Society for Socialist Studies • Société d'Études Socialistes

The finalized version of the Socialist Studies 2012 conference is now available online. The conference theme is “critical theories in an uncertain world,” and the conference takes place in Waterloo from May 30 to June 2. We look forward to seeing you there.

Here is the program in PDF format:

Socialist Studies 2012 Conference program

The Society for Socialist Studies presents our next annual conference, taking place at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences from May 30 – June 2, 2012, in Waterloo, Ontario.

Here’s an excerpt from our Call For Papers:

The Great Recession of recent years produced new kinds of discontent but, so far at least, nothing that amounts to a movement for progressive change (the many urban occupations that have cascaded from the Arab Spring to the 15-M movement in Spain, and Occupy Wall Street are a hopeful sign). Yet ideas around which progressive movements could coalesce are in short supply. Where they exist, they oscillate between abstract principles and small-scale experiments as in the days of Fourier and Owen. Unlike the utopian socialists of the early 19^th century, though, we possess lots of experiences of failure that might contribute to a new socialist project.

In a world that has entirely changed since capitalism and socialist critique first developed, old questions need to be answered in new ways. What is the relationship between our understandings of the world and visions of a new world? How much understanding of reality is possible in the first place? Where is the line between concrete utopias and eschatological beliefs? Who are the agents of progressive change? Which role can intellectuals play to support such change?

The Society of Socialist Studies invites proposals for papers, roundtables, and session addressing any aspect of the theme of “Crossroads: Critical Theories in an Uncertain World”.

Download the Call for Papers

As part of its mandate to facilitate and encourage research and analysis in Canada with an emphasis on socialist, feminist, ecological and anti-racist points of view, the Society for Socialist Studies is pleased to offer a venue to new scholars working in these areas who have not yet completed a Masters degree.

Paper proposals could be in any of these areas, as well as on topics relating to the Society’s theme, “Kapital Connections: Socialism, Nation, State,” or the 2009 Congress theme, “Capital Connections: Nation, Terroir, Territoire.”

Download the Call for Papers

Our keynote speaker, Michael A. Lebowitz will present his talk: Building Socialism for the 21st Century

Michael A. Lebowitz is Professor Emeritus of Economics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby. B.C. His Beyond Capital: Marx’s Political Economy of the Working Class (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 and Spanish, Venezuelan, Turkish, Korean and Chinese editions) won the 2004 Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize for the best and most innovative writing in the Marxist tradition; and his Build it Now: Socialism for the Twenty-first Century (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2006) has so far been republished in Venezuelan, Norwegian and several Indian editions. Lebowitz is the author of the widely distributed El Socialismo no Cae del Cielo in Venezuela, where he has been directing a programme on Transformative Practice and Human Development at Centro Internacional Miranda. A former editor of Studies on Left (1962-8) and Studies in Political Economy (1980- 2003), he is currently working on books on socialism and on Marx’s economics and has written numerous articles in journals such as the Cambridge Journal of Economics, Canadian Journal of Economics, Historical Materialism, Monthly Review, Science & Society, Studies in Political Economy, Review of Radical Political Economics, Marx Ahora and Herramienta. Lebowitz was a founding member of the Society for Socialist Studies.

2:45 PM on Thursday June 5, 2008 in Vancouver, BC.