Event overview
Alex Williams delivers the first talk in the second series of this year's MFA Fine Art and MFA Curating lectures
Alex Williams (City University; University of East London): Against ‘the Local’
Today notions of ‘the local’ have exploded across a variety of ideological and disciplinary contexts. From the communitarian politics of left and right localisms, such as Occupy, or David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’, to art world discourses of site specificity, to culinary notions of ‘local food’, a certain figuration of ‘the local’ has become a ubiquitous feature of the contemporary space of ideas. This talk mounts a critique of these tendencies, in political and philosophical terms. It argues that the concept of ‘the local’ requires a deeper examination than it usually receives, and that therefore the implications of localism for politics and aesthetics needs to be critically reconsidered. Yet rather than rejecting ‘the local’ as horizon of action or thought, we must instead re-imagine its location within our spatial imaginary.
Bio: Alex Williams is a political theorist whose work focuses on the relationship between social complexity and political hegemony. With Nick Srnicek he is the author of Inventing the Future (Verso, 2015).
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 9 Nov 2015 | 6:00pm - 8:00pm |
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