Poststructuralism

Assessment moderation: constructing the marks and constructing the students

by Susan Orr

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education
Volume 32, Issue 6, 2007, Pages 645 - 656

In this paper the author considers the positivist approaches in mainstream higher education assessment research. She... more In this paper the author considers the positivist approaches in mainstream higher education assessment research. She contrasts this to emerging poststructuralist perspectives and goes on to report on a study into the assessment moderation practices in a higher education art department. In this research she explores the ways in which art and design lecturers talk about students' grades in moderation meetings and reports on the different ways that groups of lecturers co-construct meaning in relation to the practice of agreeing marks.

The Unnatural Creature: How the Production of Knowledge reflects Western Cultural History in Frankenstein

by David Price

Conference Paper for Panel on Post-colonialism - St. John's Grad Conference May 2012

Team work? Using sporting fiction as a traditional historical archive and source of post-structuralist theory.

by Andy Harvey

Presented at Society of Social History Conference, Brighton University, April 2012

Paradox and Critique. Some Thoughts on an Unexpected Affinity between Deleuze and Adorno.

by João Pedro Cachopo

Paper presented at “CONNECTdeleuze: The Second International Deleuze Studies Conference,” Universität zu Köln, Köln, 10-12 August 2009.

Global subjects: An ethnographic study of educational media production and forms of subjectivation

by Felicitas Macgilchrist

Macgilchrist, F. (2012/in press). Global subjects: An ethnographic study of educational media production and forms of subjectivation.
To appear in: Pragmatics 22(3) or 22(4).

What does it mean to represent events from the Holocaust in a graphic novel? And what if this is done not in the stark... more What does it mean to represent events from the Holocaust in a graphic novel? And what if this is done not in the stark design of Art Spiegelman's Maus but in the light ligne claire (known from Tintin)? This paper explores the discursive practices surrounding The Search, a graphic novel produced specifically to teach children and young adults about the Holocaust. It asks how (novel) forms of subjectivation are articulated in the everyday, mundane practices of educational media workers. Drawing on poststructuralist theories of the subject and close micro-analysis of language (and semiotic) practices, the paper presents extracts from ethnographic observations of a team of authors designing teaching and learning materials to accompany The Search. These materials – and their practices of production – are participating in transforming memories of the Holocaust and thus (co)producing forms of globalisation. Findings suggest that while the Holocaust has traditionally been seen as a matter of ‘national’ responsibility, The Search and its teaching materials invite readers to see it as (global/universal) ‘individualised’ responsibility. Students are subjectivated as global subjects: firstly, as universal-ethical subjects and, secondly, as contingency-tolerant subjects. These materials thus constitute a mundane, everyday element shaping new ways of being.

Keywords: globalisation, subject, Holocaust education, discourse, ethnography, poststructuralism

Violence sits in places? Cultural practice, neoliberal rationalism, and virulent imaginative geographies

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2011. Violence sits in places? Cultural practice, neoliberal rationalism, and virulent imaginative geographies. Political Geography. 30 (2), 90-98.

Through imaginative geographies that erase the interconnectedness of the places where violence occurs, the notion that... more Through imaginative geographies that erase the interconnectedness of the places where violence occurs, the notion that violence is 'irrational' marks particular cultures as ‘other’. Neoliberalism exploits such imaginative geographies in constructing itself as the sole providence of nonviolence and the lone bearer of reason. Proceeding as a ‘civilizing’ project, neoliberalism positions the market as salvationary to putatively ‘irrational’ and ‘violent’ peoples. This theology of neoliberalism produces a discourse that binds violence in place. But while violence sits in places in terms of the way in which we perceive its manifestation as a localized and embodied experience, this very idea is challenged when place is reconsidered as a relational assemblage. What this re-theorization does is open up the supposed fixity, separation, and immutability of place to instead recognize it as always co-constituted by, mediated through, and integrated within the wider experiences of space. Such a radical rethinking of place fundamentally transforms the way we understand violence. No longer confined to its material expression as an isolated and localized event, violence can more appropriately be understood as an unfolding process, derived from the broader geographical phenomena and temporal patterns of the social world.

Neoliberalism as discourse: between Foucauldian political economy and Marxian poststructuralism

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. Forthcoming. Neoliberalism as discourse: between Foucauldian political economy and Marxian poststructuralism. Critical Discourse Studies.

Contemporary theorizations of neoliberalism are framed by a false dichotomy between, on the one hand, studies... more Contemporary theorizations of neoliberalism are framed by a false dichotomy between, on the one hand, studies influenced by Foucault in emphasizing neoliberalism as a form of governmentality, and on the other hand, inquiries influenced by Marx in foregrounding neoliberalism as a hegemonic ideology. This article seeks to shine some light on this division in an effort to open up new debates and recast existing ones in such a way that might lead to more flexible understandings of neoliberalism as a discourse. A discourse approach moves theorizations forward by recognizing neoliberalism is neither a ‘top down’ nor ‘bottom up’ phenomena, but rather a circuitous process of socio-spatial transformation.

