Publications in English by Carl Wilén
Nordic Journal of Human Rights , 2024
The historical turn in human rights studies is characterized by a deep
cleavage between scholars ... more The historical turn in human rights studies is characterized by a deep
cleavage between scholars who locate the origins of human rights in
the Atlantic Revolutions of the late 18th century, and scholars who
instead focus on the post-WWII period in general, and on the 1970s
in particular as a breakthrough decade for international human
rights. Against the background of what has been described as the
threatened status of human rights today, we contend that the
problem of origins remains as crucial as ever before, but that the
way in which it is conceived is outdated and in need of
reconceptualization in three ways. First, the historical turn should be
seen as one body of literature with two distinct phases: one focused
on origins and historical continuity and rupture, and a more recent,
ongoing phase addressing the relationship between human rights
and the concomitant neoliberalization of society and increasing
economic inequality. We contend, secondly, that the debate itself
needs to be historicized, and that the two thematic phases are
rooted in two specific political, ideological, and economic contexts.
The debate about origins relate to a pre-2007-2008 financial crisis era,
marked by near-universal acceptance of human rights. Meanwhile,
the issues of inequality and neoliberalism predominantly emerged in
the post-crisis period as human rights faced more and more
challenges. Thirdly, we present a theoretical argument for why the
distinct issues constituting the two thematic phases should not be
separated from each other. Indeed, in this setting, we demonstrate
that the question regarding the relation between neoliberalism and
human rights presupposes an account of the origins of human rights.
Capital & Class, 2023
The area of Marxism and law has long been considered marginalised. However, hand in hand with the... more The area of Marxism and law has long been considered marginalised. However, hand in hand with the renaissance of Marxist theory in recent decades, neglect has finally been put to rest. As Marxists increasingly explore the connections between rights, law, democracy and capitalism, one text in particular has taken centre stage: The General Theory of Law and Marxism, published by E. B. Pashukanis in 1924. This article seeks to make three contributions to the field of Marxism and law. First, by proposing that Pashukanis’s polemic is best understood as a critique of a spectrum between formalism and instrumentalism, containing both differences and similarities, it rectifies the way in which these concepts most often either have been discussed at a too general level or been defined too narrowly. Second, by addressing the conceptions of abstraction and form in the General Theory, it reconstructs the concept of the legal form according to the spirit of Pashukanis’s thought to supersede the limits of the formalism–instrumentalism spectrum, despite the unevenness found in the letter of his text. Third, regarding the reconstruction of the concept of the legal form, it demonstrates how objections against Pashukanis’s focus on the sphere of circulation at the cost of production, his exclusion of inequalities of race and gender, and his structuralist, consequentialist or instrumentalist biases, which reduces the space for agency, processes and the relative autonomy of politics, ideology and law, can be reconsidered and challenged.
Journal of Global Intellectual History, 2023
Recent assessments of the literature on the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) offer radically differ... more Recent assessments of the literature on the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) offer radically different images, ranging from the identification of a politics of universal human rights to objections against conservative assumptions. The present article instead uncovers an overarching conflict between what is named the universality paradigm and the sceptical responses. However, in the outskirts of the controversy, its participants agree that the Haitian Revolution was the most radical revolution of the period, and that issues of inequality cannot be disregarded. To advance the debate, polarisation must be transgressed and the assumption that universalism and inequality are incompatible must be abandoned.
