[csaa-forum] Re: wanting to be effluent

[Andrew Murphie]

Hi All,

I must admit I wonder if many of these ³reasons² aren¹t, despite their
reality as phantoms, phantoms nevertheless.

Perhaps it is difficult to talk about the current economies of fear (all
concerning ³security² - economic, territorial, the family ­ I would add
³cognitive security²) because this fear stalks the academic world as much as
anywhere and we could no longer point fingers elsewhere in blame, but would
have to challenge ourselves at this level. Fear ­ and a whole complex
machinery surrounding its production and maintenance - seemed to me to be
the clear election winner, the milieu of the election, and Howard¹s singular
achievement in office. I mean he¹s made himself the button to push whenever
he likes, and the content is just an afterthought. Fear provides the reasons
most things were said or not said, done or not done ­ or maybe I¹m just a
scared-y cat and everyone else is thinking clearly ...

If it¹s not just me, ...  the importance of new, alternative economies of
affect that some in the list have mentioned ­ Bifo mentioned ³love²
recently. I must say I was shocked.

A




On 14/10/04 12:41 PM, "Brett Neilson" <b.neilson at uws.edu.au> wrote:

> 
>> >Yes francis - I see no necessary direct link at all - things are
>> >Incidentally my comment re houses was about people in general be they in
>> >Liverpool,  Balmain,  Bankstown or wherever - after all  people are just
>> >trying to make lives for themselves, and why shouldn't they? ( and I don't
>> >believe they are all 'dupes' ( or dopes)).
>> >Jeannie
>> >BTW I have the latest Freedom catalogue if anyone wants a quick rundown
> 
>> >---- Original Message -----
>> >From: "Francis Maravillas" <Francis.Maravillas at uts.edu.au>
>> >To: "CSAA discussion list" <csaa-forum at lists.cdu.edu.au>
>> >Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2004 6:54 PM
>> >Subject: Re: [csaa-forum] RE: wanting to be effluent
>> >
>> >
>> >I agree, Jeannie. There seems to be a perception that people who have nice
>> >a house can't be critical, progressive or 'leftish'. Class/cultural
>> >capital distinctions do not necessarily correlate with political
>> >positionalities (or voting behavior) - and even Bourdieu acknowledges that.
>> >
>> >Francis
> 
> 
> Hey Jeannie,
> 
> I agree with Francis too and strongly so. But shouldn't this point be
> pushed a little more to say that class cannot be reduced to consumption,
> taste, or cultural capital. Not that anyone on the list has made that
> conflation but the discussion did drift immediately to consumption, an
> important topic but not the only one at stake.
> 
> If the category 'aspirational' has any analytical grip in the wake of the
> election (and I'm open to the suggestion that we have to invent new
> concepts) it is in the intersection between complex processes of social
> recomposition (based partly, as Melissa notes, in the changing relations
> between work and non-work) and an ossified geography of political
> representation. Where are the marginal seats? That is a key question in
> analysing the election. And, at that point, there is a need to reintroduce
> an argument about the spatial order of the city (recognising the passage of
> that order beyond simple centre/periphery distinctions). Not to isolate the
> processes of class recomposition to certain areas but to understand how
> they intersect the zero-sum game of representative democracy.
> 
> I am impressed by what Amanda says about the need for a politics of
> empathy/affect within and between changing class relations/conflicts. For
> me the starting point for this would have to be the distrust of politicians
> and the disengagement with representative democratic processes (watching
> Idol instead of the debate, etc.). Perhaps there is room for opening and
> dialogue with those of us trying to understand how democratic processes
> might operate beyond (or even underneath) representation. But this will
> have to involve multiple engagements, through ethnic communities perhaps or
> everyday practices on particular sites.
> 
> Often this may be prepolitical but it can also involve a different kind of
> politics, a politics of relation. Either way it is important to understand
> how the political emerges. And how it functions in a complex media
> environment with a multiplication of channels and possibilities for
> connection. But here I feel we are reaching the limits of cultural analysis.
> 
> Brett
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________
> 
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> 
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-- 
"I thought I had reached port; but I seemed to be cast
back again into the open sea" (Deleuze and Guattari, after Leibniz)

Dr Andrew Murphie - Senior Lecturer
School of Media and Communications, University of New South Wales, Sydney,
Australia, 2052
web:http://media.arts.unsw.edu.au/homepage/Staff/Murphie/
fax:612 93856812 tlf:612 93855548 email: a.murphie at unsw.edu.au
room 311H, Webster Building

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