lazić | April 8, 2015 | Agentic Potential of Social Groups in Serbia,

Jana Baćević | April 7, 2015 | Role of the Intellectual and Public Engagement in the Economy of Knowledge

Patrick Baert | March 27, 2015 | The Existentialist Moment: Sartre’s Rise as a Public Intellectual

Alessandro Ferrara | December 8, 2014 |Democracy Today and the Renewal of Political Liberalism

Eric Fassin | December 5, 2014 | The Politics of Actuality: Biopower, Racial Democracy and the Racialization of Sex

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Ulrich Beck | November 13, 2014 | How the European Project Can be Saved: The Cosmopolitan Outlook?

Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim | November 13, 2014 |Individualisation, Cosmopolitization, and the Changing Family Life

Monique Canto-Sperber | October 15, 2014 | Discussions about University

Mladen Dolar | October 2 / 3, 2014 | To Be or Not to Be? No, Thank You! Mimesis and Ideology – From Plato to Althusser,

Massimo Palma | May 9, 2014 | “The right to be filmed”: Emancipation through technique and its dark sides in Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of its Technical Reproduction

Jan Müller | May 9, 2014 | Recognition and/or Autonomy


BOOKS & BOOK LAUNCHES

Michal Sládeček, Jelena Vasiljević and Tamara Petrović-Trifunović (eds.), Collective Memory and the Politics of Remembrance

Aleksandar Pavlović, Adriana Zaharijević, Gazela Pudar Draško i Rigels Halili (eds.), Figura neprijatelja: preosmišljavanje srpsko-albanskih odnosa [Figuring out the Enemy: Re-imagining Serbian-Albanian Relations]

Mark Losoncz, Vakító gépezetek (Bedazzling Machines), Budapest | November 11, 2014 |

Ana Birešev, Orionov vodič: otkrivanje dominacije u sociologiji Pjera Burdijea [Orion’s Guide: Discovering Domination in the Sociology of Pierre Burdieu], Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory | May 6, 2015 |

Adriana Zaharijević, Ko je pojedinac? Genealoško propitivanje ideje građanina [Who is an Individual? Genealogical Inquiery into the Idea of Citizen], Belgrade Cultural Centre | May 20, 2015 |

SEMINARS & WORKSHOPS

Liberalism and Anti-Liberalism: Challenges and Alternatives | October, 2015 |

Seminar with Maeve Cooke: ‘’Politics, Freedom and Truth: On the Relationship between Political Authority and Autonomy’’, | June 2015 |

Seminar with Wolfgang Merkel: “Capitalism and Democracy – Debating various Dimensions and Variations of an Uneasy Marriage”| June 2015 |

Seminar with Predrag Krstić, Theory and Fantasy: Facts and Fictions | June 3, 2015 |

Workshop Figuring Out the Enemy: Re-imagining Serbian-Albanian Relations, University of Graz | April, 2015 |

Seminar with Patrick Baert, The Public Engagement of Intellectuals through the Prism of Positioning Theory | March 27, 2015 |

Seminar with Časlav Koprivica, Filosofija angažovanja [Philosophy of Engagement] | March 6, 2015 |

Seminar with Alessandro Ferrara, The Democratic Horizon | December 9, 2014 |

Seminar on Luce Irigaray’s Speculum of the other Woman with Sanja Milutinović Bojanić | December 1, 2014 |

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Engaging Foucault, December 5-7, 2014

June 25, 2014 marked the 30th anniversary of the passing of Michel Foucault. During his lifetime, Foucault was, in his own words, described as an anarchist and a leftist; a covert Marxist or an explicit or covert anti-Marxist; a nihilist, a technocrat in the service of Gaullism, and a neoliberal. In addition, Foucault can also be described as an intellectual who cannot be aligned or positioned within the existing matrices of thought and action, especially when defined ideologically. How should one understand the societal and political implications of Foucault’s work? These dilemmas remain very much unresolved today.