PhD thesis, 2022
In recent decades, a ‘Haitian Turn’ has emerged as both academic and public readerships in the an... more In recent decades, a ‘Haitian Turn’ has emerged as both academic and public readerships in the anglophone sphere have been flooded by a wave of essays, articles, and monographs on the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804). At the epicentre of the present study is one of the major interpretations of the Haitian Revolution in the Haitian Turn, which I call the ‘universality paradigm’. The universality paradigm highlights that while the three great revolutions towards the end of the eighteenth century – the American Revolution (1776), the French Revolution (1789), and the Haitian Revolution (1791) – all mobilised the political categories of freedom and equality against old-regime privilege and naturalised inequality, only the Haitian Revolution achieved the long-term abolition of slavery. Therefore, insofar as we are interested in the history and origins of human rights and universalism, the adherents of the universality paradigm assert, we need to attend to the Haitian Revolution in particular, which more fully realised universalist ideals. However, severe objections have been raised against the way in which the Haitian Revolution is connected to universality and human rights in our own time. The major ‘sceptical responses’ interpret the revolution in terms of authoritarianism instead of universalism and human rights, or they focus on continuities between old-regime labour conditions and inequality on the one hand and post-revolutionary conditions on the other. Other critics emphasise that contemporary human rights differ radically from rights in the late eighteenth century. The study takes advantage of arguments made in the sceptical oeuvre against the universality paradigm together with the critical resources found in the Marxist critique of right to offer a minimal defence of the universality paradigm. I defend the conclusion that the abolition of slavery in the Haitian Revolution adjusted the imbalance between the dominance of the commodity form and the absence of the legal form in pre-revolutionary Saint-Domingue, and that the revolutionary results therefore appertain more to the age of the legal form of equality and freedom in capitalism than to the age of privilege and self- evident inequality. However, to settle with inclusion, universalism and human rights according to the premises of the universality paradigm implies that the legal form is accepted uncritically, that historical continuities of inequality are underrated, and that the difference between political equality and social inequality becomes concealed. Moreover, differences between the revolutionary rights of man in the time of the Haitian Revolution and contemporary human rights matters, not least since the former event was anchored in a class of enslaved workers. Then again, to cling to inequality and concrete differences between past and present rights in the sceptical vintage entails that the legal form is sidestepped altogether, alongside an underestimation of revolutionary change and of the split of the absolute inequality of slavery into legal equality and socio-economic inequality. Thus, against the universality paradigm and the sceptical turn alike, I stress that both the rights of man and human rights nonetheless relate to the legal form of equality and freedom as two of its major politico- legal contents in the era of capital. In this constellation, universalism and rights on the one hand and socio-economic inequality on the other hand are not so much theorised in terms of paradoxes, tensions and contradictions but rather as compatible. Lastly, I argue that our comprehension of human rights today becomes sharper if we have a clear idea of our assumptions about where human rights come from, how they have been utilised, and what effects and functions they have had. In this respect, the radically different interpretations of universal human rights offered by the Haitian Turn represents a significant limit as regards the historical case and indeed much the same can be said of discussions about human rights today. Ultimately, therefore, through the minimal defence of the universality paradigm, this study adds a small piece to the much broader puzzle of the status and politics of human rights in general.
Journal of Historical Sociology, 2021
This article addresses the debate on structure, agency, and process in contemporary revolution th... more This article addresses the debate on structure, agency, and process in contemporary revolution theory, drawing on social movement theory and using the Haitian Revolution as an illustrative case. The article seeks to make three main contributions. Firstly, while accepting the critique against the failure of structuralist revolution theory to explain why revolutions can occur under difficult circumstances , the article proposes a structuralist solution instead of the focus on intentions and processes in contemporary revolution theory. Secondly, it brings a new angle to the emerging dialogue between the different fields that theorize social movements and revolutions, by combining Alberto Melucci's early and later approaches to social movements and temporality. Thirdly, the Meluccian approach is utilized in a case study that explores how independence from France can be understood in the Haitian Revolution, which serves to illustrate the strengths of the theoretical approach and to criticize the major accounts of independence in existing studies of the Haitian Revolution.
Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, 2021
One of the major arguments made in the current boom in Haitian revolutionary studies connects tod... more One of the major arguments made in the current boom in Haitian revolutionary studies connects today’s conditions of possibility for modern democracy and human rights to the abolition of slavery during the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804). During the last decade, however, this connection between the Haitian Revolutionary period and our own age has been questioned by an increasing number of scholars: a phenomenon that this article conceptualizes as the ‘sceptical turn’. The article argues that the sceptical turn consummates its critique through unacknowledged rearrangements of abstractions, and therefore misses its target. A corresponding critique of the sceptical turn is formulated here using Bertell Ollman’s tripartite concept of the abstractions of vantage point, extension, and generality. Ollman’s notion enables a shift of focus onto modes – instead of the more common focus on levels – of abstraction. Thus, the author argues, contra the sceptical turn, not only that the connection between the Haitian Revolution and the political and social situation of today is plausible, but that it also provides a more profound conceptual basis for analyses of revolutionary events in general.
Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory , 2020
Increasing discontent with the current status of democracy has prompted a renewed interest in Ath... more Increasing discontent with the current status of democracy has prompted a renewed interest in Athenian democracy. This article contributes with the first comparative analysis of two political theoreticians – Hannah Arendt and Ellen Meiksins Wood – whose reactivations of ancient political experiences significantly predate recent trends. Despite the fact that Arendt levelled fierce critique against the Marxist tradition of which Wood was a part, it is shown how both thinkers involved a close consideration of the relation between the social/economic and the political in their analyses; regarded Athenian forms of equality as the differentia specifica when measured against modern incarnations of democracy; committed themselves to the controversial move to grant slavery a marginal role in their analyses; turned to the American Revolution to discern the specificity of the ancient forms equality and modern democracy; and how both departed from the mainstream definitions of democracy as a list of institutions or a number of criteria. We argue that Arendt and Wood reach similar conclusions about the distinctive form of separation between the political and the social/economic in Athens, reach different conclusions about the distinctive forms of collapse and separation respectively in the modern epoch, but nonetheless unite in their critique of the American Revolution. On those premises, the central aim is to investigate how the reactivation of Athenian equality can serve as a resource for critique of three forms of equality that underpins democracy in the modern age, which we designate formal, distributive and imaginary equality.
