Productive Futures: The Political Economy of Science Fiction
Thu 12 Sep 2019 9:30 AM - Sat 14 Sep 2019 5:30 PM BST
Birkbeck School of Arts, 43 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PD
Description
Keynote speakers: Dr. Caroline Edwards, Dr. Joan Haran
Guests of honour: Aliette de Bodard, Zen Cho, Tade Thompson
The history of science fiction (SF) is a history of unreal economics: from asteroid mining to interstellar trade, from robotic workforces to utopian communes, from the abolition of money and property to techno-capitalist tragedies of the near future.
This three day conference will bring together people who read, study and write science fiction in a way which interrogates the economics of the genre. In the sex-work of replicants, the criminal ventures of digital cowboys, the domestic labour of the housewives of galactic suburbia, the life-cycles of titanic sandworms with magic spice in their bellies, SF reimagines what is meant by ‘economics.’ These networks – of workers, waged and unwaged, of the objects they produce, consume and are in many instances comprised of, and of the various financial and material systems they occupy – provide the field in which the economics of SF are negotiated. This is a field in which the legacies of slavery, the continued machinations of empire and the commodification of bodies is laid bare and recast in the hopes of imagining economic systems whose material, embodied reality would not be predicated on alienation and exploitation but on the production of new and better futures. These are the futures we hope to imagine, together.
We want this event to be as accessible as possible, particularly to those among us who are the most disadvantaged by the ongoing cruelties of the current economic systems in which we are forced to live our lives. To this end we are offering free tickets to this event to anyone in financial hardship. We ask those of you who are able to, who are in full time, stable employment, or who have institutional support to contribute towards the cost of the event. Your money will go towards light refreshments, covering the expenses incurred by our design team and paying the travel costs of our invited speakers. It is of central importance to us that those who work outside of academia who have chosen to lend us their time and labour do not go out of pocket.
If we are to imagine better economic futures we must acknowledge the economics of the universities in which we work. While we are very grateful for the financial support offered by Birkbeck's Centre of Contemporary Literature we are not institutionally affiliated and thus do rely on your support in this regard.
This event is open to all. It will be a space in which people are invited to freely discuss their ideas in a respectful and friendly manner. We ask participants to be mindful that others around them might not share their background and to come ready to learn as well as to teach. Racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny and ableism are persistent issues within academia and we encourage participants to keep these issues in mind when asking questions, making statements and thinking about how much time and space they are occupying.
There is step free access to the venue, with full accessibility information available here: https://www.accessable.co.uk/venues/school-of-arts
Gender neutral toilets will be available at the event and you are encouraged not to assume the pronouns of your fellow delegates. Unfortunately we will not be able to provide lunch but there will be vegan and gluten free options among the snacks provided.
Please let us know if you have any accessibility needs or dietary requirements that you feel require our attention.
Location
Birkbeck School of Arts, 43 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PD