Neoliberalising violence: of the exceptional and the exemplary in coalescing moments

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. 2012. Neoliberalising violence: of the exceptional and the exemplary in coalescing moments. Area 44 (2), 136-143.

This paper sets out to develop two related ideas. First, it seeks to identify how both violence and neoliberalism can... more This paper sets out to develop two related ideas. First, it seeks to identify how both violence and neoliberalism can be considered as moments. From this shared conceptualisation of process and fluidity, I argue that it becomes easier to recognise how these two phenomena actually converge. Building upon this conceived coalescence of neoliberalism and violence, the second aim is to recognise how the hegemony of neoliberalism positions it as an abuser, which facilitates the abandonment of those ‘Others’ who fall outside of neoliberal normativity. I argue that the widespread banishment of ‘Others’ under neoliberalism produces a ‘state of exception’, wherein because of its inherently dialectic nature, exceptional violence is transformed into exemplary violence. This metamorphosis occurs as aversion for alterity intensifies under neoliberalism and its associated violence against ‘Others’ comes to form the rule.

The theory of absence: subjectivity, signification, and desire

by Patrick Fuery

New developments in film theory

by Patrick Fuery

A History and Genealogy of the Freedom-from-Fear Doctrine

by Nik Hynek

co-authored with David Bosold, published in "International Journal", Vol. 64, No. 3 (Summer 2009), pp. 143-158. ISSN 0020-7020

Domopolitics of Japanese Human Security

by Nik Hynek

published in "Security Dialogue", Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 119-137. ISSN 0967-0106

Conditions of emergence and their (bio)political effects: political rationalities, governmental programmes and technologies of power in the landmine case

by Nik Hynek

published in "Journal of International Relations and Development", Vol. 11, No. 2., pp, 93-120. ISSN 1408-6980

Saving identity from postmodernism? The normalization of constructivism in International Relations

by Nik Hynek

co-authored with Andrea Teti, published in "Contemporary Political Theory", Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 171-199. ISSN 1470-8914

“Reading Harryette Mullen is like hearing a new Musical Instrument: Post-National sampling, Verbal Art and Hip-Hop”

by Lisa Mansell

Michael Palmer said that “reading Harryette Mullen is like hearing a new musical instrument,” and indeed, what is most... more Michael Palmer said that “reading Harryette Mullen is like hearing a new musical instrument,” and indeed, what is most striking about her poetic work is a bold, diverse innovation drawing from, simultaneously, jazz, blues, hip-hop, soul, classical, avant-garde atonaltites. Mullen is a virtuosic, textured hybridist whose work evolves beyond binaries of black influence versus white influence and into a more complex arena of post-genre, and perhaps even the post-national—a blended space of identification. This reflects and negotiates our critical and philosophical ideology towards a multiplicity, fragmentation, and the plural. Following on from this is the notion that Black musics represent these critical shifts. For example, the evolution of Hip-hop as an isolation of funk-beats that are then repeated, or funk’s isolating of rhythmical syncopation and bass-beats to privilege them over lyric and traditional melody are examples perhaps of deconstruction. Contextually, this is a reflection of the de(re)construction of Black identity during this post-Civil-Rights-Era period. Mullen’s poetry is a development of this ‘isolate-then-blend’ progression.

The other strand of the essay concerns the position of Black music in the context of Western musical terminology. The blue notes that form the signature of black (and now, arguably, white music) are referred technically as accidentals. This is perhaps revealing terminology. The accidental has become the mainstream. This has implications for our thinking in terms of minority and dominant, ‘accidental’ and ‘purposeful’. The theme of improvisation is also manifest in the term ‘accident’ and the essay will refer again to Mullen as a way of challenging these binary positions and opening the space to more complex, and plural points of identification in African-American identity.

Cosmopolitanism vs Terrorism? Discourses of Ethical Possibility Before and After 7/7

