Robert Latham
Interested in political economy, borders, sovereignty, politics of new media, critical theory and violence, radical political alternatives, transnational politics, governance, intervention // spatial politics, democracy, political ecology, knowledge, post-nationality, temporality, materialism, mediality, international sociology and IR, imperialism and empire, state theory; collective action, human rights and international law; culture and conflict, global politics; world order, liberalism // Israel-Palestine, Africa, Europe, North America, Asia
A sample of publications is below:
A sample of publications is below:
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Papers by Robert Latham
https://cosmonautmag.com/2023/11/dialectical-strategic-practice-and-the-struggle-against-capitalism/
An introduction to our new section "Theory and Class Struggle" by the Section Editors - Raju Das and Robert E. Latham. FREE DOWNLOAD - See Link Below
-----The essay progresses by first considering freedom of action in (especially liberal) capitalism and the historical development of tethers, notably those observed by Marx. Special attention is given to the oldest form, customs, conventions, and norms since today they are typically overlooked or taken for granted. I subsequently try to show how far capitalism has come from a day when conventions constituted especially robust tethers, focusing on the other two dimensions, capitalist state (de)regulation and hyper- fabrication of new financial practices. I draw connections between the rise of the inter- ventionist Keynesian state and the development of economic (especially financial) hyper- fabrication more generally. I argue that the inventive intervention of the former opened the way for the latter, with the appropriation by capitalism of a new form of social power associated with the unprecedented registers of inventive economic intervention. Regarding that appropriation, I consider how capitalists themselves reflexively under- stand untethering as unprecedented, as an opportunity, and a necessity. Finally, I conclude with a consideration of what the untethering process might mean for capitalist crises and the possibilities for an anti-capitalism that must develop within this context.
Robert Latham’s(2019) coda to the project posits “residual silences” to conceptualise marginal forms of silence that remain after surface relations are analyzed, such as those found by tracing the political recession of the proletariat. Latham argues that residual silences offer an avenue and platform through and upon which anti-capitalist agency unfolds. from https://www.e-ir.info/2019/09/10/re-examining-political-silence-new-openings-for-research-and-practice/
[For full paper go to URL
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1942778620962040
In recent years, observers from the worlds of politics, the media, academia, finance, and think-tanks have described the current political and economic moment as unprecedented, marked by “broken guardrails” and a sense that things are “unhinged.” Recourse to these analogies has only intensified since November 2016, as the actions and statements associated with the Trump administration reflect for many a disintegration of political conventions and norms. It is typically assumed that a change of leadership can get back at least some of the lost guardrails. This is a mistaken view. The transformation of our “off the rails” economy and polity predates Trump, and is more than reflection of the recent shift to the right (though this is a critical development). Since the second half of the twentieth century, capitalists have expanded their freedom of action at a heightened rate, at the expense of the conventions, customs, and regulations that have tethered and thereby anchored capitalism. Who better to help further a culture of unrestrictedness in political and economic realms than Trump?
Available online at: http://www.publicseminar.org/2019/02/what-off-the-rails-capitalism-really-means/
terrains somewhere beyond the temporal difference of permanence
and temporariness, knowing full well that we cannot just will
ourselves beyond the categories of difference? What lies on the other
side of the strict binary? This other side would not just be a matter
of locating a continuum of permanence and temporariness (the
“temporarily permanent,” the “permanently temporary,” and so
on) because these hybridizations only serve to qualify and thereby
reinforce the legitimacy of these temporal distinctions in the first
place. I will argue here that a far more radical approach is required, one
that addresses not just the marginal migrant but also the scrutinized
peripatetic, the disenfranchised, the displaced, and the poor, as well
as First Peoples. This approach starts with the recognition that durational
distinctions emerge as temporal claims on the part of state
agencies and social groups; that the claim to permanence is the central
barrier to liberation; and that claim-making occurs in the context
of temporal logics of Western modernity that are tension filled,
especially as they relate to social change. My view is that claims to
permanence – however desired on the part of the excluded, marginalized,
and temporary – ultimately ought to be rejected. I suggest
that one route to this rejection is through temporal inversion,
an effort to overturn the grounds for permanent settlement that lie
at the heart of the concept of the modern state and to struggle for
what I term re-collective justice1 to open the way for reconstituting
collectives such that the history of oppression, restriction, and exclusion
is revived, the agency of the oppressed to shape the grounds of
collective life is assembled, and the possibility of the re-organization
of resources and reparations is on the horizon.
