[Air-L] Event: Where Do Neoliberals Go After the Market? Calculation, Computation and Crisis

[nathaniel tkacz]

Please circulate widely.



*Where Do Neoliberals Go After the Market?
Calculation, computation and crisis*

A one-day conference organised by Centre for Interdisciplinary
Methodologies<http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/cim/>,
University of Warwick

*13th June 2013
10am-6.30pm
Room S0.21*

Neoliberalism is commonly identified as a belief in the self-regulating
powers of markets, especially financial markets. Markets, from this
perspective, are powerful information-processors, which are uniquely
capable of governing complex societies while preserving liberty. In recent
decades, financial institutions have added further computational power,
which, among other things, has led to the automation of trading and the
calculation and simulation of market scenarios to manage risk. The
financial crisis has been perceived by some as the outcome of this
collision between markets and increasingly ‘performative’ economics.
But where does this leave neoliberalism and its technical ideal of freedom?
Does it simply require more markets or greater computational power to
prevent future crises? Or are we witnessing the emergence of a different
neoliberalism, based on different technologies and ideologies of liberty,
in appeals to ‘Big Data’ and ‘openness’? Might software and ‘open data’
usurp the primacy of the price system in the neoliberal imagination, as
tools of governance in complex modern societies? To what extent are the
political desires of the digital elite – from Hackers to Silicon Valley –
amenable to the neoliberal project?

This one-day conference will address these questions from a range of
disciplinary perspectives, including software studies, history of
economics, political theory, media theory, international political economy
and economic sociology.

 *Speakers Include*

·       *Prof Philip Mirowski <http://www3.nd.edu/~pmirowsk/>*, University
of Notre Dame

·       *Prof Shirin Rai<http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/rai/>
*, University of Warwick**

·       *Dr Richard
Barbrook<http://www.westminster.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/directory/barbrook-richard>
*, University of Westminster

·       *Dr Orit Halpern <http://orithalpern.net/>*, New School

·       *Dr David
Berry<http://www.swansea.ac.uk/staff/academic/artshumanities/pcs/berryd/>
*, Swansea University**

*·       Dr Johan Soderberg <http://www.johansoderberg.net/>*, Université
Paris-Est/Écoles des Ponts**



*Conference themes*

   - Neoliberal responses to financial crisis
   - The invention and reinvention of 'competition'
   - The philosophy and techniques of 'openness'
   - The persistence and reinvention of the market
   - The intersections between neoliberalism and cybernetics
   - The significance of data and 'Big Data' to the evolution of
   neoliberalism
   - The role of specific devices in visions of freedom
   - The political lineages of 'hackers'

*Attendance*

The conference is free to attend, but registration is essential. To
register please click
here<http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/cim/news/signup>
.

 Room S0.21 is in the Social Sciences block. A campus map is available
here<http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/about/visiting/maps/campusmap/>.
All details on how to get to Warwick University are available
here<http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/about/visiting/>
.

 Please send any enquiries regarding the conference to Will Davies at
William.j.davies at warwick.ac.uk<https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=William.j.davies@warwick.ac.uk>


Nathaniel Tkacz

Assistant Professor
Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies
The University of Warwick

Twitter: http://twitter.com/__nate__