Engaging Foucault gathered more than 120 international and regional theorists who have engaged with Foucault’s work, either endorsing or disputing the main premises of his work. The intended aim of the conference was to

open up space for a general discussion of the actuality of Foucault’s work. Bearing in mind the specific political economy of truth and power, about which Foucault wrote extensively, we examined the changes in scientific and theoretical discourses, as well as the institutions that produce these changes. In what ways is this production economically and politically initiated, expanded and consumed? What is the form of control and dissemination of certain regimes of truth through reforms, and old and new ideological struggles around them? Taking as our point of departure Foucault’s statement that the role of the intellectual is not merely to criticize ideological contents supposedly linked to science, or furnish him/herself with the most appropriate ideology, we wanted to incite a debate on the possibilities of “constituting new politics of truth”, advocated by Foucault. Thus, central to this conference

Conferences


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was the investigation into the possibilities for (re-)articulating public engagement today: how to change political, economic, social and institutional regimes of production of truths? The debate revolved around a critical examination of the meanings of emancipatory practices, social movements, contemporary forms of innovative action and engaged theory through the Foucauldian optic of bio-politics and ’thanato-politics’, sexuality and (non)identity, resistance, ’counter-power’, ’techniques of the self’ and the genealogies of societally engaged practices (e.g. insurrectionary knowledge and action). In light of the uprisings that have in recent years spread across the globe and are characterized by a variety of causes and consequences, this conference critically reflected on the meaning of ’engagement’ – what is public engagement, who can be called ’engaged’ and in what sense, what are the effects of engaged thought and action – in the spirit of Foucault’s cues.

Thinking Beyond Capitalism, June 24–26, 2015

June 24 – 26 of this year, the Group for Social Engagement Studies will be organizing its second international conference entitled Thinking Beyond Capitalism. The Thinking Beyond Capitalism conference is part of a week-long series of events on the topic of the critique of capitalism, entitled Reflections on Capitalism which will take place June 22 – 27 2015. Apart from the conference, these events will include public discussions, roundtables and plenary lectures. All events are open to the general public.

How is it at all possible to make sound statements about contemporary capitalism? How does one adequately diagnose the current state of the economy? Clearly there is no consensus whether the financial crisis which culminated in 2007-2008 should be seen as a symptom of the structural crisis of neoliberal capitalism only, or of capitalism in general. Moreover, one should keep in mind that the term ’crisis’ is itself laden with different ideologems. The talk of ’crisis’ implies the existence


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of a superior prior state of capitalism, free of any crisis, and that we are now witnessing an extraordinary phase which is alien to the ’normal functioning’ of the system. Should we understand the crisis merely as the means for restructuring the existing system, or as the beginning of an irreversible demise of the current mode of production? Is it possible that the crisis has actually enabled the preservation of the status quo, and has prevented any change? Or was the crisis, on the contrary, the crucial catalyst for the politicization of the otherwise depoliticized actors within late capitalism? We are thus simultaneously exposed to various institutional-reformist suggestions, more or less grounded apologias, and identifications of fundamental contradictions within the capitalist reproduction process.

In The Communist Manifesto, Marx argues that capitalism is a social order which arises and subsists in the form of a critique of all alternative orders and subjective

dispositions. Capitalism has proven more radical than its competitors: it has destroyed the ancien régime, has rendered all societal bonds flexible and has constantly revolutionized the means of production. It is a system in which ’all that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned’. To what extent, then, is it even possible to formulate a critique of such societal system, a system that has managed to incorporate critique itself? Can one stage a revolution against the ’revolution’ itself? If capitalism thus emerges as the actual constitutive framework of our thought, how do we begin to think beyond capitalism?

How to Act Together? From Collective Engagement to ProtestNovember 19-21, 2015


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The conference will explore the broad issue of action – in its various sociological and philosophical traditions – and the particular question of collective engagement in its contemporary forms of protest assemblies.The question of action and human agency has been extensively debated in social theories of the 20th century. The pendulum moved many times from perspectives emphasizing social and economic determinants to those embracing human rationality, self-reflexivity and the ability to actively construct social reality. While some of the pioneer studies of action focused predominantly on micro-contexts and behavior of actors in concrete situations, the crucial question that social theory is facing today is how to once again shift the analysis from the level of individual action to the macrostructural one, i.e. the level of the ’behaviour of the social systems’ – a shift which would escape the simple structural determinism of action and offer at least a horizon of the possible

synthesis of the two analytical planes. The issues that interest us most in this respect concern the prospects of articulating social critique and reconceptualizing the ’political’ from the perspective of individual and group action.How does one conceptualize adequately the ’everyday’ action of individuals? What is the actual potential of concrete and engaged, albeit fragmented actions in bringing about general, systemic social change? Can social theory build on the actors’ own accounts of their action as the grounds for the critique of power and domination? Finally, could we say that social theory amounts to no more than a methodologically adequate description of the potential for social critique inherent in everyday social action, or can it be an independent constituent of social engagement that brings about progressive change?The question of action and agency was given a new impetus with recent waves of popular protests ranging from the so-called Arab spring to Occupy movements to

