News

Leading philosophers to debate future directions for global politics

Published 2 April 2013

Event 10-12 April 2013

Ernesto Laclau, one of the world's foremost thinkers on the democratic left, will be joined by leading philosophers from around the world for a major debate on future directions for politics in the light of world events this April.

The Thinking the Political: The Work of Ernesto Laclau conference takes place at the University of Brighton's Grand Parade campus from 10 to 12 April.

The keynote speaker is Laclau himself. He is credited with revitalising democratic thought on the left with his post-Marxist text Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, co-authored with Chantal Mouffe, who will also attend the conference. The authors argued for a radical, plural democracy, while systematically deconstructing Marxist accounts of politics.

His most recent book On Populist Reason has inspired the revitalization of populist politics in Latin America during recent years, and has been an influential text in global debates about contemporary politics. Later this year Routledge will publish a book evaluating Laclau's impact in its Innovators in Political Theory series.

The conference organisers are also working with Routledge to publish a book on the theme of the conference. Other well known speakers include Paula Biglieri of the University of Buenos Airea, Oliver Marchart of Universität Luzern, Yannis Stavrakakis of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Jelica Šumič Riha of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Topics to be covered by the conference, which will critically interrogate Laclau's work and the various directions in which other scholars have taken his ideas, include neoliberalism and post-Marxism, post-Marxism and the revolutions of 2012 and antagonism and democracy.

Dr Mark Devenney, from the Faculty of Arts, who has organized the conference, and who completed a PhD with Laclau, said: "It is a great pleasure to welcome leading scholars of political philosophy from around the world to Brighton. This conference is a unique opportunity to engage Professor Laclau in conceptual and political debate about Britain and the world in 2013. This conference consolidates recent work in the Humanities, and is recognition of the important role that scholars at Brighton can play in developing critical work in the Humanities."