May Day School 2016: Religion and Capitalism

May Day School 2016 will reopen the questions of religion, critique of religion, its role and pertinence in contemporary society, its interaction with capitalism and critique thereof. We will attempt to cover a range of topics and questions at various levels of abstraction: from general rethinking of relation between capitalism and religions as two principles of organisation of society, in their conflicts and affinities, to the attempts to confront the more manifest and pressing contemporary issues, such as tension between feminism and religious upsurge, or the precise role of Islamic religion in the structure of conflict(s) in the Middle East.

MAY DAY SCHOOL 2016: Religion & Capitalism

For traditional left, religion (particularly organised religion) was an adversary, but an adversary in decline, adversary, who had already been dealt a decisive blow by the movement of capitalism itself, where, famously: “All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned.”
A list of contemporary phenomena which challenge this ‘traditional left’ outlook is long: the trend of secularisation hasn’t quite captured the globe with the same inevitability as capitalism did – indeed in many places, an opposite tendency is apparent; within theoretical sphere, the diagnosis of ‘postsecularity’ has been widespread; a noticeable tendency of interweaving a secular authority with religious discourses and movements in some of the world’s major powers;; and, particularly confounding, a prominent religiosity of many antisystemic movements and rebellions, that are arising particularly at the margins of aggressive expansions of western capitalism (Islam being the most prominent in this respect recently).

On the other hand, as religion didn’t disappear from contemporary public discourse, neither did a fervent anti-religious critique – except that now, a political import of the latter is much more ambiguous.In Europe, references to secularism and enlightenment tradition have been increasingly appearing on right side of political spectrum, as a thin veil over anti-islamic racism.

This year, we will therefore reopen the questions of religion: We will attempt to cover a range of topics and questions at various levels of abstraction: from general rethinking of relation between capitalism and religions as two principles of organisation of society, in their conflicts and affinities, to the attempts to confront the more manifest and pressing contemporary issues, such as tension between feminism and religious upsurge, or the precise role of Islamic religion in the structure of conflict(s) in the Middle East.
————————–—————-
SCHEDULE

WEDNESDAY, 27.4.
Arrival of international participants
20.00 Dinner for participants & opening socials

THURSDAY, 28.4.
11.30 Opening of the conference
11.40 -13.30 Panel session: Religion and politics in Northern Africa and Middle east (moderator: Dragan Nikčević)
Miha Turk: “Jihad and secularisation”
Giuseppe Acconcia: “The Arab Uprisings: Left-wing activism, social movements and wars in the Middle East”
Aleš Mendiževec: “ISIS – How to build a state?”
13.30 Lunch
16.30 – 19.00 Panel session: Religion as a philosophical battleground (moderator: Jan Kostanjevec)
Mirt Komel – “The invisible hand(job) of the market: from Nicolas Malebranche’s touch of god to Adam Smith’s invisible hand”
Jernej Kaluža – “Excessive affirmation of God as a way towards atheism?”
Martin Hergouth – “From religious critique to social critique – sketch of pre-marxian theoretical developments”
Rachel Aumiller – “Capitalism and religious affect”
19.00 Dinner

FRIDAY, 29.4.

11.30 – 13.30 Panel session: Theology of capitalism (moderator: Sašo Furlan)
Sami Khatib – “Capitalism as religion or religion as capitalism? Why the former cannot do Without the Latter”
Elettra Stimilli: “Practices of life and the religious character of capitalism”
Philip Homburg – “Sign, symbol or fetish? Against the sociological understanding of money”
13.30 Lunch
16.00 – 17.30 Panel session: Religion, patriarchy, misogyny (moderator: Klara Otorepec)
Andrea Jovanović – “Women in Orthodox Serbia: between practices and beliefs”
Muanis Sinanović – “Repression of men’s sexuality and misogyny in some modern Islamic societies”
18.00 – 20.00 Lecture
Robert Pfaller: “What to do when progress seems to melt away emancipation?”
20.00 Dinner

SATURDAY, 30.4.
11.30 – 13.30 Panel session: Religion and emancipatory politics (moderator: Lea Kuhar)
Zsuzsa Selyem: “Sparrows sold for a penny. Christian views on emancipatory political subject”
Agon Hamza TBA
Felix Ensslin TBA
13.30 Lunch
16.00-17.30 Plenary discussion
Dilemmas on the left – religion, secularism, multiculturalism
18.00-20.00 Lecture:
Jean-Pierre Dupuy: “Crisis and the Sacred”
20.00 Dinner

“May Day School” is an event organized in coorganisation with zavod Bunker, with the financial support from RLS – Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.

More information about the programme, applications: Inštitut za delavske študije

No entrance fee. Lectures will be held in English.