anti-austerity protests. We want to see how these acts of collective engagement could be analyzed and interpreted within different traditions of thinking about action. Reversely, we also want to explore different impacts these new forms of engagement may have on theories of action. In particular, we wish to incite a debate on contemporary collective protests and theory of performativity, as it is advanced in Judith Butler’s forthcoming book (Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly), where it is revised to include “concerted actions of the body”. What are the ways in which physical bodies can act in politics? How are we (and are we?) transforming and influencing the public and the politics by employing embodied ways of coming together? Finally, is precarity (precarious bodies) becoming a dominant force of protest, as Butler argues, or, on the contrary, is it the very obstacle to systemic change (tantamounting to “reserve army of labour”)?


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International project

Figuring out the Enemy: Re-imagining Serbian-Albanian Relations (2014–2016)Partners: IFDT, KZP Beton, individuals in Kosovo* and Albania teamProject coordinator: Adriana Zaharijević

The project Figuring out the Enemy: Re-imagining Serbian-Albanian Relations challenges Serbian-Albanian hostility by reinvestigating events and discourses from the past and recent times, seeking to give explanations and identify common views, ideas and traditions that undermine the present enmity and promote cooperation.The project brings together scholars and researchers from Serbia, Kosovo and Albania from various fields of social sciences, humanities, literature and art theory who are determined to penetrate into the logic of Serbian-Albanian hostility and into its manifestations by using various analytic tools. It will cover several topics, including historical background, literature and history textbooks, artistic, literary and political discourses, media content, relations and collaborative plans.

Conferences:

Social Justice: New Perspectives, New HorizonsMay, 2016

The Politics of Enmity: Can Nation Ever be Emancipatory? September, 2016

Agenda:

Seminars:

Seminar on the Judith Butler’s Notes Toward a Performative Theory of AssemblyNovember, 2015 Jean-Luc Marion, Love, Desire and Givenness December, 2015

Workshop with Saša Bosančić, Doing Discourse Research - Analyzing Discourse with the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to DiscourseDecember, 2015

Remembering How It All Began: The Institute’s HistoryAutumn 2015-Spring 2016


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Lectures:

Mario de Caro, Action and FreedomNovember, 2015

Pim Haselager, From a Plurality of Agents to Collective EngagementNovember, 2015

Athena Athanasiou, “As if It Were Possible”: Performing the Institution in the Un/Common Space of the PolisNovember, 2015

Judith Butler, Vulnerability/ResistanceNovember, 2015

Éric Fassin, Mobilizing Publics. Intellectuals, Activists, and the Political Work of RepresentationNovember, 2015

Saša BosančićDecember, 2015

Cristoph Menke, winter 2016

Raymond Geuss, winter 2016

Agenda:

Books:

Jelena Vasiljević, Kultura i građanstvo – antropološka perspektiva [Culture and Citizenship - an Anthropological Perspective]

Rigels Halili, Aleksandar Pavlović, Gazela Pudar Draško i Adriana Zaharijević (eds.), Figura e armikut: rivlerësimi i marrëdhënieve serbo-shqiptare [Figuring out the Enemy: Re-imagining Serbian-Albanian Relations ]

Igor Cvejić, Adriana Zaharijević, Mark Losonz (eds.), Engaging Foucault 1

Srđan Prodanović, Gazela Pudar Draško, Marjan Ivković (eds.), Engaging Foucault 2

Aleksandar Matković, Mark Losonz, Igor Krtolica (eds.)Thinking Beyond Capitalism: Conference Proceedings


SUPPORT and COOPERATION


AUTHORS: Petar Bojanić and Adriana Zaharijević

PUBLISHER: Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade

FOR THE PUBLISHER: Petar Bojanić

DESIGN AND LAYOUT: Nikola Stevanović

PR INTED BY: Pr int Solution

PLACE AND YEAR OF ISSUE: Belgrade, 2015

ISBN 978-86-82417-83-5


Documents

Group for Social Engagement Studies · 2016. 11. 6. · Igor Štiks Edinburgh College of Art, UK ... Igor Cvejić is a PhD Candidate in Philosophy at the University of Belgrade. His