CRESC Annual Conference 2013: In/vulnerabilities and Social Change: Precarious Lives and Experimental Knowledge

(In association with the Journal of Cultural Economy)

The CRESC Conference (London, 4th-6th September) has attracted a large number of excellent paper submissions, so we're expanding the venue to cope with the demand. Very strong streams and panels include the following:

• the Great British Class Survey
• Labour Market Vulnerabilities
• The In/vulnerabilities of Big Data
• The Fragilities of Banking and Finance
• Religion, the Media and Vulnerabilities
• Post-Colonial Knowledge Challenges
• Experimental forms of Knowledge

We've now published the provisional timetable for the conference - but be aware that timings are certain to change.

Places are limited and demand is high, so we're recommending early booking.

Conference Prospectus

In a context of radical uncertainty about political, economic and ecological futures, the 2013 CRESC annual conference will explore the relationship between vulnerability and invulnerability. Lives and life chances are precarious for many. We may be entering a period of greater insecurity as people, jobs, money, commerce, markets, knowledge and ideas, institutions, networks and systems all come under strain as a result of financial turmoil and widening inequalities.

The conference will explore the vulnerabilities of the majority and ask:

• Where are those vulnerabilities, new and old?
• Is vulnerability a newly defining feature of certain categories of people?
• What are the consequences of vulnerability-led policy in finance, industry, environment, health, security, technological and communications systems?
• How has vulnerability been (re)politicised through social movements and direct action?

At the same time, the conference will explore the in/vulnerabilities of elites and their ways of knowing. Professional and elite knowledges sensitise themselves to specific phenomena by discounting other kinds of experience. Claiming competence in key areas, expert knowledge becomes invulnerable by ignoring dissident and dissonant forms of understanding. But, as the recent financial crisis has shown, elite expertise also becomes dangerously vulnerable when confronted by the unexpected. The conference will explore the power and the frailties of high-status and armour-plated intellectual and social knowledge systems. It will also consider how they efface, devalue or misrecognise many forms of lived experience. It will ask:

• How are elite professional invulnerabilities secured in an uncertain age?
• How do different kinds of in/vulnerabilities relate to forms of strength or power?
• In times of crisis, which orthodoxies – or forms of knowledge – are overturned, and which become entrenched? And why?
• What other ways of knowing might be imagined for recognising in/vulnerabilities and enacting social change?

Confirmed keynote speakers

• Stephen Collier (New School of Social Research)
• Thomas Hylland Erkison (Oslo University)
• Stephen Graham (Newcastle University)
• Andrew Haldane (Bank of England)
• Michael Osterweil (University of North Carolina)
• Kate Pickett (University of York)
• Isabelle Stengers (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
• Mattijs van de Port (University of Amsterdam)

What you need to do if you want to attend the conference

• To book your place you need to click on the 'Registration, Accommodation and Timetable' line at the top left of this page. Please note that there are 'early bird' rates until 31st July.

Location and date

• School of Oriental and African Studies, London
• 4^th-6^th September 2013

Crucial deadlines and dates

• 31^st July 2013: closing date for ‘early bird’ registrations
• 31^st August 2013: closing date for all conference registrations
  (nb: places are limited and registrations may close before this date)

Conference fee

• 'Early bird' conference fee: £200 (closing date 31st July 2013)
• Conference fee after 31st July 2013: £250
• 'Early bird' day rate: £100 (closing date 31st July 2013)
• Day rate after 31st July 2013: £120
• Concessions and affiliates full conference fee: £175

Main contacts for this event:

• Conference Convener: John Law
• Conference Manager: Susan Hogan
• Conference Secretary: heather.whitaker@manchester.ac.uk
• Tel: +44(0)161 275 8985 / Fax: +44(0)161 275 8985

Website

http://www.cresc.ac.uk/events/cresc-annual-conference