Paper Abstracts and Short Biographies Plenary Speakers.doc

paper abstracts and short biographies plenary speakersin alphabetical orderlocal, local, localrachel bowlby, university college londonin recent years, the local has become a political rallying point in the struggle for more ethical and environmentally modes of production and consumption. almost always, it is implicitly or explicitly situated in opposition to the global. this paper begins by analysing some of the assumptions and associations of this local in relation to a history of arguments about consumption and the economy. it moves on to consider debates about the decline of the (local) high street in relation to two idiosyncratic kinds of business that have flourished there in recent years: estate agents and charity shops. at opposite ends of the scales of high-street expenditure (from a few pence to hundreds of thousands), the two have in common an indisputable local sourcing, as well as a focus on the singular as opposed to repeatable commodity, the personal relation to this particular dwelling or object. finally, i look at how the internet has fostered a return to forms of one-on-one trading of one-off items, a virtual locality.rachel bowlby is northcliffe professor of english at ucl; she has previously taught at the universities of sussex, oxford and york and has recently been a visitor at the universit de paris iii (the sorbonne nouvelle). she has written several books on the history and theory of consumer culture: just looking, shopping with freud, carried away: the invention of modern shopping, on the history of supermarkets and self-service. her most recent book is freudian mythologies: greek tragedy and modern identities.hansel and gretel at the grocery store: progressive grocer and the little american consumers (1929-1959)franck cochoy, universit de toulouse iiin this paper, i propose to rely on a fairy tale on the one hand and on an economic field on the other, to disclose their intimate but indirect connection. the fairy tale is brothers grimms well known story hansel and gretel. the economic field is the american grocery business in the 20th century, as it appears in the trade journal progressive grocer. as we will see, the tale and the field address some situations and processes which, strangely enough, are highly similar. but in drawing such a parallel, i intent neither to reduce culture to its economic dimension, nor to intellectualize the commercial arena, but rather to show that fairy tales and market exchanges are related to the same anthropological scheme: they are united not because the second refers to the former, or the other way round, but because they describe and perform similar scenes and action patterns. this paper will lead us from surprise to surprise. the first surprise is a disappointment. at the beginning of my (hi)story, the parallel between the tale and the grocery business simply does not work: in the early thirties, american grocers do not use their shops a means to attract children; they do not pay attention to kids but rather beware of them, or they treat them more as adult workers than as young consumers. the second surprise contradicts the former: thanks to some technical changes, such as the introduction of open display, self-service and shopping carts, it looks as if the reality and the tale spectacularly became one and the same: in the forties, progressive grocer is invaded by cake houses, grocers who behave like witches and children who happen to be trapped in the consumption game. the third and last surprise is that such a spectacular coincidence rather works as an illusion. as we will see, the tales greatest power does not lie in its more obvious manifestations, but rather in its ability to focus our attention on children, houses and witches, while parents and grocers are also involved in the game, and may surprisingly exchange their positions with the childrens.franck cochoy is professor of sociology at the universit de toulouse ii and member of the certop-cnrs. his work in the sociology of markets focuses on the different mediations that frame the relation between supply and demand, such as packaging, marketing and standardisation. he is the author of une histoire du marketing (la dcouverte, 1999) and une sociologie du packaging ou lne de buridan face au march (presses universitaires de france, 2002), and the editor of la captation des publics (presses universitaires du mirail, 2004).on money and boundaries: a perspective from economic anthropologychris gregory, australian national universitythe globalisation of the economy over the past century presents us with a paradox: on the one hand the progressive demonetisation of first cowrie shells in the early 19thc, then silver in the late 19thc and finally gold in the 1970s has created digital forms of money that can cross boundaries literally at the speed of light; on the other hand, people in local settings have managed to create culturally-specific borders around money-free zones where valued objects circulate according to their values, not those of the market. the contemporary work of economic anthropologists on european and non-european economies can help us understand this paradox and to assess its implications.chris gregory is reader in anthropology at the australian national university in canberra. he has conducted fieldwork in png and india and is the author of gifts and commodities (1982), observing the economy (1989 with j altman) and savage money (1997).untaming economics, unfixing economies: imagining a cultural studies of political economylawrence grossberg, university of north carolina, chapel hillthis paper tries to speculate on how cultural studies might take up the challenge of economics/political economics in the contemporary context. in the long history of debates with political economy, people in cultural studies (myself included) have argued