Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Reconstruction 10.3 (Fall 2010): Inventions of Activism

Reconstruction Vol. 10, No. 3, 2010: Inventions of Activism
Edited by Michael Benton, and Alan Clinton



Editorial Statement

"Inventions of Activism" solicited a variety of work which looks to activism as a broad array of creative practices yet to be defined. We sought not to revisit debates between theory and practice, but to view activism as a form of invention which may lead to new cultural formations.

The editors wanted this issue itself to be a form of activism inasmuch as it brings together a set of theorized practices in the form of case studies from the present and the past, a community of minds in both its contributors and subsequent readers. We also encouraged contributors to look to problem areas that have not yet been addressed or not addressed sufficiently, and to propose new models of cultural intervention.

Ultimately, we hope that activists of all kinds will view this issue as a form of potlatch that may lead to new practice and theory, new activist communities. Based upon the wealth of perspectives represented in this issue, we feel that this goal has been achieved, although its trajectories remain to be seen. We would like to see more submissions to Reconstruction related to activism, and more inventions of activism occurring beyond the ken of this journal. This issue is dedicated to all the amazing inventors who contributed to it.

"In Memoriam: Howard Zinn," by Michael Benton and Michael Marchman
Special Features

Mark Nowak on Activist Poetics

Chronicles in the First Person Plural: An Interview with Mark Nowak, by Alan Clinton

Neoliberalism, Collective Action, and the American MFA Industry, by Mark Nowak. reprinted from Workers of the Word: Unite and Fight! (Palm Press, 2005

Roderick Coover's Canyonlands

Desert Interventions, by Roderick Coover, Hikmet Loe, Larry McCaffery and Lance Newman

Interview with Ken Sleight
Interview with Jack Loeffler
Interview with Jim Stiles

From Micah White (of Adbusters)
Notes toward a Future of Activism: Introducing 25 years of Struggle

Barbara Foley on Struggle Magazine, Proletarian Literature Today

Tim Hall, Editor of Struggle

Writing of Struggle: Featuring Greg Norton, Paris Smith, and Tim Hall.
Articles

Guillermo Gómez-Peña: A "New Age Shaman" in a Bohemian Theme Park, by Gretchen Coombs

Constructing the Shitting Citizen, by Deanna Grant-Smith

Fighting for Health: A Comparative Look at Disease Activism by Marcus Schulzke

From Slacker to Revolutionary: Generation X and the Rise of the Global Justice Movement, by Benjamin Balthaser

Ethical Spectacle: Memorial in a Time of War, by Jeff Nall, Florida Atlantic University

Creative Tactics and Union Politics, by Roberta Buiani

Politicising Queer Issues and Activism: Disciplinarity, Biopolitics and the Means by which Activist Issues Enter the Public Sphere, by Dr Rob Cover

Reminiscences: Locating the Traumatic Object, by Emily Leger

Activism as Fetishism: a pamphlet essay for Activists, by Ann Deslandes

How Iranians Turned Me into an Activist, by Tori Egherman
Reviews

The MC5 and Social Change: A Study in Rock and Revolution, by Mathew J. Bartkowiak. Review by Marc Ouellette

Comrades: A History of World Communism by Robert Service. 2007. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Xviii+571 pp. $US35.00. Review by Jeff Shantz

Design Activism: Beautiful Strangeness for a Sustainable World by Alastair Fuad-Luke. Review by Joana Meroz

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