Franco Berardi. The EU and the possible origins of current crises. 2015

source: European Graduate School    2016年2月16日
http://www.egs.edu/ Franco Berardi on the political landscape in the EU, the promotion of war in Libya and Syria, refugees on the Greek islands, and the link between Greek debt and the German-made weaponry.
Franco "Bifo" Berardi (born 2 November 1948 in Bologna, Italy) is an Italian Marxist theorist and activist in the autonomist tradition, whose work mainly focuses on the role of the media and information technology within post-industrial capitalism. Berardi has written over two dozen published books, as well as a more extensive number of essays and speeches.
In 1962, at the age of 14, Berardi became a member of the Italian Communist Youth Federation, but was expelled due to "factionalism." He participated in the events of May '68 at the University of Bologna, where he graduated with a degree in Aesthetics. During this time he joined the extra-parliamentary Worker's Power group. Berardi founded the magazine A/traverso in 1975 and worked with the magazine until 1981, when it reached its high point of publishing. He was also part of the staff of Radio Alice, the first free pirate radio station in Italy, from 1976 to 1978. Like others involved in the political movement of Autonomia in Italy during the 1970s, Berardi fled to Paris, where he worked with Félix Guattari in the field of schizoanalysis. During the 1980s, Berardi contributed to the magazines Semiotexte (New York), Chimerees (Paris), Metropoli (Rome) and Musica 80 (Milan). During the 1990s, he published Mutazione e Ciberpunk (Genoa, 1993), Cibernauti (Rome, 1994), and Félix (Rome, 2001). He has also collaborated with artists such as Warren Neidich and publications such as e-flux journal in the contemporary arts field. Currently he is working with the magazine Derive Approdi as well as teaching social history of communication at the Accademia di belle Arti in Milan. He is the co-founder of the e-zine rekombinant.org and of the telestreet movement, founding the channel Orfeo TV.
Unlike orthodox Marxists, Berardi's autonomist theories draw on psychoanalysis, schizoanalysis and communication theory to show how subjectivity and desire are bound up with the functioning of the capitalism system, rather than portraying events such as the financial crisis of 2008 merely as an example of the inherently contradictory logic of capitalist accumulation. Thus, he argues against privileging labour in critique and says that "the solution to the economic difficulty of the situation cannot be solved with economic means: the solution is not economic." Human emotions and embodied communication becomes increasingly central to the production and consumption patterns that sustain capital flows in post-industrial society, and as such Berardi uses the concepts of "cognitariat" and "info labour" to analyze this psycho-social process. Among Berardi's other concerns are cultural representations and expectations about the future — from proto-Fascist Futurism to post-modern cyberpunk (1993). This represents a greater concern with ideas and cultural expectations than the determinist-materialist expression of a Marxism which is often confined to purely economic or systemic analysis.

Vivek Chibber: Postcolonial Theory and 'Really Existing Capitalism'

source: SkriptaTV   2015年6月10日
14th May 2015, 19h, Cinema Europa, Zagreb, Croatia
8th Subversive Film Festival "Spaces of Emancipation: Micropolitics and Rebellions"
Moderated by: Katarina Peović Vuković
"One of the striking contradictions of postcolonial theory is that, even though it presents itself as the analytical framework of capitalist domination, it rejects the idea of a universal theory. Hence, it is in the awkward position of the acknowledgment that capitalism has been globalized, but denying that we can conceive a general theory of its functioning or its properties. This is a deep and devastating contradiction at the very heart of postcolonial theory. I will examine the sources of this dilemma and argue that the best framework for understanding capitalism remains a Marxian one, which I further defend from the accusations of weakness made by postcolonial critics."
Vivek Chibber is professor of Sociology at New York University. He was born in Delhi, India and came to the U.S. at the age of 15, where he has resided since. He has a BA from Northwestern University and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999. He is the author of Locked in Place: State-Building and Late Industrialization in India (Princeton: 2003), which won several awards, including the American Sociological Association's Barrington Moore Jr. Prize and Choice Magazine's Outstanding Book Award, and Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital (Verso: 2013), which won the American Sociological Association PEWS award for best book of the year.
http://www.subversivefestival.com/for...

What Kind of Science is Psychoanalysis?

source: SPI — The Society for Psychoanalytic Inquiry    2014年1月9日
Throughout his life, Freud defended psychoanalysis as a science of the mind on the model of the most rigorous and advanced sciences of his day. Over a century later, however, the scientific credentials of psychoanalysis are thrown into dispute. From the outside, powerful private interests press the analytic profession to justify its theory and practice by the standards of "evidence-based medicine;" from the inside, psychoanalytic politics splinter theory apart into distinct and sometimes-rival schools. In the face of this challenge, analysts call for unity by appealing to their colleagues' latent or manifest wish to identify their profession with that of the behavioral and life sciences. Major voices propose to firmly integrate psychoanalysis and neuroscience: scientism as an antidote to sectarianism. But the standards of the natural sciences, namely verification and replicability, risk overlooking what is most distinctive and valuable about psychotherapy. How can one verify self-knowledge, or replicate autonomy? This panel brings together varied perspectives from within contemporary psychoanalysis to examine the vexed relation of psychoanalytic inquiry to the human and natural sciences.
Robert Galatzer-Levy, Irwin Z. Hoffman, Fred M. Levin and Frank Summers, Erika Schmidt (moderator)
Educational objectives: At the conclusion of the program, participants will be able to: 1) Compare different approaches to the scientific standing of psychoanalytic inquiry; 2) Describe how these different approaches play out in clinical and research methodology; and 3) Plan for future, productive developments in psychoanalytic research and clinical methodology.

Freud's Theory of Growth and Development by Peter Ditto at UCIrvine (2015)

source: UCIrvineOCW     2015年2月20日
Lecture 11 of UCI Psych 9C/Psy Beh 11C: Psychology Fundamentals (2015)
View the complete course: http://ocw.uci.edu/courses/psych_9cps...
Terms of Use: http://ocw.uci.edu/info
More courses at http://ocw.uci.edu

Description: Designed to provide freshman with an in-depth survey of general psychology. Topics include biological bases of behavior, sensation, perception, cognition, development, personality, psychopathology, and social psychology.
Recorded February 12, 2015
Required attribution: Ditto, Peter. Psych 9C/Psy Beh 11C (UCI OpenCourseWare: University of California, Irvine), http://ocw.uci.edu/courses/psych_9cps.... [Access date]. License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...).

Critical Theory by Gerard van der Ree

source: Gerard van der Ree    2014年4月1日
This podcast deals explores critical theory in International Relations

Marxism by Gerard van der Ree

source: Gerard van der Ree    2014年3月3日
This lecture discusses Marxist theory and the ways it has gained entry in IR.

Postcolonialism by Gerard van der Ree

source: Gerard van der Ree     2014年4月7日
This podcast lecture explores postcolonialism in International Relations

Feminism by Gerard van der Ree at University College Utrecht

source: Gerard van der Ree     2014年2月24日
This podcast-lecture explores the different approaches in International Relations feminism, its rise in the discipline, and gives some examples of research projects in the field.