Spectacular Transports

Terrorists: you ignore them for ages, then a whole bunch come along at once. Or so it seems, as the everyday profiling of Muslims as threatening others reconfigures how we all move about the city. An old fashioned racism based on looks, surface and skin has risen to unquestioned prominence at the very time when [...]

Border Patrols

The city is the border. Each time you wave away the Chinese DVD seller who approaches you in the pub; each time you glide past the Polish beer in the cornershop, choosing a stella or chardonnay instead; each time you discard the free advertising newsheet you’ve barely even read – a million instant statements of [...]

First Human Terrain Team casualty

As anyone who might have looked at my writing in ‘Jungle Studies’ (here) or ‘Clifford’s Ethnographica’ (in Critique of Anthropology and reprinted in Bad Marxism) knows, I am not much of a fan of the close embrace that anthropology has with imperialism. Having argued that the old ‘Anthro as Handmaiden of Colonialism’ argument needs to [...]

More New Guevara Convention.

So Clandestino has come and gone and this year I missed it because I was in Budapest (which was also great) – but Dave went to Gotebourg, and its good to hear from friends there. Also, this news just in: …the latest addition to the Guevara Convention is now up. Filastine has given us La [...]

AtHQ – Some Thoughts on Work…

Since the last Attack the Headquarters I have been thinking about the nature of work… especially with all the discussions about theory, practice, vocational and educational issues. To start with a provocation: When Stanley Aronowitz spoke a few weeks ago, he mentioned that he saw part of his role as an academic as finding his [...]

HQ Terrors and Uncertainties

Apropos research agendas and what the HQ might be up to. This (renewed) call is just out from ESRC/AHRC. It follows some debate already mentioned here, here and here. But I think now the conjoining of environmentalism, poverty and terror research ads a new, still more spurious fold. “From: “ESRC Date: 18 June 2008 12:22:43 [...]

At-HQ – Sharing some doubts about the creative industries and how these should be addressed by Cultural Studies

I have to admit that I have far more doubts and questions than certainties or answers about how the whole socio-economic paradigm opened by the creative industries should be addressed by cultural studies. The public discourse around the creative industries officially appeared in the UK in about 1996 and was heavily endorsed by New Labour [...]

AtHQ – Let’s take over the CCS

In the attack the headquarter events there were voices asking for changes. Some were exited, some were frustrated, some were content, some were dissatisfied. What could we make out of that? What comes next after the head quarter was attacked? What if there remains another headquarter with a new dress? Did we just create something [...]

non postings

* I really wanted to write a post about several things but there won’t be time. First up, I wanted to mark the passing of Bo Diddley last monday, aged 79. Hey hey hey R.I.P. * Diddley was one of those who influenced the elegant wastrel Keith Richards, and I wanted to comment on the [...]

Walking New Cross

Every now and then readers of this blog will find there will be a repost of something from Transpontine, our local (to NX) font of knowledge, musical historical and all things political – especially street political things. This latest I repost because some of the discussions within the Attack the Headquarters sessions – see the [...]

Budapest Keynote 13 June 2008

If you just happen to be in Budapest next week… John Hutnyk – Keynote for the Conference “Framing Struggles” “Framing Struggles or Containing Fears? – Performative Paranoia and the Manufacture of Demons”. Theatricality can sometimes out-perform theory. This presentation considers how insights from performance studies might provide a critical line on the range of theory-driven [...]

At HQ – Exploring the headquarters

We have been reflecting on the identity of culture studies, in the context of the university, capitalism and the state. In my presentation, I tried to provoke people into considering that the boundaries between all of these things is considerably more fluid than we might prefer, but that this is taking place in a more [...]

AtHQ – Claudia Firth

I wanted to add some thoughts after the session on Tuesday. I’ve been a bit slow due to recovering from post-traumatic exam disorder. I perhaps had a slightly more traumatic experience than most, being in the Assistive Technology Centre where the Technology wasn’t at all assistive. (Is it really hopeless to call for the abolition [...]

Marx and Philosophy – Mon 2 June, 2008

Marx and Philosophy June 2nd 2008 A one day workshop reflecting on issues relating to globalisation, resistance, value and the Interpretation of Capital. The day will be geared towards discussion, and is organised around presentations dealing with the following topics: global community; civil disobedience and its tactical evaluation; recent appropriation of Marx’s concepts; the content [...]