Postpolitics and Neoliberalism (London)

Event Date: 21 March 2015

Day 2 (London)
Room B01 Clore Building
Birkbeck, University of London
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HX

The Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities and the School of Humanities at Canterbury Christ Church University present:

Postpolitics and Neoliberalism

Politics is dead, dying, or changing into something new. The word ‘ideology’ has become a term of abuse, associated especially with the ‘utopian’ old left. Commitment and belief have become ‘tribalism’ and ‘dogma’. Technocracy, pragmatism, and single-issue campaigns are the order of the day. As the public tune out and turn away, politicians perform increasingly desperate acts of self-abasement. Anti-Westminster mavericks are on the rise. Everywhere there are calls to shrink the state.Yet a politics that exists outside the theatre of the state has yet to be imagined.

As the 2015 election fast approaches, this conference will explore the ideological, cultural, linguistic and historical dimensions of the contemporary postpolitical moment, and its relationship to neoliberalism. With participants drawn from academic, writing, and campaigning backgrounds, the conference will bring together a range of approaches in order to grasp the enduring subtext of the all-consuming and all-erasing daily news churn.

Programme:

Day 2 (London)

Eliane Glaser (CCCU and Birkbeck) – Welcome