INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
RIOT AS A GLOBAL POLITICAL CONCEPT
October 25-26, 2018 • Instituto de Altos Estudios Sociales (IDAES) • Universidad Nacional de San Martín (Argentina)
It is often said that we live in a new age of riots. However, despite the pervasive use of “riot” as a way to name heterogeneous phenomena, we sense a certain lack of conceptual clarity around what precisely the "riot" implies. A theoretical and conceptual deficiency first of all, which seems mimetic to the riot’s very definition as something with neither roots nor explanations, neither past nor future, something constitutively “spontaneous” and immune to political organization. In short, theorists and philosophers of riots need to show that these unbridled “spontaneous” expressions of “force” have emerged as a form through which emancipatory demands are made and as part of a broader “repertoire” of class struggle.
To that end, this conference aims to think the concept of the “riot” on a global scale. Ports, as transnational places par excellence, are among the sites where the apparition of the riot first appeared. Against this background we propose to develop a genealogical approach that could show the multiple emergences and historical paths of the riot, thereby grappling its continuities without constructing an all-encompassing sociological study. Secondly, we aim to analyse the riot beyond its conceptual “isolation.” The riot will be inscribed along a conceptual constellation that includes, though not exclusively, “revolution”, “strike”, “rebellion”, “revolt”, and “commune” with the aim of illuminating the riot both as a concept and as a performance. Thirdly, we aim to grapple with the problem related to the processes of subjectivation in relation to this constellation. In this sense, we consider how, in the context of the riot, contradictions may become apparent as they concern specific power relationships, in particular between: capitalist exploitation, racial domination, and sexual oppression.
Organizing committee: Maura Brighenti (IDAES-UNSAM), Lucía Cavallero (Universidad de Buenos Aires), Eleonora Cappuccilli (Edith Saurer Foundation, Austria), Niccolò Cuppini (SUPSI), Mithilesh Kumar (Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Patna ), Alejo Stark (University of Michigan).
Program
Thursday, October 25, 2018
9.00 – Registration and Opening Remarks
10.00 – Workshop 1: Riot, Strike, and Race.
Introductory remarks: Eleonora Cappuccilli
Duncan Tarr
Crossed Wires in the Motor City: a Genealogy and Analysis of the 1967 Riot and the 1968 Strike Wave in Detroit
Alejo Stark
On the Prisoner Strike-Riot in the United States
Layli Uddin
A Microhistory of Violence: 1954 Adamjee and Karnaphuli Riots of East Pakistan
Raktim Ray
Spatial Adhocism as Practices for Conflict Politics: Theorising Urban Politics in Kolkata
15.00 Workshop 2: Riot, Strike, Feminism, Commune
Introductory remarks: Lucia Cavallero and Maura Brighenti
Huáscar Salazar
Pensar la lucha más allá de la ideología. El problema de la articulación política comunitaria en la historia insurgente de Bolivia
Lucía Cavallero
Trabajo, deuda, reproducción: la huelga feminista como una revolución de la vida cotidiana
Ana María Morale Troya
“Éramos como esclavas todas mujeres. Pero ahora ya no hay eso.” Sobre las rebeliones por el fin de la Hacienda en una comunidad afroecuatoriana.
Nicolas Cuello
El tiempo queer de la revuelta
Gabriela Mitidieri
La huelga, el agite y la revuelta: reflexiones cruzadas entre el activismo y la historia social con perspectiva de género
Tatiana Oliveira
Huelga Feminista: Resignificar el paro como estrategia de luchas en el siglo XXI
19.00 – Keynote lecture:
Verónica Gago and Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar : “La huelga feminista como umbral”
Friday, October 26, 2018
10.00 – Workshop 3: Times and places of the riot
Introductory remarks: Niccolò Cuppini
Elisa Rosas Mendes and Johnatan Razen Ferreira Guimarães
“quebra-quebras” en Brasil y las manifestaciones de 2013: un análisis de las expresiones espontáneas de violência política
Patricio Azócar and Hugo Sir
Amistades transfronterizas e inclinaciones estratégicas: intuiciones en torno al devenir molecular de la subversión en Chile
Marina Farinetti
La revuelta en la teoría política y para nosotros
Leandro Gamallo
Violencia colectiva y política en Argentina
15.00 – Workshop 4: Riot and Revolution
Introductory remarks: Alejo Stark
Kieran Aarons
From Insurrection to Destitution: Jesi, Agamben, and the Limits of Suspended Time
Niharika Singh
Riots, Affect and the Rejection of Inclusion
Shafi Ahmad Khanday
The weapon of choice: Riots, Resistances and Political Convulsions in Indian administered Kashmir
19.00 – Keynote lecture:
Joshua Clover: “Riot, Strike, Commune: Gendering a Civil War”