The Future(s) of the Revolution and the Reformation, Elena Namli (ed.), 2019
A major theme of the current “Haitian turn” has been what I call a “universality-analysis”, which... more A major theme of the current “Haitian turn” has been what I call a “universality-analysis”, which stresses that the Haitian Revolution, in contrast to the American and the French, once and for all abolished slavery. The chapter investigates the intervention into the Haitian Turn by two scholars specialized in the history of human rights: Lynn Hunt, who advocates a universality-analysis of the Haitian Revolution; and Samuel Moyn, who defends what I call a “universality-skeptical” analysis. It is argued that a theory of universal political forms, understood as contradictory and limited by the social content of power they mediate, can reveal that Hunt presuppose the effectivity of the political form independent of social content and a theory of historical continuity connecting the Haitian Revolution to our own age, and that Moyn presuppose emptiness of the political form reducible to intentions of actors and outcomes of events and a theory of discontinuity.
Journal of Resistance Studies, 2018
An important camp within the emerging field of resistance studies has been characterised by a ten... more An important camp within the emerging field of resistance studies has been characterised by a tendency to study and theorise matters of culture, language, and discourse at the expense of matter itself. For researchers interested in feminist resistance, feminist new materialism – with its focus on the entanglements of ‘natureculture’, matter, the body, sexual difference, agency, and change – might appear to offer productive theoretical tools that can help shift the focus towards materiality. Through a reading of selected works of influential feminist new materialists, this article critically analyses how resistance can be articulated within the theoretical scope of feminist new materialism. While the authors agree with the identified gains of a material turn within resistance studies and in relation to feminist resistance, it is shown that new materialism is of little help in this regard. In a first step, it is argued that the new materialist attempt to undermine the modern and postmodern forms of Cartesian dualism ends up reproducing its fundamental premise through the equation of difference and independence on the one hand, and of identity and unity on the other. In a second step, the authors argue that the failed attempt to challenge Cartesian dualism gives rise to two theoretical problems with important implications for feminist resistance. On the one hand, in its efforts to transcend older versions of materiality as unalterable and constant, feminist new materialism comes to privilege change and the register of historical specificity at the expense of limits and the register of the transhistorical, in a way that disguises resistance rooted in the relatively stable condition of vulnerability. On the other hand, in its attempt to supersede the difference between nature and humanity by granting agency to matter, feminist new materialism is led to sacrifice intentional action in a way that undermines core aspects of the emerging field of resistance studies.
Conferences, workshops and call for papers by Carl Wilén
Workshop on the concept of the legal form
Pashukanis & Critique of Right in the Twenty First Century,, 2024
Conference on Marxist critique of right and the thought and legacy of EB Pashukanis, which will b... more Conference on Marxist critique of right and the thought and legacy of EB Pashukanis, which will be attended by scholars who have contributed significant arguments for and against various aspects of the oeuvre of Pashukanis based in Japan, Brazil, Puerto Rico, the U.S., Canada, Austria, England, and Germany.
Program:
Thursday 11th January 2024, 1-7pm : RECEPTION & NEW DIRECTIONS
Opening Remarks: The Ge... more Program:
Thursday 11th January 2024, 1-7pm : RECEPTION & NEW DIRECTIONS
Opening Remarks: The General Theory of Law and Marxism in Context (1.15-1.30pm)
Panel 1: Historical and Theoretical Legacies (1.30-3pm)
Werner Bonefeld, York University
Bill Bowring, Birkbeck, University of London
Dimitrios Kivotidis, Goldsmith, University of London
Carl Wilén, Lund University
Panel 2: Pashukanis and Law (3.15-4.45pm)
Grietje Baars, City University of London
Katie Cruz, University of Bristol
Tor Krever, University of Cambridge
Eva Nanopoulos, Queen Mary University of London
Plenary: New Directions (5.00-7.00pm)
Gargi Bhattacharyya, University of Arts, London
Ruth Fletcher, Queen Mary, University of London
Robert Knox, University of Liverpool
Friday 12th January 2024, 1-6.15pm: WORKSHOP
Welcome (1.00pm)
Panel 1: The Fundamentals (1.15-2.45pm)
Fernando Quintana (Queen Mary): ‘In Defence of the Withering Away Thesis’
Thais Hoshika (Sao Paulo): ‘Pashukanis on Private and Public Law: a Dialectical Reconstruction’
Carl Wilén (Lund), ‘Formalism and Instrumentalism in the Marxist Critique of Right: with what must Pashukanian Theory Begin?’
