Anarchism has recently become a topic of scholarly focus, as social and political movements such as Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring emerge throughout the world. While traditional public opinion tends to view anarchism as juvenile force of negation, violence or gleeful destruction, it is nonetheless possible to examine a far more nuanced discourse, as espoused by the social actors involved. In fact, many such groups are particularly focused upon combatting fascism, perceived state corruption, the effects of neoliberalism or globalization, or to dedicating themselves to fighting for environmental protection, immigrant and refugee rights, or in other arena of social justice. Many of these aims could be interpreted as not only in the public interest, but also to constitute some of the cornerstones of democracy itself.

Indeed, despite the traditional perceptions of anarchy predominant in Finnish academia, it is in fact possible to view these social movements as composed of highly engaged, and even faithful, public citizens, which begs the question of why they are ostracized and considered to be so politically threatening.

The keynote speakers of the conference are Dr. George Katsiaficas, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and Dr. Alexandre Christoyannopoulos, Loughborough University, in addition to Special Guest Speaker Dimitrios Roussopoulous.

The conference seeks to initiate scientific conversation of anarchism in Finland. It is organized in cooperation with Cambridge University, with financial support from the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Lapland.

Programme

More information:

Dr. Mika Luoma-aho, University of Lapland
Tel. +358 400 429 842
mika.luoma-aho (at) ulapland.fi


ULapland/Communications/SV