by james brassett

The article provides a critical analysis of the relationship between cosmopolitanism and terrorism, via the question... more The article provides a critical analysis of the relationship between cosmopolitanism and terrorism, via the question of response. Using 9/11 and 7/7 as key moments in the evolution of this relationship, the article asks: how does cosmopolitanism respond to terrorism? What limits does this response contain? How might we go beyond such limits? It is argued that cosmopolitan responses to terrorism provide an important, but limited (and sometimes limiting), alternative to mainstream discourses on terror. After 9/11 the possibility for cosmopolitan thinking ‘beyond’ the mainstream view was articulated by a range of authors, including Archibugi, Habermas, Held and Linklater. A brief survey suggests that defending international law, constructing international institutions and alleviating global poverty were seen as good responses, in the context of divisive mainstream politics. However, by engaging a case study of the Make Poverty History campaign, the article argues that when cosmopolitan ideas were cemented in practice, the distinctiveness of a cosmopolitan response faded. This point was brought into sharp relief by a number of moralising responses to 7/7. Straightforward dichotomies between ‘barbaric terrorists’ and ‘civilised cosmopolitans’ served to construct cosmopolitanism as a coherent, and united, global community. Available tactics, for this ‘community’, were reduced to more-of-the same – more aid, more global democracy – and assertions of a moral equivalence between Bush and ‘Terror’, such that ‘you are either with cosmopolitans, or, you are with the War on Terror’. In light of
these ethical closures, and drawing from the arguments of Jacques Derrida and Judith Butler, the article identifies some cursory ways in which cosmopolitans might think beyond such limits, to articulate an imaginative and engaged approach to global ethics.

Edward Said's cultural influences on and of his "ORIENTALISM"-Paper presentation

by Susanna Iacona Salafia

This presentation wants to overview the cultural influences "on“ and “of” Edward Said‘s work "Orientalism“... more This presentation wants to overview the cultural influences "on“ and “of” Edward Said‘s work "Orientalism“ “by” and “on” other academicians and scholars till our days. The work, published in 1978, is considered “the Bible” of the post-colonial theories . Said has been influenced by some scholars but has, on his turn, influenced a new generation of thinkers in their approach to the “East” world-
The Michel Foucault’s poststructuralism, the J.P Sartre “non-essentialist theory” and the S. De Beauvoir “contructionist” view are the philosophical theories recognizable in or behind the “Orientalism” critics of the stereotypes and clichés bulit up by Western scholars on Oriental world and people. But should Said be criticized through the same theorethical categories he adopted in criticizing the western Orientalism?

Summoning students as consumers: Widening participation in higher education and the spectre of social class

by Andrew Wilkins

(with Penny Jane Burke).  Under review.

Since the neoliberal reforms to British education in the 1980s, the field of education policy and practice has been... more Since the neoliberal reforms to British education in the 1980s, the field of education policy and practice has been saturated with inflated claims to the efficacy of the market as a mechanism for improving the content and delivery of state education.  In recent decades with the expansion and ‘massification’ of higher education, widening participation (WP) has acquired an increasingly important role in promoting the benefits of higher education to young people and, in particular, redressing the under-representation of certain social groups in universities.  This paper explores the role of neo-liberal rationality in the context of structures, strategies and activities related to WP work and traces elements of the vocabulary of consumerism and social class underpinning its scope and content.  To do this we draw on in-depth interview data to explore how those working in higher education with a specific responsibility for WP articulate intersecting and complimentary notions of choice and consumer voice as a way of accounting for their work as WP professional.  Continuing in this critical vein, we focus attention on the contested terrain through which WP managers/ practitioners of different social class backgrounds engage with and negotiate idealisations of the student as ‘citizen-consumer’ and bring into focus the social class language underpinning the use of celebrated notions of success, achievement, self-improvement and aspiration in these contexts.

Deleuze and Guattari’s Historiophilosophy: Philosophical Thought and its Historical Milieu

by Craig Lundy

Critical Horizons, Vol 12, No 2 (2011)

This paper will examine the relation between philosophical thought and the various milieus in which such thought takes... more This paper will examine the relation between philosophical thought and the various milieus in which such thought takes place using the late work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. It will argue that their assessment of this relation involves a rearticulation of philosophy as an historiophilosophy. To claim that Deleuze and Guattari promote such a form of philosophy is contentious, as their work is often noted for implementing an ontological distinction between becoming and history, whereby the former is associated with the act of creation and the latter with retrospective representations of this creative process. Furthermore, when elaborating on the creative nature of philosophical thought, Deleuze and Guattari explicitly refer to philosophy as a 'geophilosophy' that is in contrast to history. Nevertheless, this paper will demonstrate that far from abandoning the category of history, Deleuze and Guattari’s analysis of the relations between philosophical thought and relative milieus suggests to us an historical ontology and methodology that is a critical part of philosophy’s nature.

Emerging from the Depths: On the Intensive Creativity of Historical Events

by Craig Lundy

Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, Vol 18, No 1 (2010)

This paper will explore the possibility of a creative philosophy of history in the work of Gilles Deleuze. It will do... more This paper will explore the possibility of a creative philosophy of history in the work of Gilles Deleuze. It will do so by focusing on Deleuze’s concepts of ‘intensity’ and ‘depth’, as discussed in his seminal work Difference and Repetition. By analysing these concepts in light of several historical thinkers whom Deleuze significantly draws upon (Bergson, Péguy and Braudel), I will show in this paper how Deleuze promotes a theory of history that is not opposed to his philosophy of becoming and creativity, but in concert with it.