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2019 Conference

UPCOMING CONFERENCE


Critical Theory in Dark Times: 
The Prospects for Liberation
 in the Shadow of the Radical Right


International Herbert Marcuse Society

Eighth Biennial Conference 
University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

October 10-13, 2019


A populism of the radical right is on the rise across the globe. What are the counter-strategies of the left? What role does critical theory play in the current context? Embedded in the critical theory of Herbert Marcuse is the promise that reason, with a proper critical orientation, can provide an emancipatory alternative to the deforming oppressions of a given order. But critical reason is occluded in a one-dimensional society, resulting in a society without meaningful alternatives.

Marcuse reminds us that a one-dimensional society with a “smooth, democratic unfreedom” is a society in which there is no fundamental opposition, or where opposition is absorbed and reified into the logic of the system itself. From openly nationalist/fascist/racist parties gaining power in governments across the globe, to institutions manipulated by elites to widen inequalities of wealth and power, to ecological degradation and climate change, to debt traps as a result of uneven development, to mass incarceration and refugee detention policies, freedom becomes an increasingly abstract illusion under the guise of the “normally” functioning global economic system.

We seek papers that address the concerns, challenges, commonalities, and spaces for opposition in the current political context of one-dimensional neoliberal authoritarianism, as well as papers that engage the continued relevance of Herbert Marcuse's analyses/ theoretical insights to critical theory. This includes, but is not limited to addressing questions such as:

●    What is Marcuse’s influence today toward a Critical Theory from the Americas? How might we draw on his theoretical perspectives to interpret structural violence, as well as relations among race, class, and gender and the rise of right-wing populism on both American continents?

●    As the crises and contradictions of neoliberalism expand, how does a Marcusean analysis sharpen the criticism or explain the rise of the radical right? What networks and/or apparatuses are sustaining authoritariaism(s)?

●    Since one-dimensional societies absorb oppositional movements, what steps can we take to move towards a more multi-dimensional consciousness? In what ways are the Black radical tradition, youth, LGBTQ, labor, workers, and indigenous peoples at the forefront of fundamental resistance?

●    What are the pathways for revolutionary and systemic change? What are the dialectics of 
resistance today?

●    What role can or should forms of education, including higher education, play as and in forms 
of resistance?

●    Can violence play a role as a means of support and resistance? For precipitating system change?

●    How might we theorize an alternative to the "democratic" unfreedom of today that engages human rights?

●    What are the implications for radical class or group consciousness in a time of rising right-wing populism? What role might it play? Is there potential for a populism of/on the left?

●    How might Marcuse’s vision of radical socialism, a new social order committed to economic, racial and gender equality, sexual liberation, liberation of labor, preservation and restoration of nature, leisure, abundance and peace, inspire organizing today? What is the role of Marcusean aesthetic theory/praxis today?

●    How do the culture industry and digital culture create new forms of propaganda and/or sites of 
resistance?

●    What is the relationship between movements or organizing ideas such as #BlackLivesMatter, 
#MariellePresente, #MeToo, #EnoughisEnough, #EleNão and Refugees Welcome and the "new left”? What implications do these movements have for progressive politics?

●    As basic liberal-democratic values and institutions break down or suffer crises of legitimacy, in what ways does a Marcusean critical theory reveal alternatives to the xenophobic nationalism of the radical right?

NOTE:
The deadline for submitting conference proposal was May 1, 2019.  For information about which papers and panels were accepted for the conference, please go to the conference website. Thank you. 

New Publication

A book of five previously unpublished lectures by Herbert Marcuse was distributed at the 2017 Marcuse Society conference at York University in Toronto, Canada: Herbert Marcuse, Transvaluation of Values and Radical Social Change: Five New Lectures, 1966-1976, edited by Peter-Erwin Jansen, Sarah Surak and Charles Reitz; introduction by Terry Maley; commentary by Andrew Feenberg. Available for sale.





Herbert Marcuse’s One-Dimensional Man has been called one of the most important books of the post-WWII era. Published in 1964, Marcuse’s work was highly critical of modern industrial capitalism — its exploitation of people and nature, its commodified aesthetics and consumer culture, the military-industrial complex and new forms of social control at the height of the Keynesian era.

Contributors to this collection assess the key themes in One-Dimensional Man from a diverse range of critical perspectives, including feminist, ecological, Indigenous and anti-capitalist. In light of the current struggles for emancipation from neoliberalism in Canada and across the globe, this critical look at Marcuse’s influential work illustrates its relevance today and introduces his work to a new generation.


One-Dimensional Man 50 Years On contains a diverse collection of essays on the legacy of Herbert Marcuse and the relevance of his thought for the 21st century. The contributors to the volume — both established and upcoming academics and activists — critically explore the applicability, as well as the limitations, of Marcuse’s seminal work to the current political conjuncture. It should be of interest to both scholars of critical theory and Left activists of all types.
— Chris Holman, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore


Accessibly written to provide a clear and relevant introduction to Marcuse’s ideas, One-Dimensional Man 50 Years On powerfully shows how one of the most influential political theory texts of the past century remains potent in this one.
— Andrew Biro, Acadia University


Fernwood Publishing, 2017




Image result for the great refusal lamas


“This is certainly the time for a Marcuse revival!”     
—Fredric Jameson, Duke University



“One of the great 20th century critical theorists of domination and liberation, Herbert Marcuse has 
an enormous amount to   say to our time. The Great Refusal makes this abundantly clear. The c
ontributors draw Marcuse’s imaginative reworking of Hegel, Marx, Freud, and Weber into 
illuminating conversations with a diverse range of contemporary theorists and political 
movements...from those of the Zapatistas and Chinese factory workers to the Arab Spring and Occupy. 
This book is a treasure trove for scholars and activists  alike.”

