International Conference Critical Emancipations

The broad tradition of critical theory is historically, politically and theoretically committed to emancipation. But the modern notion of emancipation is also a contested concept. This is already apparent in Marx’s attempts to provide an alternative theory of emancipation to the liberal (Hägglund 2019) and the classical republican versions (Roberts 2018). Now that capitalism is back on the agenda (Fraser & Jaeggi 2018) and presenting new challenges in the form of an emerging platform economy (Muldoon 2022), crises of care and the climate (Fraser 2022) and ubiquitous economic precarity (Azmanova 2020), it is time reconsider both the nature and potential of this concept.

Even though capitalism pervades all spheres of social life, it does not do so in univocal or homogenizing ways and neither is it the sole determining influence. It is thus unclear whether emancipation can carry the same meaning in, for instance, the sphere of production, surrounding migrant rights or in struggles over reproductive justice. A self-reflective tradition of critical theory should therefore take into account radical critiques of the Marxist idea of emancipation. Postcolonial scholars, for instance, criticize the philosophy of history present in Eurocentric notions of emancipation (Allen 2015) and show that anti-colonial struggles produced their own ideas of emancipation (Coulthard 2014; Getachew 2016). Feminists and queer critical theorists, to give another example, contest masculine ideas of emancipation (Von Redecker 2018) and encourage us to question the central place of waged labor in the movement for social emancipation (Weeks 2011; Bhattacharya 2017).

Finally, this conference also wants to consider two fundamental challenges to the notion of emancipation. First and foremost, the irreparable damages caused by climate change in differential ways across the globe force us to question whether the idea of emancipation remains adequate for our times. To what extent were the achievements of emancipation in ‘developed countries’ dependent on the exploitation of nature (Mitchell 2011)? Which role can emancipation still play in climate struggles? And if not emancipation, how can we conceptualize political interventions from a distinctly critical theoretical perspective? Second, it also remains important to examine the ‘dialectic of emancipation’: the process through which emancipation turns into its opposite. How can we explain or prevent that emancipatory struggles end up constituting exclusionary regimes or committing acts of cruelty (Balibar 2014; 2015)?

Registration

To register: send an email to criticalemancipations@kuleuven.be.

Registration fee: 15 EUR.

Scientific committee

• Matthias Lievens (KU Leuven)
• Sonja Lavaert (VUB)
• Albena Azmanova (Kent University)
• Martin Deleixhe (ULB)