Liberating Temporariness? explores the complex ways in which temporariness is being institutionalized as a condition of life for a growing number of people worldwide. The collection emphasizes contemporary developments, but also provides historical context on nation-state membership as the fundamental means for accessing rights in an era of expanding temporariness - in recognition of why pathways to permanence remain so compelling.
Through empirical and theoretical analysis, contributors explore various dimensions of temporariness, especially as it relates to the legal status of migrants and refugees, to the spread of precarious employment, and to limitations on social rights. While the focus is on Canada, a number of chapters investigate and contrast developments in Canada with those in Europe as well as Australia and the United States. Together, these essays reveal changing and enduring temporariness at local, regional, national, transnational, and global levels, and in different domains, such as health care, language programs, and security.
The question at the heart of this collection is whether temporariness can be liberated from current constraints. While not denying the desirability of permanence for migrants and labourers, Liberating Temporariness? presents alternative possibilities of security and liberation.
Details
400 Pages
8 diagrams, 2 tables, 1 map
ISBN 9780773543829
July 2014
Formats: Cloth, Paperback, eBook
https://cosmonautmag.com/2023/11/dialectical-strategic-practice-and-the-struggle-against-capitalism/
An introduction to our new section "Theory and Class Struggle" by the Section Editors - Raju Das and Robert E. Latham. FREE DOWNLOAD - See Link Below
-----The essay progresses by first considering freedom of action in (especially liberal) capitalism and the historical development of tethers, notably those observed by Marx. Special attention is given to the oldest form, customs, conventions, and norms since today they are typically overlooked or taken for granted. I subsequently try to show how far capitalism has come from a day when conventions constituted especially robust tethers, focusing on the other two dimensions, capitalist state (de)regulation and hyper- fabrication of new financial practices. I draw connections between the rise of the inter- ventionist Keynesian state and the development of economic (especially financial) hyper- fabrication more generally. I argue that the inventive intervention of the former opened the way for the latter, with the appropriation by capitalism of a new form of social power associated with the unprecedented registers of inventive economic intervention. Regarding that appropriation, I consider how capitalists themselves reflexively under- stand untethering as unprecedented, as an opportunity, and a necessity. Finally, I conclude with a consideration of what the untethering process might mean for capitalist crises and the possibilities for an anti-capitalism that must develop within this context.
Robert Latham’s(2019) coda to the project posits “residual silences” to conceptualise marginal forms of silence that remain after surface relations are analyzed, such as those found by tracing the political recession of the proletariat. Latham argues that residual silences offer an avenue and platform through and upon which anti-capitalist agency unfolds. from https://www.e-ir.info/2019/09/10/re-examining-political-silence-new-openings-for-research-and-practice/
[For full paper go to URL
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1942778620962040
In recent years, observers from the worlds of politics, the media, academia, finance, and think-tanks have described the current political and economic moment as unprecedented, marked by “broken guardrails” and a sense that things are “unhinged.” Recourse to these analogies has only intensified since November 2016, as the actions and statements associated with the Trump administration reflect for many a disintegration of political conventions and norms. It is typically assumed that a change of leadership can get back at least some of the lost guardrails. This is a mistaken view. The transformation of our “off the rails” economy and polity predates Trump, and is more than reflection of the recent shift to the right (though this is a critical development). Since the second half of the twentieth century, capitalists have expanded their freedom of action at a heightened rate, at the expense of the conventions, customs, and regulations that have tethered and thereby anchored capitalism. Who better to help further a culture of unrestrictedness in political and economic realms than Trump?
Available online at: http://www.publicseminar.org/2019/02/what-off-the-rails-capitalism-really-means/
terrains somewhere beyond the temporal difference of permanence
and temporariness, knowing full well that we cannot just will
ourselves beyond the categories of difference? What lies on the other
side of the strict binary? This other side would not just be a matter
of locating a continuum of permanence and temporariness (the
“temporarily permanent,” the “permanently temporary,” and so
on) because these hybridizations only serve to qualify and thereby
reinforce the legitimacy of these temporal distinctions in the first
place. I will argue here that a far more radical approach is required, one
that addresses not just the marginal migrant but also the scrutinized
peripatetic, the disenfranchised, the displaced, and the poor, as well
as First Peoples. This approach starts with the recognition that durational
distinctions emerge as temporal claims on the part of state
agencies and social groups; that the claim to permanence is the central
barrier to liberation; and that claim-making occurs in the context
of temporal logics of Western modernity that are tension filled,
especially as they relate to social change. My view is that claims to
permanence – however desired on the part of the excluded, marginalized,
and temporary – ultimately ought to be rejected. I suggest
that one route to this rejection is through temporal inversion,
an effort to overturn the grounds for permanent settlement that lie
at the heart of the concept of the modern state and to struggle for
what I term re-collective justice1 to open the way for reconstituting
collectives such that the history of oppression, restriction, and exclusion
is revived, the agency of the oppressed to shape the grounds of
collective life is assembled, and the possibility of the re-organization
of resources and reparations is on the horizon.
