Enlightened Anarchism

An inter-disciplinary event organized by Lapland University, in cooperation
with Cambridge University.


Keynote Speakers:

George Katsiaficas, Wentworth Institute of Technology

Alexandre Christoyannopoulos, Loughborough University


With Special Guest Speaker:

Dimitrios Roussopoulous

Anarchism has recently become a topic of scholarly focus, as social and
political movements have become increasingly active across Europe and North
America. While traditional public opinion tends to view anarchism as
juvenile force of negation, violence or gleeful destruction, it is
nonetheless possible to examine a far more nuanced discourse, as espoused by
the social actors involved. In fact, many such groups are particularly
focused upon combatting fascism, perceived state corruption, the effects of
neoliberalism or globalization, or to dedicating themselves to fighting for
environmental protection, immigrant and refugee rights, or in other arena of
social justice. Many of these aims could be interpreted as not only in the
public interest, but also to constitute some of the cornerstones of
democracy itself.  Indeed, despite the traditionally discussed perceptions
of anarchy, it is in fact possible to view these social movements as highly
engaged public citizens, which begs the question of why they are ostracized
and considered to be so politically threatening. It further causes one to
re-examine democracy and anarchy categorically and philosophically.

This reconsideration further raises the debate surrounding the use of
political violence for achieving democratic goals. This conference
particularly wishes to open dialogue on these discourses, especially the
moral, and one could even say spiritual aims of such movements.

Furthermore, analysis and recent scholarship also asks whether anarchism
must be “justified” by such moral categories, or if it should attempt to
remove itself from such dominating discourses. As such, both moral and
anti-moral interpretations are welcome, as well as those papers
interrogating this process of moral justification itself.

Focusing upon this notion of enlightened anarchism, the conference presents
a forum for discussing the moral, anti-moral, religious, anti-religious,
social justice, democratic and anti-democratic, or purely revolutionary
discourses of modern anarchists and social movements.

The conference organizers are particularly interested in placing these
contrasting perspectives into fruitful and exciting conversation. Some
potential areas of focus include:

-Enlightened anarchism

-Political theology and social movements

-The use of anarchism to achieve the goals of democracy

-The use of anarchy to combat perceived corruption

-The justification of destruction for purposes of social justice

-Discussions of anarchist violence

-The justification of violence for achieving democratic or moral goals

-A re-examination of democracy and anarchism

-Explicitly religious anarchism

-Explicitly anti-religious anarchism

-Anarchism as a non-religious morality

-Anarchism rejecting the category of morality

-Other types of anarchism

- While papers on Marxism will of course be considered, the conference
organizers hope that they will relate to anarchism in some way.



Selected papers from the conference will then be compiled into an edited
volume, and submitted to Cambridge University Press or another international
publisher by the end of 2014.

While travel funding is unfortunately not possible, limited subsidized
accommodations are available. Presenters are encouraged to contact
conference organizers Ali Jones at [email protected] and Mika Luoma-aho at
[email protected] with inquiries.



Keynote Speaker Biographies

George Katsiaficas has been active in social movements since 1969. A target
of the FBI's COINTELPRO program, he was classified "Priority 1 ADEX"
(meaning in the event of a national emergency, people like him were to be
immediately arrested). For 11 years, he worked in Ocean Beach, California as
part of a radical countercultural community (described in Andre Gorz's book,
Ecology as Politics). He moved to Berlin, after which he wrote two books:
one on the global imagination of 1968 and another on European social
movements. In these books, he developed the concept of the “eros effect” to
name the sudden and synchronous eruption of insurgencies. For years, he was
active in the cause of Palestinian rights. Together with Kathleen Cleaver,
he co-edited Liberation, Imagination and the Black Panther Party. A graduate
of MIT and UCSD (where he studied with Herbert Marcuse), he is currently
based at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston and also in Gwangju,
South Korea, where he finished a 2-volume book, Asia’s Unknown Uprisings.
His web site is: http://www.eroseffect.com

Alexandre Christoyannopoulos is Senior Lecturer in Politics and
International Relations at Loughborough University, which he joined in
2010.He is the author of Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the
Gospel, a seminal book which brings together the writings of disparate
Christian anarchists, Tolstoy in particular, and presents a comprehensive
exegesis arguing that Jesus’ teaching implies anarchism. He has also
published a number of articles, chapters and other publications on Tolstoy
and on Christian anarchism, and edited Religious Anarchism: New
Perspectives. He is currently working on a monograph on Tolstoy’s political
thought, and co-editing a new collection of essays on anarchism and
religion.A Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, he also acts as Treasurer
of the Anarchist Studies Network and officer of the International Political
Science Association’s research committee on Politics and Religion.His
website, which includes a full list of publications (many of which are
openly accessible online) and a more extensive biography, can be accessed
via http://www.christoyannopoulos.com.