that we did not have a problem with the effort to take the economic realities seriously but with the way in which this was done within the dominant forms of political economy, paralleling arguments that cultural studies has made about other disciplines. yet the challenge has not been taken up as enthusiastically and self-reflectively as it might, and when it has, it has usually been approached either with an uncharacteristic timidity or by entering into the proliferating effort to “diagnose” contemporary capitalism. lawrence grossberg is morris davis distinguished professor of communication studies and cultural studies; adjunct distinguished professor of anthropology; director of the university program in cultural studies cultural studies, media studies at the university of north carolina at chapel hill. his recent publications include: caught in the crossfire: kids, politics and americas future (boulder: paradigm, 2005); being young sucks: an interview, bad subjects 74 (2006); in conversation: part 1: from new england to illinois: the invention of cultural studies, and part 2: configurations of culture, history and politics. in thinking with james carey: essays on communications, transportation, history, jeremy packer and craig robertson eds., new york: peter lang publishing, 2006; does cultural studies have futures? should it? (or whats the matter with new york?) in cultural studies, 20-1 (2006), 1-32.; affect and postmodernity in the struggle over american modernity, in pelagia goulimari (ed.), postmodernism: what moment? manchester university press, forthcoming (january 2007); stuart hall on race and racism: cultural studies and the practice of contextualism in brian meeks (ed.). culture, politics, race and diaspora: the thought of stuart hall (kingston: ian randle, 2006); james carey and the life and times of culture. in making use of culture. ed. lisa adkins, jane chin davidson and emily cuming. manchester university press, in press; cccs and the detour through theory. in selected papers of the cccs, ed. ann gray et al. london, routledge, in press.qualities of betelnut and qualities of money in melanesiaeric hirsch, brunel universitybetelnut and money have a pervasive influence in contemporary melanesia that is connected, but which was not always the case. in the pre-colonial and colonial past betelnut use was confined to coastal and inland populations. during the colonial era money had a similar limited range of use. however, particularly since the 1950s, the spread of betelnut use and the spread of the use of money have meant that both are now present throughout this vast island world. in fact, betelnut is viewed as a key resource with which to make money, and much money earned is spent on the purchase of betelnut. both betelnut and money facilitate the capacity to sustain and expand social relations. and yet, betelnut is a quintessential melanesian entity with no connections to white people, while money is just the opposite: it is intimately bound up with the perceived power and wealth of white people. the paper explores the qualities that each of these objects is perceived to possess and through their mutual connections something of the distinctive character of the current melanesian cultural economy and by comparison, current western cultural economy - can be discerned.eric hirsch is reader in social anthropology at brunel university, west london. he has a long-standing interest in the ethnography and history of melanesia and he has also conducted anthropological research in greater london. he recently co-edited transactions and creations: property debates and the stimulus of melanesia, berghahn 2004, and a special edition of the journal history and anthropology on the theme of ethnographies of historicity 2005. flow cultures: the temporalisation of financial marketskarin knorr cetina, university of constance and university of chicagoin this paper i ask how we might make the notion flow concrete and what flow means in financethe area of the economy to which the notion has been applied most often. i analyze a particular cultural architecture of financial markets that emerged in the wake of 18th and early 19th century stock markets and now characterises todays most global and largest market, the foreign exchange market. in the course of this development, financial markets moved from a network-based configuration to one based on scopic modes of coordination. the scoping mechanism enabled a global flow market to emerge that moves across time zones with the sun. the paper describes and explains the temporalisation of market complexity implied, the various streaming components of a flow culture and the mondialisation entailed. it also discusses temporalisation in regard to existing notions of culture. karin knorr cetina is a professor of sociology and teaches at the university of chicago and at the university of constance, germany. her recent publications include epistemic cultures: how the sciences make knowledge (1999 (2003) harvard university press), which received two prizes, global microstructures: the virtual societies of financial markets (with urs bruegger, american journal of sociology 2002, theory prize of the theory section of the asa), and the sociology of financial markets (edited with alex preda), oxford university press 2005. she is currently working on a book on the financial markets she has studied since 1999. karin knorr cetina is a former member of the institute for advanced study, princeton, she was president of the society for social studies of science, and she has been invited to the center for advanced study in the behavioural sciences, palo alto.the precaritie fraternity and its critics: questions of sex and race in european creative-labour processangela mcrobbie, goldsmiths, university of londonthis paper offers a series of reflections on the roller-coaster or trans- euro-express in regard