Liberating Temporariness? explores the complex ways in which temporariness is being institutionalized as a condition of life for a growing number of people worldwide. The collection emphasizes contemporary developments, but also provides historical context on nation-state membership as the fundamental means for accessing rights in an era of expanding temporariness - in recognition of why pathways to permanence remain so compelling.
Through empirical and theoretical analysis, contributors explore various dimensions of temporariness, especially as it relates to the legal status of migrants and refugees, to the spread of precarious employment, and to limitations on social rights. While the focus is on Canada, a number of chapters investigate and contrast developments in Canada with those in Europe as well as Australia and the United States. Together, these essays reveal changing and enduring temporariness at local, regional, national, transnational, and global levels, and in different domains, such as health care, language programs, and security.
The question at the heart of this collection is whether temporariness can be liberated from current constraints. While not denying the desirability of permanence for migrants and labourers, Liberating Temporariness? presents alternative possibilities of security and liberation.
Details
400 Pages
8 diagrams, 2 tables, 1 map
ISBN 9780773543829
July 2014
Formats: Cloth, Paperback, eBook
Its analysis ranges across the issues of neoliberal austerity; global financial crises burgeoning national security programs; thickening borders; Wikileaks and Anonymous; immigrant rights rallies; Occupy movements; and student protests – considering how these developments underscore how much the fable of a hope-filled post-cold war globalization has faded. In its place looms the prospect of states and corporations transforming a permanent war on terror into a permanent war on society. Its addresses how at this juncture, might policymakers and power-holders in leading states and corporations of the Global North be reframing their pursuit of power and control; as well as what possibilities and limits do activists and communities face for progressive, radical political action to counter this power inside and outside the state.
Working within five major thematic areas, the contributors examine how to engage working class people in anti-capitalist struggles, undermine reactionary currents of ethno-nationalism while supporting anti-colonial movements, strategically build power inside and outside the state apparatus, demand new forms of resistance to address environmental crises, and effectively promote solidarity and ecological responsibility. This book provides suggestions for working with popular disaffection, taking the rich, fragmented, conflicted history of refusals and defeats as a starting point for next steps in the struggle against capitalism and the far right, rather than as the basis for more conflict or defeatism.
https://kpfa.org/episode/against-the-grain-october-16-2017/
How do we get from neoliberalism to a just society? What political projects and initiatives have put us on a trajectory of radical social transformation? In his latest book, political theorist Robert Latham puts forward a notion of re-collective passage, which involves turning away from dominant sociopolitical relations and enacting new ways to organize and re-organize collective life.
Robert Latham, The Politics of Evasion: A Post-Globalization Dialogue Along the Edge of the State Routledge, 2016
podcast available here:
https://kpfa.org/episode/against-the-grain-october-16-2017/
Left might effectively adjust its trajectory to begin confronting such issues - a Left that has faced roadblocks and seems particularly fragmented at this time.
It is important once again to examine and theorize the relationship between the issues listed above and what is taken to be core Marxist concerns with class, class conflict, work, relations of production and reproduction: to consider, again, on what terms and how augmenting the Left in the current socio-political moment might be beneficial.
There have been lots of vectors of augmentation across 20th century. These past effortsmust be built upon to: A) confront the tensions associated with augmenting or “stretching” Marxism rather than assuming them away with claims about necessary hierarchies of forces or some comfortable “horizontality” or one version of “postism” or another; and B) situate the augmentation process and theoretical terrain in the current socio-political moment, with attention to the possibilities of organization for radical social transformation.
How might one reconsider the: ways the Marxian heritage can be drawn on to navigate the divisions within the Left and challenge the rise of an increasingly ethno-nationalist and authoritarian Right; connections among economic (relations and forces of production), political, and cultural factors; connections perhaps best understood as mobius strips rather than bounded structures and; understandings of such forms as political consciousness, identity, ideology, and institutions, as they relate, for example, to the forces of production and logics of class that have been so important to Marxian analysis since the beginning of critical theory?
Please make sure to read the full-length CFP here or at this URL:
http://criticaltransformation.blog.yorku.ca/files/2014/09/Augmenting-the-Left-CFP.pdf