*Keynote speakers:*
Luc Boltanski (France)
Kathrine Gibson (Australia)
Anne Balsamo (USA)
Campbell Jones (New Zealand).
When all alternatives to capitalism seem exhausted or abandoned, creative and transformative energies and ideas descend upon capitalism itself. In practice and theory, in daily life choices and organizational changes, in legislative initiatives and academia, in initiatives taken by individuals and groups interesting work is being done to explore and use a transformative approach to capitalist processes trying to realize immaterial values, human resources and utopias within a capitalist framework.
In Marxist and neo-Marxist as well as liberal theories, capitalism seems to be the economic strong option without alternatives and the accumulative logic of capitalism the only possible way of economic thinking in contemporary societies. Nevertheless we see lots of signs of non-accumulative logics ruling traditional capitalist producers, consumers as well as traditional critics of capitalism. Green capitalism addresses traditional capitalism's exploitative and instrumentalist approach to nature; Corporate Social Responsibility tries to tackle social issues locally and globally from within corporations; Social entrepreneurs are using the capitalist business model to solve pressing problems such as poverty or lack of clean water; designers are weaving creative solutions into the commodities and practices of our every day life. It seems to grow ever more difficult to distinguish between working within capitalism or working in order to change capitalism as capitalism seems to change from within rather than from without.
This conference addresses the question of capitalism's transformative potentials and the limits to such transformations, if any such exists? How malleable are the logics and processes of capitalism? How is capitalism ceaselessly practiced and constantly redesigned? We aim to bring together people working within various fields often disconnected from each other but all centering their work on empirical and theoretical studies of how people and societies live with, deal with, negotiate, fight with and transform capitalism.
The conference will have four streams, each with its own set of themes. The listed themes are meant as suggestive and non-exhaustive. We invite paper proposals within:
*Political capitalism*
Coordinators: Morten Raffnsøe & Mikkel Thorup
New forms of labor and their politics
Everyday life in capitalism
Work inside and outside the market
New forms of political action inside and outside capitalism
Transforming ownership, aims and organization in capitalism
Political action in the market, civil society and the state
Politics of leadership and performance management
Accounting for money, love, ethics or happiness?
Critical accounting
*Civic Capitalism*
Coordinators: Anne Ellerup Nielsen & Christian Olaf Christiansen
Corporate citizenship
Corporate Social Responsibility
Ethical Capitalism
Green Capitalism, Sustainability
Stakeholder theories
Sustainable investment
Environmental development
Social integration
*Performative Capitalism*
Coordinators: Louise Fabian, Jonas Fritsch and Per Blenker
Self-organized communities as business opportunities
Cultural citizenship
Global Culture Industry
Hyper, trans, cross, Re-phenomena
Green bodies and environmental (online/offline) activism
Posthumanitarian developments in charity work and communication
Affect and vulnerability as tools of anti-capitalist mobilisation
The commoditization of dissent
Urban Interactions, Appropriations and Co-creativity in a design perspective
*Consumer Capitalism*
Coordinators: Sophie Esmann Andersen & Carsten Stage
Anti-consumerism and consumer resistance
Consumer movements, activism and cultural ideology
Co-creation and co-creativity
Consumer-citizenship or citizen-consumerism
DIY consumer cultures
Branded identities and brand hegemony
*Submission Guidelines*
Please submit your abstract proposals (max 300 words) as a PDF file to secretary Tina Friis on this address: semtina@hum.au.dk
Please indicate which stream your proposal refers to. Deadline for paper proposal: October 15, 2011 (feedback on paper proposals November 1, 2011).
Funding
Funded by The Aarhus University Research Foundation (AUFF) and The Velux Foundation.