Maria Tzanakopoulou (Birkbeck), ‘Legal Form and Class Struggle’
Panel 2: Pashukanis and International Law (3.00-4.30pm)
Rob Knox (Liverpool) Title TBC
Yonit Percival (SOAS) Title TBC
Andrew Woodhouse (Liverpool), ‘Pashukanis in Luxembourg: Integration Through Law in the European Union’
Panel 3. Thinking Gender and Legal Form (4.45-6.15pm)
Suzanna Gerchmann (City): ‘Gendered Subjectivities, Law and Capitalism - Women's Oppression, Gender Pricing and the Role of Law in Emancipation’
Ruth Fletcher (Queen Mary), Title TBC
Leila Ullrich (Oxford): ‘Victims and the Labour of International Criminal Justice: A Marxist-Feminist Analysis of the Victim Subject’
Participants:
• Professor Samuel Moyn, Yale University
• Associate Professor Jessica Whyte, Un... more Participants:
• Professor Samuel Moyn, Yale University
• Associate Professor Jessica Whyte, University of New South Wales
• Professor John Milbank, University of Nottingham, UK
• Assistant Professor Igor Shoikhedbrod, University of Toronto
• Professor Lena Halldenius, Lunds universitet
• Professor Elena Namli, Uppsala Universitet
On May 25-26th 2021, a symposium will be arranged at the University of Gothenburg on the history and future of human rights, to be streamed via Zoom. Against the background of rampant economic inequality, increased social polarization and the rise of authoritarian populism, it is motivated to revisit the role and status of human rights. To discuss how we can understand human rights as a historical and political problem, we have invited some of the foremost authorities in the world to discuss the topic. The symposium will be streamed online and participation is for free.
Vi föreställer oss att kapitel 18-30 kan behandla några av de följande namnen (utan inbördes ordn... more Vi föreställer oss att kapitel 18-30 kan behandla några av de följande namnen (utan inbördes ordning). Naturligtvis välkomnar vi gärna abstracts som föreslår andra författare än de som nämns nedan.
Välkommen till en heldag med föredrag, panelsamtal och diskussioner om aktuella politiska frågor!... more Välkommen till en heldag med föredrag, panelsamtal och diskussioner om aktuella politiska frågor! Vi lever i en tid präglad av kriser och katastrofer. Dagligen möts vi av nyheter om utsläpp, krig, pandemi, våld, nedskärningar och ekonomiska misslyckanden. Vi behöver mötas för att diskutera vad kriserna handlar om, hur de hänger samman och vad vi kan göra.
Välkommen till en heldag med föredrag, panelsamtal och diskussioner om aktuella politiska frågor!... more Välkommen till en heldag med föredrag, panelsamtal och diskussioner om aktuella politiska frågor! Vi lever i en tid präglad av kriser och katastrofer. Dagligen möts vi av nyheter om utsläpp, krig, pandemi, våld, nedskärningar och ekonomiska misslyckanden. Vi behöver mötas för att diskutera vad kriserna handlar om, hur de hänger samman och vad vi kan göra.
Det pågår en renässans för marxistisk teori. Denna renässans har rötter i millennieskiftet och de... more Det pågår en renässans för marxistisk teori. Denna renässans har rötter i millennieskiftet och den globala rättviserörelsens uppgång och fall. I efterdyningarna av finanskrisen 2007–2008 och den rörelsevåg som vi bevittnat sedan dess utvecklades en mångfald av marxistiska forskningsfält varav ett är rättskritiken och ett engagemang med Jevgenij Pasjukanis. Denna workshop syftar till att utforska olika sidor av ”Lag och kritik”, däribland frågor om abstraktion och form i rättskritiken, tillämpningen av Pasjukanis teori i studier av samtida processer av exploatering och expropriering, kritik av Pasjukanis ”utbytesteori om lag”, rättsformens historicitet, och rättskritikens relation till grundläggande marxistiska kategorier som klass, stat och värde.
