Anarchist Studies Network: 3rd International Conference

As the crisis of late capitalism deepens, nominal democracies are
increasingly showing their hand: freedom of speech is the freedom to be
ignored. Every demand of the last wave of social mobilization has been
rejected or side-lined. Instead, governments pursue business-as-usual with
obstinacy. The fallout from the global financial crisis has become the
pretext for even harsher strategies of inequality management. Devastating
storms and a changing climate do nothing to stop the dash for gas. Even
dramatic revelations about generalised surveillance and the infiltration
of protest movements have done more to normalize these phenomena than to
halt or reverse them. Governments will change the story on the move if
they have to, or just plug their ears - perhaps unsurprisingly, since the
last credible alternative does not include them.

For anarchists, new-found public disillusionment is as much of a challenge
as a cause for celebration. Loss of trust in the democratic state can
result in despair or reactionary retrenchment as much as it can lead to
radicalization. Indeed, anarchists have been the first to offer solidarity
to many marginalized groups in their struggles, and their organizational
strategies – if not their actual aims – have inspired mass movements the
world round. But the mere celebration of anarchist resurgence is no longer
sufficient. What is now needed is a redoubled effort towards practical and
theoretical innovation, and engagement with mass struggles in content as
well as form.

Building on the success of its predecessor, the 3rd International
Conference of the Anarchist Studies Network will showcase the best new
thinking in the study of anarchism as a political theory and practice –
past, present and future. The conference aims to breach new frontiers in
anarchist scholarship, and encourage cross-pollination between disciplines
and contributions from both within and outside the official academic
sphere.

The conference will be held at Loughborough University during the first
week of September 2014.

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