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February 11, 2007
This is a report of an LSE conference, whose aim was assess ‘the enduring values of the twentieth century radical tradition’ in the face of today’s ‘technocratic management of a society whose basic foundations now go almost unquestioned’. Or, in another formulation, the aim is to undertake a reformulation of the project of radical politics in the face of contemporary administered technocratic capitalism, based on an engagement which requires more than the politics of the barricade.
Will Legget says that Michael Rustin grappled with the question of how to both engage with and challenge Blair’s coalition. He captured the ambivalence of sensing that much of the ‘modernizing project’ may be beneficial, and yet simultaneously damaging to the intrinsic value of its object. Take higher education: yes, we want graduates to be ‘employable’; to develop ‘transferable skills’; to be equipped’. But what effect does this encroachment of the market have on the aim of education for its own sake? Ultimately, this discussion reached an impasse. How can we challenge the logic of modernisation whilst being bound up with it?
Immanent critique is one answer. However, this kind of response was generally met with cynicism or confusion at the conference.
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