dekorative Grafik

Hoffnung in hoffnungslosen Zeiten

Prof. John Holloway (Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Mexico)

01/30/2024 6:15 pm –8:00 pm

U Bremen CART Rotunde

Prof. John Holloway is known for his influential writings on the renewal of Marxist theory, the relationship between the state and capitalism and forms of anti-capitalist struggle. These include the books Changing the World Without Taking Power (2002), which was well received internationally and has since been translated into eleven languages, and Breaking Capitalism (2010). Together with his latest book Hope in Hopeless Times (2022), these have now become a trilogy.
With his latest book, John Holloway dedicates himself to formulating an understanding of hope against the seemingly unstoppable destruction of our world that we are hurtling towards. He sees this hope as rooted in our “wealth”; a wealth that cannot be reduced to money and profit, but should be understood as an “overflowing” creativity that can enable radical social change and is therefore a source of hope. “Wealth versus money: this battle will decide the future of humanity”.
The lecture is jointly organized by the Institute of Anthropology and Cultural Studies, Worlds of Contradiction (WoC), the DFG Research Training Group ContradictionStudies and the Department 09 and takes place as part of the lecture series “Challenge Climate Change – Cultural Studies Perspectives on Life in a Threatened World” and as part of the colloquium for political theory “Wilde Theorie”. The lecture will be held in German, with Q&A in German and English.

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hierarchy of norms

“If social contradictions are reflected in law, law cannot form a hierarchy of norms free of contradictions.”

Andreas Fischer-Lescano
earthing

“Geography as a discipline stands for a certain worlding, if not earthing, of contradiction, in both theoretical and pracitcal respect.”

Julia Lossau
prison of difference

“‘Contradiction is the prison of difference‘ writes the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Worlds of Contradiction asks: how can we explain and describe the world without making it more coherent and systematic than it is?”

Michi Knecht
Afterlife of colonialism

“Contradiction comes in many different forms. None is so debilitating than when the coloniser transitions, textually not politically, to decoloniality without taking the responsibility for the afterlife of colonialism, which they continue to benefit from. Self-examination and self-interrogation of the relations of coloniality, a necessity, seem nearly impossible for the coloniser who continues to act as beneficiary, masked in the new-found language of White fragility, devoid of an ethical responsibility of the very system of White domination they claim to be against.” (Black Consciousness and the Politics of the Flesh)

Rozena Maart
space

“According to Niklas Luhmann, space is a ‘special facility to negate contradictions’”.

Julia Lossau