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Title: Anarchism from the Margins Author: Jeff Shantz Date: 2015 Language: en Topics: theory, social sciences, anarchist sociology, sociology, New Developments in Anarchist Studies Source: New Developments in Anarchist Studies
Anarchism is enjoying a rather remarkable renaissance, in theory and in
practice, through the first decades of the twenty-first century. Notably
this renaissance is taking place simultaneously in the streets and in
the schools, in activism as well as in academia. The reasons for the
resurgence of anarchism are varied but without question the primary
impetus has been the community opposition to neoliberal capitalist
globalism and associated regimes of austerity and repression along with
the pressing fact of ecological crisis. Many are inspired to act by the
enormity of current social and ecological harms and the growing
realization among wider sectors of the population that these are not
problems that can be resolved within the framework of state managed
capitalist development. At the same time many among newer generations of
activists, and some of the earlier generations, have seen or learned
from the failures of previous frameworks of resistance politics,
particularly the statist forms of the various Marxisms and social
democracies. For many, anarchism stands as the most promising basis for
analyzing and understanding contemporary capitalist societies and for
informing an opposition to capitalist arrangements in such as way as to
pose a realistic, positive, liberatory alternative.
In the North American context it is reasonable to suggest that
anarchism, both as social movement and as social theory, is presently at
the highest level of activity and influence it has achieved at least
since the flourishing of New Left politics in the late 1960s and early
1970s. It is also safe to say that the diversity and depth of anarchist
ideas, and the range of research and scholarship, are well beyond that
achieved in that earlier wave (which does not detract from the great
quality of many of those works of the 1960s and 1970s). Not only areas
of study for which anarchism has a more ready association, such as
sociology or politics, but fields such as horticulture, literary
criticism, aesthetics, urbanism, and technology studies among others
have seen developments in anarchist research.
Significantly, social developments in terms of struggle and resistance
have intersected with developments in terms of academic research and
scholarship at various levels. Younger people engaged in struggles in
the streets against capitalist globalization and neoliberal austerity
have entered the post-secondary classrooms bringing their critique of
existing structures with them and turning their critical eye toward
academic disciplines that too often reinforce or sustain existing
relations of power rather than, as scholarship should anyway, contesting
them. At the same time current students are faced with the political
impotency and inaction of the recent challengers to radical theory,
notably postmodernism and poststructuralism and various cultural
theories that have lost attentiveness to political and economic
structures of power, exploitation, and inequality, and which have
substituted detached personalistic cynicism for engaged collective
action. And such “critical” theories have proven of little use as tools
in the most pressing struggles of the day, particularly against
neoliberal austerity and the new enclosures of land and labor. Indeed,
the trajectory of postmodernist theorizing has shown it to be too easily
rendered an apology for or facilitator of such processes.
The new scholars have sought alternatives to moribund mainstream and
orthodox theories and, as they may have in the streets, found
overlooked, forgotten, discarded histories of critical and radical
theory that provide better, more insightful answers to their
questions—they have found anarchism. Notably they have found that not
only does anarchism address important contemporary concerns, they have
also found that anarchist theory was often present at the inception of
the academic field they are studying yet has been written out of the
disciplinary record with only status quo political motivations to answer
why. Attention, thus, has been given to applying anarchist analysis to
understanding and advancing social struggles but also to rethinking the
narratives framing recognized academic disciplines and scholarly
practices.
In the present context there is growing interest in anarchism as an
important area of scholarly activity. In the current period anarchism
has emerged as a vital critical perspective within disciplines as
diverse as criminology and literary studies, geography and
communications. At the same time many community members involved in
community organizing have become interested in anarchism as offering
relevant perspectives on social justice. This is reflected, in part, in
the emergence of the North American Anarchist Studies Network itself and
the success of the five annual NAASN conferences. NAASN brings together
activists and academics, anarchist and non-anarchist scholars, all with
interests in anarchism.
From January 16 to 18, 2014 the Fifth Annual North American Anarchist
Studies Conference was held at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) in
Surrey, British Columbia. As part of the conference the First Annual
Surrey Anarchist Bookfair was held in the Conference Centre on January
18. Thursday, January 17 also included parallel sessions on Indigenous
Food Sovereignty. These events saw more than 300 people attend the
Surrey campus and participate in a range of events from panel
discussions to workshops to roundtables.
These facts alone represent something of a significant development, both
in terms of the wide interest in anarchist scholarship and research,
involving community members as well as students and faculty, and in
terms of local community organizing, in a suburban working class context
outside of mainstream activist spheres in Metro Vancouver. As suburbs of
Vancouver go Surrey is perhaps the least well regarded. It is a place
many downtown Vancouver activists simply will not go, at least
willingly. Surrey has had an undue reputation as a bit reactionary,
despite histories of union activism and broad social democratic politics
that would hint otherwise. Still the idea of an anarchist conference and
bookfair in Surrey was greeted by many activists and community
organizers with a good deal of scepticism. Yet, and this shows something
of the contemporary draw of anarchist ideas, it worked and worked
wonderfully. People showed up. And stayed. Many asked if there would be
another event the following year (there will be).
One of the great benefits of developments like the North American
Anarchist Studies Network and its annual conferences is an opportunity
for mutual aid support among academics and activists. It provides new
venues in which unique cross fertilizations and hybridities can occur.
In NAASN the boundaries between disciplines dissolve somewhat and real
multi (anti-) disciplinarities can occur. New projects too emerge. In
Surrey it was a curious, but welcomed, occurrence that several anarchist
scholars lived in Surrey but were unknown to each other, despite having
lived nearby for years. The conference introduced them, revealed them to
each other. Out of this relationships have been built. The conference
announced the formation of the Kwantlen Center for Anarchist Studies, a
new resource for developing new anarchist works and for hosting and
archiving some previous ones.
This book represents works presented for and at the Fifth Annual North
American Anarchist Studies Network Conference. Everyone scheduled to
present at the conference was invited to submit their final paper the
collection. Most did (some were committed to other venues such as
specific academic journals).
The papers collected here show a sampling of the great diversity of
anarchist research, scholarship, and action. They show a variety of
styles and commitments, theoretical emphases and practical approaches,
both in the scholarship represented and the anarchist projects engaged
with by the authors. A wonderful range of issues are addressed.
It is hoped the collection will provide an important new venue for
intellectual and practical, research, engagement, and exchange. Despite
the exciting growth in anarchist research and scholarship it is still
difficult to find venues for anarchist works within traditional academic
publishers and journals. This collection provides an important
opportunity for publications by a variety of practitioners which might
otherwise not find a venue for publication given the still limited
opportunities for such critical, even radical, work.
This collection should make clear the vitality and vigor of contemporary
anarchist scholarship. These are incisive, engaging, and engaged works.
They pose the potentially profound insights of anarchist thought in
various areas of social life and show the contributions to social
understanding, broadly understood, of theoretical perspectives still in
development. It is hoped that New Developments in Anarchist Studies will
provide a useful new resource for teaching within the classroom and
beyond.