Prefiguration in Contemporary Activism

 A CIDRAL Workshop

 University of Manchester, 4th December 2014

 Call for Papers – extended deadline – Monday 6th October

 Prefiguration involves experimentation with ways of enacting the principles being advocated by activist groups in the here and now. ‘Prefigurative politics’ collapses traditional distinctions between means and ends in political action, and focuses attention on the possibility of realising change in the present. As Marianne Maeckelbergh explains, ‘prefiguration holds the ends of political action to be equally important as the means, and has the intention (over time, or momentarily) to render them indistinguishable’ (Maeckelbergh 2009: 88). The concept of prefiguration stimulates a focus on the form as much as aims of activism, and creates a context for thinking about how a radically democratic political process might be reinvigorated, both in the processes of political action and the broader public sphere. Prefigurative politics allows for tactics and strategies of activism to be improvised anew in response to changing environments, supporting an open process of learning and adaption which ensures that, in each moment of action, ‘the possibility for another world exists’ (Maeckelbergh 2009: 229).

Much of the literature on prefiguration explores organisational and structural issues, such as the ways in which activist groups create in their own interactions and practices a model of the society they envision (often non-hierarchical, non-representational, respectful of diversity, and based on a logic of solidarity). We invite potential contributors to present research focusing on these issues, and we also hope to include contributions that explore how this definition of prefiguration might be extended so as to encompass textual, visual, performative and aesthetic practices that prefigure activist principles and actualise them in the present. The emergence of the global justice movement in the late 1990s signalled a ‘cultural turn’ in contemporary activism (Amoore 2005: 357). Modes of activism now commonly embrace the cultural, artistic and theatrical as a means of drawing attention to, experimenting with and projecting new modes of being in the here and now. The extension of the notion of prefiguration to include the cultural domain support a stimulating range of conversations about contemporary forms of activism that traverse disciplinary boundaries.

The workshop is aimed primarily at doctoral students. Apart from the keynote presentation, the event will feature presentations by doctoral students whose work engages with the proposed theme.

We invite proposals for paper presentations (20 minutes) inspired by this theme. Please submit your name, university department or other organisational affiliation, title of proposal and 300-word abstract to Mona Baker (mona.baker@manchester.ac.uk), Jenny Hughes (jenny.hughes@manchester.ac.uk) and Rebecca Johnson (rebecca.johnson-4@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk) by Monday 6th October 2014.

We are delighted to announce that the keynote speaker for this event is Marianne Maeckelbergh (Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, Leiden University, Netherlands, and co-founder of Global Uprisings, see http://www.globaluprisings.org

The workshop is followed (on 5th December) by a half-day masterclass for PhD students, led by the keynote presenter (unfortunately – due to restrictions on space – the masterclass is open to PhD students based at the University of Manchester only).

This event is hosted by Citizen Media Manchester (http://citizenmediamanchester.wordpress.com/)

and

The Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Arts and Languages (http://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/cidral/).