to a decade of new creative economy conceptualisation. it takes a european frame (old and new) for reasons that us discussions on this terrain tend to extend existing marxisant political economy paradigms (with one or two exceptions). in addition much of the us work connects with a defensive back to the old reliable perspectives in the hope or desire that from this will flow some sort of re-aligned leftism. this paper in contrast surveys the field of new creative-labour process thinking. it queries the seeming marginalisation of issues which elsewhere in cultural studies and sociology have been of key importance i.e. feminist and post-colonial thought. it examines the intersections of macro social institutions with micro-creative activities, proposing new models of speeded-up and super-dispersed modes of governmentality in regard to the field of creativity. it also challenges the masculine domination of the precaritie fraternity, proposing a different constellation of issues when gender and ethnicity are more fully foregrounded.angela mcrobbie is professor of communications at goldsmiths, university of london. she is in the process of completing a book, gender culture and social change: the post-feminist masquerade, to be published by sage in 2007. the book looks at how gender relations are being re-stabilised within a social context to suggest that sexual equality has been achieved. angela mcrobbies most recently published book is the uses of cultural studies (london: sage, 2005) and is already translated into czech and chinese. the book comprises original and innovative engagement with the work of six leading cultural theorists from butler to bourdieu and bhabha to stuart hall. current journal publications include vulnerability, violence and (cosmopolitan) ethics: judith butlers precarious life in british journal of sociology, 57:1, 2006, 69-86.since the publication of her book, british fashion design rag trade or image industry? (london: routledge, 1998), angela mcrobbie has extended her research interest in precarious work in the fashion industry to incorporate the wider field of the creative economy. she has published a range of articles in books and journals which have also been re-printed and translated into several languages. the most frequently cited are clubs to company in cultural studies, 16: 4, 2002, 516-531 and holloway to hollywood: pleasure in work in the new cultural economy? in paul du gay and michael pryke (eds.), cultural economy (london: sage, 2002).the allurenigel thrift, the university of warwickthis paper argues that one of capitalisms main goals is to create what i call allure. using a series of conceptual tools, i will unlock what this means and how it operates to create profitable situations.professor nigel thrift was educated at aberystwyth where he graduated with a ba hons in geography in 1971. after aberystwyth he went onto gain his phd in geography from the university of bristol in 1979, his dsc from the university of bristol in 1992, as well as being granted an ma (oxon) in january 2004. he is an emeritus professor of the university of bristol and a visiting professor at the university of oxford.nigel took up his role as the vice-chancellor of the university of warwick in july 2006. he joined warwick from the university of oxford where he was pro-vice-chancellor for research. he was made head of the division of life and environmental sciences at oxford in 2003, prior to which he chaired the research committee at the university of bristol (2001-2003) and also chaired bristols research assessment panel (1997-2001).he was made a fellow of the british academy in 2003 and is co-author, author or co-editor of over 35 books.political cultural economy and the financialisation of brand equityhugh willmott, university of cardiffi explore the co-development of brand identity and equity by marketing experts and consumers, arguing that this immaterial labour process has been making an increasingly significant contribution to the generation of surplus value. the rise of a discourse of financialisation has encouraged a reorientation of brand management to the re-evaluation of brand equity as a smart way of adding value for shareholders. advocating a form of analysis that i term political cultural economy, i show how the connection between brand value and shareholder value has been articulated, legitimated and leveraged by brand valuation consultancies and a small group of marketing academics. the calculated investment in branding, and an associated disinvestment in, or outsourcing of, manufacturing, has become an increasingly strategic means of delivering shareholder value. and the growing dependency of consumers upon brands for their sense of meaning and esteem enables companies to extract rents from this dependence.hugh willmott is research professor in organization studies, cardiff business school. he has previously held professorial positions at the universities of cambridge and manchester and visiting appointments at the universities of copenhagen, lund and cranfield. he has published twenty books including managing knowledge, management lives, studying management critically, fragmenting work. he has a strong interest in the application of social theory, especially poststructuralist thinking, to the field of management and business. he published widely in social science and management journals, including academy of management review, administrative science quarterly, sociological review and sociology. further details can be found on his homepage : /town/close/hr22/hcwhomepaper abstractsin alphabetical ordertime and value in a work- world of the futurelisa adkins, goldsmiths, university of london the future of work is, it seems, back on the sociological agenda, with a number of writers such as ulrich beck to name just one, predicting, mapping and modelling potential work scenarios. in this talk i w