Occupational Hazards: Theories & Methodologies (Palestine/Kashmir): Authority & Political Technologies Dialogues - May 7th-8th

Theories and Methodologies Cluster, Sociology, and the Authority and Political Technologies group present a two day symposium at the University of Warwick - May 7th-8th...

Day One Occupational Hazards: Theories and Methodologies (Palestine/Kashmir) - a workshop: May 7th, 10.00-18.00 Ramphal R1.04

Day two: Authority and Political Technologies - Dialogues and Works in Progress: May 8th. 10.30-16.00 Ramphal R0.12

10.30-11.40 Session 1: Chair Claire Blencowe
Claire Blencowe - Welcome
Cath Lambert – Affective Methodologies
Illan Wall – Crowds & Atmosphere
11.40-12.00 – Coffee Break
12.00 – 13.00 Session 2: Chair Kathryn Medien
Sam Burgum – The Powers That Be: Conspiracy & Cynicism whilst Occupying London
John Narayan – Black Cosmopolitanism: From the Black Panthers to Black Lives Matter
13.00-13.45 Lunch
13.45-16.00 Session 3: Chair Illan Wall
Miguel Beistegui – Genealogies of Desire
Goldie Osuri – Bodies as Border Technologies
Marijn Nieuwenhuis – Dome Thinking: Reflections on what it means to live under the dome
Concluding Discussion

The symposium is free to attend but registration is essential and places are limited. If you would like to present a work in progress on day 2 please register and submit an abstract as early as possible and by Friday 24th April at the latest. Registration here.

Day One: Occupational Hazards: Theories and Methodologies (Palestine/Kashmir)Organiser: Goldie Osuri

In recent years, questions regarding appropriate theories and methodologies have been an ongoing preoccupation in the discipline of Sociology. A number of recent turns (e.g. cultural, affective, materialist) have raised the problematic of theory as well as method. For example, Urry and Laws (2004) have advocated an ‘ontological politics’; i.e., if methods produce the social, how do or should sociologists interfere in its making? Savage and Burrawoy (2007) have called for rethinking social research methods in the context of technological transformations outside the academy. Adkins and Lury (2009) raise the question of the constitution of the empirical and how it matters in our era.

In zones of conflict or occupation, questions regarding politics and ethics rather theory than method have been foregrounded. The question is not simply one of binaries between politics and ethics on the one hand and theory and methods on the other, but to highlight the ways in which the specificities of working in zones of conflict and/or occupation may be productive for the debates around theories and methodologies. Bringing together scholars working on Palestine and Kashmir, this workshop will explore the many dimensions and challenges regarding theory and method which characterize ‘doing research’ in zones of conflict and/or occupation.

Speakers include: Nadera Shalhoub -Kevorkian; Mohamad Junaid; Miriyam Aouragh; Ather Zia; Gazala Farooq; Rema Hammami (tbc); and Farrukh Faheem. Chair: Goldie Osuri.

Day Two: Authority and Political Technologies - Dialogues and Works in Progress
Organisers: Authority and Political Technologies IAS Research Network.

A series of work in progress presentations and roundtable discussions with the members of the Authority and Political Technologies Network. This day is aimed at fostering emergent conversations on the big questions of the network and developing solidarities. Presentations include Miguel Beistegui on 'Genealogies of Desire', Cath Lambert on 'Affective Methods', Sam Burgum on 'Conspiracy Theory', Goldie Osuri, Marijn Nieuwenhuis on 'Domes', Nicholas Gane on 'Giddens & Neoliberalism', and Claire Blencowe on 'Capitalist Sorcery & Critique'.

If you would like to present a work in progress as a part of day two please register and submit an abstract as early early as possible and by Friday 24th at the latest.


APT is an Institute for Advanced Studies research network involving colleagues and PhD students from a range of social-science disciplines who share a broad intellectual background influenced by ‘Foucaultian’, 'Deleuzian', ‘post-structuralist’ and ‘cultural-theory’ approaches. We focus on contemporary critical empirical work that pushes forward these perspectives. The group's diverse research interests include authority, (bio)politics, politics of religion/political theology, media, power-knowledge, association, new forms of society(ism), community, the commons, participation, political imaginaries, security, borders, techne, political economy and urban questions.

Recently, there have been various calls for a move beyond ‘post-structuralism’ (Foucault, Deleuze, cultural theory), which had long been seen as the radical edge of the critical social sciences. Such calls are motivated in part by the sense that post-structuralist philosophies - which were forged against a backdrop of totalitarian rule and burgeoning welfare states in Europe - fail to offer moral or political purchase in the contemporary landscape. Moreover, there is a sense that various concepts and theories have become reified and constraining – closing down the possibilities of critical thought. However, the issues that post-structuralist theory placed on the critical social science agenda have become more vital than ever - be that the concern for the complex and dispersed nature of power and agency; the imbrication of power and economics with knowledge and science; rethinking the relation between equality and difference; the political/contested/changing nature of embodiment, biology and ecology; or the efforts of states and others to establish and exercise power over life itself.

We maintain that now is not the time to reject post-structuralist perspectives, but rather to rearticulate and reinvigorate their value through interdisciplinary refection on the empirical and critical insights that emerge when we deploy and develop these ideas in the study of authority and political technologies. Thus we ask: What is the future of post-structuralist, Foucaultian, Deleuzian and cultural theory perspectives in the critical social sciences? What concepts and methods should we use to critique, describe and transform political technologies and authority in the present?