—Wendy Brown, University of California,  Berkeley



Temple University Press, 2017




Crisis and Commonwealth: Marcuse, Marx, McLaren advances Marcuse scholarship by presenting four hitherto untranslated and unpublished manuscripts by Herbert Marcuse from the Frankfurt University Archive on themes of economic value theory, socialism, and humanism. Contributors to this edited collection, notably Peter Marcuse, Henry Giroux, Peter McLaren, Zvi Tauber, Arnold L. Farr and editor, Charles Reitz, are deeply engaged with the foundational theories of Marcuse and Marx with regard to a future of freedom, equality, and justice. Douglas Dowd furnishes the critical historical context with regard to U.S. foreign and domestic policy, particularly its features of economic imperialism and militarism. Reitz draws these elements together to show that the writings by Herbert Marcuse and these formidable authors can ably assist a global movement toward intercultural commonwealth. 

The collection extends the critical theories of Marcuse and Marx to an analysis of the intensifying inequalities symptomatic of our current economic distress. It presents a collection of essays by radical scholars working in the public interest to develop a critical analysis of recent global economic dislocations. Reitz presents a new foundation for emancipatory practice—a labor theory of ethics and commonwealth, and the collection breaks new ground by constructing a critical theory of wealth and work. A central focus is building a new critical vision for labor, including academic labor. Lessons are drawn to inform transformative political action, as well as the practice of a critical, multicultural pedagogy, supporting a new manifesto for radical educators contributed by Peter McLaren. The collection is intended especially to appeal to contemporary interests of college students and teachers in several interrelated social science disciplines: sociology, social problems, economics, ethics, business ethics, labor education, history, political philosophy, multicultural education, and critical pedagogy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

No one knows better than Charles Reitz that critical theory—at its best—is a three-legged stool, constructed with great care and attention to political economy, aesthetics, and pedagogy. When any one of these radical elements is missing, critical praxis is impoverished; however, when they are carefully fused together by a scholar and editor of Reitz's stature, then the intellectual legacy of Marx and Marcuse is renewed to work again in our time for projects of resistance, refusal, and liberation. I highly recommend Crisis and Commonwealth: Marcuse, Marx, McLaren. 
--Andrew T. Lamas, University of Pennsylvania
 
The numerous social, economic, and military global crises of the last decades not only provoked protest movements throughout the world; they also brought about socio-critical analyses that offer astute examinations of the threats and turmoil in the global economy. Crisis and Commonwealth, edited by Charles Reitz, gathers such radical analyses in the critical intellectual tradition inspired by Marx and Marcuse. In the first chapter, Reitz and his chapter co-editor Stephan Spartan prove that Marcuse’s dialectical method of radical thinking, with its political principle of “liberation”, is still a radical weapon to analyze the crises of today. 
 
Reitz has established himself as one of the finest translators of German critical theorists including Habermas, Honneth, and Marcuse. His translation here of Marcuse's previously quite unknown Humanism and Humanity is a key contribution to Marcuse scholarship. It is particularly valuable in the context of Reitz's effort to explicate Marcuse's unique approach to socialist humanism as well as his own critical theoretical perspective.
--Peter-Erwin Jansen, editor of Herbert Marcuse’s and Leo Löwenthal’s intellectual estate in Germany; professor, University of Applied Sciences, Koblenz
 
I wholeheartedly embrace this book as a part of the Marcuse Renaissance now underway. In an age where the 99% must struggle needlessly through longer working years and ever more tedious jobs, Marcuse’s call for “a life that is no longer spent in making a living” is more relevant today than ever. These essays help us not only glimpse the horizon of liberation, but move us concretely toward that historical moment when human beings will become masters of their own destiny. 
--George Katsiaficas, activist and author of "Asia’s Unknown Uprisings"

About the Author

Charles Reitz retired in 2006 as professor of philosophy and social science at Kansas City Kansas Community College, where he also served as Director of Intercultural Education and President of the Faculty Association (KNEA). He has co-edited a Special Edition of the Radical Philosophy Review on Herbert Marcuse (with Andrew Lamas, Arnold L. Farr, and Douglas Kellner, 2013), and is the author of several publications on the educational and political philosophy of Herbert Marcuse: Art, Alienation, and the Humanities: A Critical Engagement with Herbert Marcuse (SUNY Press, 2000); “Herbert Marcuse and the Humanities: Emancipatory Education and Predatory Culture,” and “Herbert Marcuse and the New Culture Wars,” in Douglas Kellner, Tyson Lewis, Clayton Pierce, K. Daniel Cho, Marcuse’s Challenge to Education (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009).

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