CFP: [Theory] The Dialectics of âGlobalâ and âLocal:â Cultures of Uneven Development (ACLA, 03/26-29/2009)

full name / name of organization: 
Mathias Nilges
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Globalization. Neoliberalism. Planetarities. Contemporary critical
discourse attempting to address the relationship between local
cultural/sociopolitical trends and global systemic developments is
frequently marked by the use of theoretical models that (by virtue of being
employed as means of simplification rather than complication) gradually
devolve into less and less rigorous shorthand systems. Polemically
over-used and theoretically under-developed discussions of "globalization"
and "neoliberalism" that point out that there is a link between global and
local and that stop at the vague suggestion that we can "trace the global
in the local" arguably help us little in the effort to concretely
understand the complex socioeconomic, sociopolitical and cultural
interrelation of local and global systems.

 

            This seminar intends to understand the "global-local"
relationship as a dialectical one and to produce precise interrogations of
the relationship between material/economic and sociopolitical structures by
complicating discussions of terms such as "global" themselves. Doesn't the
"global-local" distinction often produce falsely homogenous analyses of
either category? Can we really speak of a dominant global system? If so,
what precisely is it? What are we to make of the spaces and cultures of
uneven development within this dominant system (or for that matter within
local cultures themselves that on the level of cultural and material
production are always necessarily heterogeneous)? How can we complicate our
discussions by thinking in terms of temporal and spatial dialectics?
Finally, what is the relationship between culture and the material
structure we often simply describe as this thing called "globalization?"

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Received on Wed Sep 10 2008 - 12:12:42 EDT

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