Tillsammans med forskningsområdet Samhälle, makt och kritik vid Institutionen för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap, Mittuniversitetet, bjuder vi initiativtagare till denna workshop in intresserade att lyssna till och delta i dessa diskussioner. Se program och abstract för papers nedan.
Den som vill kan maila [email protected] för tillgång till papers, men vi välkomnar alla intresserade att delta, oavsett om man har möjlighet att läsa eller ej. Workshopen sker i sal M301, Mittuniversitetet, campus Sundsvall, men kan också följas via denna länk: https://miun-se.zoom.us/j/66940259594?from=addon.
/Magnus Granberg och Carl Wilén
Uploads
Publications in English by Carl Wilén
cleavage between scholars who locate the origins of human rights in
the Atlantic Revolutions of the late 18th century, and scholars who
instead focus on the post-WWII period in general, and on the 1970s
in particular as a breakthrough decade for international human
rights. Against the background of what has been described as the
threatened status of human rights today, we contend that the
problem of origins remains as crucial as ever before, but that the
way in which it is conceived is outdated and in need of
reconceptualization in three ways. First, the historical turn should be
seen as one body of literature with two distinct phases: one focused
on origins and historical continuity and rupture, and a more recent,
ongoing phase addressing the relationship between human rights
and the concomitant neoliberalization of society and increasing
economic inequality. We contend, secondly, that the debate itself
needs to be historicized, and that the two thematic phases are
rooted in two specific political, ideological, and economic contexts.
The debate about origins relate to a pre-2007-2008 financial crisis era,
marked by near-universal acceptance of human rights. Meanwhile,
the issues of inequality and neoliberalism predominantly emerged in
the post-crisis period as human rights faced more and more
challenges. Thirdly, we present a theoretical argument for why the
distinct issues constituting the two thematic phases should not be
separated from each other. Indeed, in this setting, we demonstrate
that the question regarding the relation between neoliberalism and
human rights presupposes an account of the origins of human rights.
Conferences, workshops and call for papers by Carl Wilén
Thursday 11th January 2024, 1-7pm : RECEPTION & NEW DIRECTIONS
Opening Remarks: The General Theory of Law and Marxism in Context (1.15-1.30pm)
Panel 1: Historical and Theoretical Legacies (1.30-3pm)
Werner Bonefeld, York University
Bill Bowring, Birkbeck, University of London
Dimitrios Kivotidis, Goldsmith, University of London
Carl Wilén, Lund University
Panel 2: Pashukanis and Law (3.15-4.45pm)
Grietje Baars, City University of London
Katie Cruz, University of Bristol
Tor Krever, University of Cambridge
Eva Nanopoulos, Queen Mary University of London
Plenary: New Directions (5.00-7.00pm)
Gargi Bhattacharyya, University of Arts, London
Ruth Fletcher, Queen Mary, University of London
Robert Knox, University of Liverpool
Friday 12th January 2024, 1-6.15pm: WORKSHOP
Welcome (1.00pm)
Panel 1: The Fundamentals (1.15-2.45pm)
Fernando Quintana (Queen Mary): ‘In Defence of the Withering Away Thesis’
Thais Hoshika (Sao Paulo): ‘Pashukanis on Private and Public Law: a Dialectical Reconstruction’
Carl Wilén (Lund), ‘Formalism and Instrumentalism in the Marxist Critique of Right: with what must Pashukanian Theory Begin?’
Maria Tzanakopoulou (Birkbeck), ‘Legal Form and Class Struggle’
Panel 2: Pashukanis and International Law (3.00-4.30pm)
Rob Knox (Liverpool) Title TBC
Yonit Percival (SOAS) Title TBC
Andrew Woodhouse (Liverpool), ‘Pashukanis in Luxembourg: Integration Through Law in the European Union’
Panel 3. Thinking Gender and Legal Form (4.45-6.15pm)
Suzanna Gerchmann (City): ‘Gendered Subjectivities, Law and Capitalism - Women's Oppression, Gender Pricing and the Role of Law in Emancipation’
Ruth Fletcher (Queen Mary), Title TBC
Leila Ullrich (Oxford): ‘Victims and the Labour of International Criminal Justice: A Marxist-Feminist Analysis of the Victim Subject’
• Professor Samuel Moyn, Yale University
• Associate Professor Jessica Whyte, University of New South Wales
• Professor John Milbank, University of Nottingham, UK
• Assistant Professor Igor Shoikhedbrod, University of Toronto
• Professor Lena Halldenius, Lunds universitet
• Professor Elena Namli, Uppsala Universitet
On May 25-26th 2021, a symposium will be arranged at the University of Gothenburg on the history and future of human rights, to be streamed via Zoom. Against the background of rampant economic inequality, increased social polarization and the rise of authoritarian populism, it is motivated to revisit the role and status of human rights. To discuss how we can understand human rights as a historical and political problem, we have invited some of the foremost authorities in the world to discuss the topic. The symposium will be streamed online and participation is for free.
