***PLEASE MESSAGE ME FOR A COPY OF THE PAPER*** Since autumn 2010, the United Kingdom has witness... more ***PLEASE MESSAGE ME FOR A COPY OF THE PAPER*** Since autumn 2010, the United Kingdom has witnessed various apparently disparate protests and movements against austerity. These include: a students' movement, UK Uncut, a series of public-sector worker demonstrations and strikes, Occupy, and - arguably, for many commentators have insisted they were apolitical - four days of rioting across English cities in August 2011. The authors suggest that these protests, movements, and events (including the riots) can be understood together as responses to a crisis of care--one that is intimately connected to the wider economic crisis. Rejecting as insufficient explanations for these current crises that rely on personal "morality" (e.g., "greedy bankers," "feral youth"), the authors propose that the concept of social reproduction provides a better lens through which to understand their unfolding. This lens allows them to posit an historical relationship between "regimes of accumulation" and what they call "regimes of care." Understanding the crisis of care as a crisis of social reproduction--which is analytically separate from the crisis of capital accumulation--also allows the authors to highlight the politics, that is, the antagonistic class interests that lie at the heart of both crises.
This article is a revised version of a pamphlet written to accompany a workshop on Moments of Exc... more This article is a revised version of a pamphlet written to accompany a workshop on Moments of Excess, lead by Leeds May Day Group, which was part of the Life Despite Capitalism series at the European Social Forum, London, October 2004. The original pamphlet and the transcript of the workshop are both available at www.nadir.org.uk. We propose the concept "moments of excess" as a way of exploring and understanding various, heterogeneous “political”, “social” and “cultural” events. Importantly we suggest that this concept allows us to recognise the resonances between heterogeneous events within apparently separate spheres of social life and, indeed, between “events” and “everyday life”. We suggest that the difference between moments of excess and everyday life is one of intensity not one of kind. We show first of all how capital’s valorisation is predicated upon creative excess. We then discuss moments of excess proper, illustrating our arguments with the principal examples o...
***PLEASE MESSAGE ME FOR A COPY OF THE PAPER*** Since autumn 2010, the United Kingdom has witness... more ***PLEASE MESSAGE ME FOR A COPY OF THE PAPER*** Since autumn 2010, the United Kingdom has witnessed various apparently disparate protests and movements against austerity. These include: a students' movement, UK Uncut, a series of public-sector worker demonstrations and strikes, Occupy, and - arguably, for many commentators have insisted they were apolitical - four days of rioting across English cities in August 2011. The authors suggest that these protests, movements, and events (including the riots) can be understood together as responses to a crisis of care--one that is intimately connected to the wider economic crisis. Rejecting as insufficient explanations for these current crises that rely on personal "morality" (e.g., "greedy bankers," "feral youth"), the authors propose that the concept of social reproduction provides a better lens through which to understand their unfolding. This lens allows them to posit an historical relationship between "regimes of accumulation" and what they call "regimes of care." Understanding the crisis of care as a crisis of social reproduction--which is analytically separate from the crisis of capital accumulation--also allows the authors to highlight the politics, that is, the antagonistic class interests that lie at the heart of both crises.
This article is a revised version of a pamphlet written to accompany a workshop on Moments of Exc... more This article is a revised version of a pamphlet written to accompany a workshop on Moments of Excess, lead by Leeds May Day Group, which was part of the Life Despite Capitalism series at the European Social Forum, London, October 2004. The original pamphlet and the transcript of the workshop are both available at www.nadir.org.uk. We propose the concept "moments of excess" as a way of exploring and understanding various, heterogeneous “political”, “social” and “cultural” events. Importantly we suggest that this concept allows us to recognise the resonances between heterogeneous events within apparently separate spheres of social life and, indeed, between “events” and “everyday life”. We suggest that the difference between moments of excess and everyday life is one of intensity not one of kind. We show first of all how capital’s valorisation is predicated upon creative excess. We then discuss moments of excess proper, illustrating our arguments with the principal examples o...
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Papers by Keir Milburn