Tillsammans med forskningsområdet Samhälle, makt och kritik vid Institutionen för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap, Mittuniversitetet, bjuder vi initiativtagare till denna workshop in intresserade att lyssna till och delta i dessa diskussioner. Se program och abstract för papers nedan.
Den som vill kan maila [email protected] för tillgång till papers, men vi välkomnar alla intresserade att delta, oavsett om man har möjlighet att läsa eller ej. Workshopen sker i sal M301, Mittuniversitetet, campus Sundsvall, men kan också följas via denna länk: https://miun-se.zoom.us/j/66940259594?from=addon.
/Magnus Granberg och Carl Wilén
cleavage between scholars who locate the origins of human rights in
the Atlantic Revolutions of the late 18th century, and scholars who
instead focus on the post-WWII period in general, and on the 1970s
in particular as a breakthrough decade for international human
rights. Against the background of what has been described as the
threatened status of human rights today, we contend that the
problem of origins remains as crucial as ever before, but that the
way in which it is conceived is outdated and in need of
reconceptualization in three ways. First, the historical turn should be
seen as one body of literature with two distinct phases: one focused
on origins and historical continuity and rupture, and a more recent,
ongoing phase addressing the relationship between human rights
and the concomitant neoliberalization of society and increasing
economic inequality. We contend, secondly, that the debate itself
needs to be historicized, and that the two thematic phases are
rooted in two specific political, ideological, and economic contexts.
The debate about origins relate to a pre-2007-2008 financial crisis era,
marked by near-universal acceptance of human rights. Meanwhile,
the issues of inequality and neoliberalism predominantly emerged in
the post-crisis period as human rights faced more and more
challenges. Thirdly, we present a theoretical argument for why the
distinct issues constituting the two thematic phases should not be
separated from each other. Indeed, in this setting, we demonstrate
that the question regarding the relation between neoliberalism and
human rights presupposes an account of the origins of human rights.
Thursday 11th January 2024, 1-7pm : RECEPTION & NEW DIRECTIONS
Opening Remarks: The General Theory of Law and Marxism in Context (1.15-1.30pm)
Panel 1: Historical and Theoretical Legacies (1.30-3pm)
Werner Bonefeld, York University
Bill Bowring, Birkbeck, University of London
Dimitrios Kivotidis, Goldsmith, University of London
Carl Wilén, Lund University
Panel 2: Pashukanis and Law (3.15-4.45pm)
Grietje Baars, City University of London
Katie Cruz, University of Bristol
Tor Krever, University of Cambridge
Eva Nanopoulos, Queen Mary University of London
Plenary: New Directions (5.00-7.00pm)
Gargi Bhattacharyya, University of Arts, London
Ruth Fletcher, Queen Mary, University of London
Robert Knox, University of Liverpool
Friday 12th January 2024, 1-6.15pm: WORKSHOP
Welcome (1.00pm)
Panel 1: The Fundamentals (1.15-2.45pm)
Fernando Quintana (Queen Mary): ‘In Defence of the Withering Away Thesis’
Thais Hoshika (Sao Paulo): ‘Pashukanis on Private and Public Law: a Dialectical Reconstruction’
Carl Wilén (Lund), ‘Formalism and Instrumentalism in the Marxist Critique of Right: with what must Pashukanian Theory Begin?’
Maria Tzanakopoulou (Birkbeck), ‘Legal Form and Class Struggle’
Panel 2: Pashukanis and International Law (3.00-4.30pm)
Rob Knox (Liverpool) Title TBC
Yonit Percival (SOAS) Title TBC
Andrew Woodhouse (Liverpool), ‘Pashukanis in Luxembourg: Integration Through Law in the European Union’
Panel 3. Thinking Gender and Legal Form (4.45-6.15pm)
Suzanna Gerchmann (City): ‘Gendered Subjectivities, Law and Capitalism - Women's Oppression, Gender Pricing and the Role of Law in Emancipation’
Ruth Fletcher (Queen Mary), Title TBC
Leila Ullrich (Oxford): ‘Victims and the Labour of International Criminal Justice: A Marxist-Feminist Analysis of the Victim Subject’
• Professor Samuel Moyn, Yale University
• Associate Professor Jessica Whyte, University of New South Wales
• Professor John Milbank, University of Nottingham, UK
• Assistant Professor Igor Shoikhedbrod, University of Toronto
• Professor Lena Halldenius, Lunds universitet
• Professor Elena Namli, Uppsala Universitet
On May 25-26th 2021, a symposium will be arranged at the University of Gothenburg on the history and future of human rights, to be streamed via Zoom. Against the background of rampant economic inequality, increased social polarization and the rise of authoritarian populism, it is motivated to revisit the role and status of human rights. To discuss how we can understand human rights as a historical and political problem, we have invited some of the foremost authorities in the world to discuss the topic. The symposium will be streamed online and participation is for free.
Tillsammans med forskningsområdet Samhälle, makt och kritik vid Institutionen för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap, Mittuniversitetet, bjuder vi initiativtagare till denna workshop in intresserade att lyssna till och delta i dessa diskussioner. Se program och abstract för papers nedan.
Den som vill kan maila [email protected] för tillgång till papers, men vi välkomnar alla intresserade att delta, oavsett om man har möjlighet att läsa eller ej. Workshopen sker i sal M301, Mittuniversitetet, campus Sundsvall, men kan också följas via denna länk: https://miun-se.zoom.us/j/66940259594?from=addon.
/Magnus Granberg och Carl Wilén
vänsterhållning om försvaret. Vad det handlar om är snarare att syresätta en lika svår som nödvändig diskussion om hur vi förhåller oss till en värld som står i brand. Skaffa gärna en prenumeration redan nu. Nytt nummer i nytt format till midsommar 2024. Missa inte detta!
Sedan 1996 har Röda rummet varit bilaga i Internationalen. Efter att Tidöregeringen har strypt presstödet lever Internationalen vidare som dagstidning på nätet (https://internationalen.se).
För Röda rummets del gäller att vi måste hitta nya former för vår utgivning. Tvärtemot den borgerliga regeringens förhoppningar är vi i redaktionen fast beslutna om att inte låta oss hindras, utan tvärtom bidra till ännu mer och ännu bättre socialistisk teori, praktik och debatt.
• Vi har utökat vår redaktion, vilket kommer att bidra med såväl större bredd som spets.
• Vi har hittat ett nytt magasinformat som speglar vår ambition att vara en central röst i den socialistiska rörelsen och debatten.
• Vi sjösätter ett för Sverige unikt projekt där vi med recensioner, essäer och bokanmälningar inte bara kommer att fortsätta arbeta med våra internationella utblickar utan även konsekvent kommer att täcka in bokutgivningen inom den radikala vänstern i Sverige.
Det absolut viktigaste du kan göra för att stötta ett sådant projekt är genom att teckna prenumeration. Fyra tryckta nummer direkt i din brevlåda kostar 25 kr/mån eller 300 kr/år. Se QR-kod i pdf:en!
Kanske har det alltid varit fallet.
Men idag står det bortom allt tvivel
att en socialism för vår tid måste
vara en ekologisk socialism. Men
vad menas med ekosocialism och
hur bör en ekosocialistisk strategi se ut?
I detta temanummer återpublicerar vi ett antal texter
som på olika sätt behandlar dessa frågor.
Den första texten är en intervju med Andreas
Malm som kretsar kring frågan om hur kli-
matrörelsen och vänstern ska navigera i en
situation då klimatförändringarna redan är
här. En utmaning är hur vi ska förhålla oss till
idéer som ”koldioxidavlägsnande” eller ”solar
geoengineering”, det vill säga olika sätt att
genom ingenjörskonst sänka temperaturerna
på jorden. Malm argumenterar för att tekniska
lösningar i sig varken är bra eller dåliga. Olika
tekniker har olika potential och för med sig olika
risker och vänstern måste ha sakkunskap om
dem för att formulera en egen politik. Vad som
dock står klart är att potentialen hos löftesrik
teknik aldrig realiseras så länge den är i händer-
na på kapitalet eftersom vinstmotivet fortsätter
vara överordnat värnandet av liv.
Den andra texten är ett utdrag ur Ståle Holger-
sens bok Krisernas tid: ekologi och ekonomi
under kapitalismen. Holgersen konstaterar att
kapitalismen är det kristätaste av alla sam-
hällssystem men understryker samtidigt att det
inte är ett skäl för optimism för kapitalismens
fiender. Idén att kriser markerar slutet för kapi-
talismen är fel. Tvärtom är de stålbad som förn-
yar och till och med stärker systemets grepp,
både genom att skapa plats för nya marknader
och att återupprätta kapitalets makt i relation
till arbetarklassen och andra sociala rörelser.
Holgersen visar hur kapitalismens kriser går
hand i hand med andra kriser, inte minst ekolo-
giska. Systemets expansion bygger nämligen så
gott som alltid på en intensifierad exploatering
av naturresurser och mänskligt arbete.
Den tredje och sista texten i detta temanummer
består av ett antal kritiska kommentarer till
Holgersens bok, författade av Vanja Carls-
son, Carl Cassegård, Håkan Thörn och Carl
Wilén. Därefter följer ett svarsinlägg från
författaren själv. Carlsson påpekar att Holger-
sens ekosocialism ger staten en central roll för
att driva en systemförändrande krispolitik men
saknar en klarare idé om vad som utmärker en
stat i linje med ekosocialismen. Cassegård eft-
erlyser starkare argument för varför det kristäta
nuet inte skulle kunna indikera ett verkligt
sammanbrott för kapitalismen. Thörn menar
i sin tur att ekonomiska och ekologiska kriser
genom politisk organisering och konflikt kan
utvecklas till hegemoniska kriser där rörelser
börjar utveckla alternativ till det rådande sys-
temet. Wilén riktar istället in sig på Holgersens
argument om att ekosocialism är demokrati.
Han vill väcka en diskussion om mer exakt vad
som skiljer ekosocialistisk demokrati från den
borgerliga form som råder idag.
Tillsammans visar de olika texterna i detta
temanummer på två viktiga saker. För det
första måste utvecklandet av ekosocialismens
teori och praktik ske under allt annat än ideala
förutsättningar. Det måste ske här och nu i en
värld härjad av folkmord, skogsbränder och
inflation, i ett läge där vänstern är tillbakapres-
sad och splittrad. Detta kräver, som Malm också
konstaterar, en svår balansgång mellan radika-
litet och pragmatism. För det andra måste detta
arbete vara kollektivt och odogmatiskt. Det
måste bygga på en levande dialog mellan män-
niskor och grupper med olika kunskaper och på
ett sammanförande av teoretiska perspektiv och
praktiska erfarenheter. Det är sådana livsvik-
tiga diskussioner som Röda Rummet vill vara
ett forum för.
⋄ Auf Grund der unsystematischen und essayistischen Form des Hauptwerks von Paschukanis Allgemeine Rechtslehre und Marxismus herrscht jedoch noch immer eine große Debatte um die Richtigkeit seiner Kritik.
⋄ Carl Wilen verteidigte in der Capital & Class Paschukanis mit einer dialektischen Lesart.
⋄ Wilen legt großen Wert auf die Trennung und Wechselwirkung der einzelnen Abstraktionsebenen und dem Unterschied zwischen logischer und historischer Herleitung.
⋄ Mit seiner Interpretation versucht er die Vorwürfe zu entkräften, Paschukanis vernachlässige die Produktion, die Ideologie und die Formen ungleichen Rechts.
https://www.spectrumofcommunism.de/paschukanis-in-form/
Reporter
Julia Lundberg
Medverkande
Carl Wilén, Temi Odumosu, Patricia Mellin
Redaktionen för detta avsnitt består av:
Julia Grauers – programledare
David Rune – producent & manusbearbetning
Emilia Mellberg – manus
Pablo Leiva Wenger – scenuppläsare
Julia Öjbrandt – ljuddesign och slutmix
Medverkar gör också Carl Wilén, doktorand vid Institutionen för sociologi och arbetsvetenskap vid Göteborgs universitet.
Vill du veta mer om Toussaint Louverture och den haitiska revolutionen? Här är tips på artiklar och på några av de böcker som ligger till grund för avsnittet:
Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture av Sudhir Hazareesingh
Toussaint Louverture av Philippe Girard
The Black Jacobins av C.L.R James
A Black Jacobin in the Age of Revolutions av Charles Forsdick och Christian Hogsberg
Den goda människan på Haiti – Om synen på den haitiska revolutionen av Carl Wilén
Tillbakablickar: Tillfällig jämlikhet av Carl Wilén
Litteratur:
Carl Wilén: Interpreting the Haitian Revolution: From Rights of Man to Human Rights (Göteborgs universitet, 2022).
Alejo Carpentier: Detta upplysta tidevarv (Bonniers, 1965).
David Geggus: Haitian Revolutionary Studies (Indiana University Press, 2002)
David Geggus: The Haitian Revolution: A Documentary History, (Hackett Publishing Company, 2014).
Samuel Moyn: The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010).
George Lawson: Anatomies of Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2019).