3rd International LAVITS Symposium Surveillance, Tecnopolitics, Territories

13th – 15th May 2015. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

We invite researchers, scholars, activists and artists to submit an extended abstract to the 3rd International LAVITS Symposium that, in addition to its general theme, considers contributions in the following key topics:

• Big Data, surveillance and tecnopolitics
• Surveillance, political protests and urban demonstrations
• Mega events and surveillance
• Web, Deep Web and Internet of Things: tracking and surveillance
• Activism and counter surveillance: cryptography, hacktivism, tecnopolitics
• Artistic practices and surveillance aesthetics
• Work an surveillance
• Body, affect and surveillance
• Identification, biometry and surveillance
• Smart City and Smart Surveillance
• Mobile and wearable surveillance: drones, GPS, smartphones, integrated cameras etc.
• Privacy, personal data and information control
• Consumer surveillance
• Self-monitoring technologies and control
• Histories, memories and archives of surveillance
• Regulating surveillance and data protection in Latin America
• Snowden, NSA and mass surveillance: impacts in Latin America
• Surveillance and military dictatorship in Latin America
• Surveillance market in Latin America: public-private connections
• Tecnopolitics and surveillance in Latin America: concepts, methodologies and case studies
• Social Control, territory and surveillance in Latin America

More info: http://lavitsrio2015.medialabufrj.net/en/

STATE OF EXCEPTION IN GOIÁS

Official Statement of the PROLUTA Research Project

 

State of Exception in Goiás, Brazil

The Activism Research Program in Comparative Perspective (PROLUTA) of the Federal University of Goiás expresses its disavowal and indignation before offensive acts to the democracy and respect for civil rights perpetrated by the public authorities - Executive, Judiciary and Public Prosecutor’s Office - of the State of Goiás, against four undergraduate students who participated in peaceful protests in favor of the reduction of bus fares in the state capital.

At six o'clock a.m., May 23^th, 2014, the Civil Police of the state of Goiás triggered an operation called "2.80", with the intention of putting down peaceful activists who demand reasonable rates of the public urban transportation. Four students, with ages between 18 and 19, had their homes stormed, in fulfillment of search and seizure and arrest warrants issued by the 7^th Criminal Court of Goiânia. One of these students, Ian Caetano de Oliveira, is a researcher of Proluta and nationally known for his discipline, earnestness and academic aptitude.

The students had their homes stormed by police officers and, among other objects supposedly identified as criminal evidence, they seized academic books, such as “Rebel Cities" published by renowned Brazilian publisher Boitempo. The students were later handcuffed in clear disregard for the Binding Judicial Precedent number 11 of the Brazilian Supreme Court, and they were taken to a police station specialized in organized crimes, where they were sent to a common prison, where they remain up to this day.

The criminal investigation underlying the pre-trial detention of the students is Kafkaesque. There is no evidence whatsoever regarding the alleged conduct of the students, just some compilations of pamphlets and flyers advocating changes in the pricing policy of public transportation, extracted from social networks. Conversely, there is plenty reference to the "subversive" qualities in their practices and the characterization of the Fighting Front against Bus Fare Increase as a "criminal organization". Yes, in 2014 young students are in a prison, with no prospect of release, just because they participated, peacefully, in some social manifestations.

PROLUTA blames the Executive and the Judiciary of the State of Goiás, as well as the Public Prosecutor’s Office, for the process of criminalization of social movements, for restraining the exercise of civil rights and public demonstrations, and for implementing, in this federative unit, a state of exception. We demand the immediate release of the students in regard to constitutional and democratic order that was and still is severely violated.

Reflections on Feminism and Social Movements.

Mark Becker is a Professor at Truman State University and discusses here about how a feminist group in Nicaragua has achievements and challenges.
He writes about how feminism stands for gender equality, since the two roles of both genres in society are equally important; and the strength of feminism seems to be mostly in urban areas, with little or no affect in rural ones.
His research in Nicaragua shows the life of women in a group that aims feminine improvement in society, by teaching them how to keep a garden, read, etc.
Despite these development, it is known that exists plenty of discrimination, and men still run most of that society, especially politically.

Psychoanalysis and Social Sciences

The following article is written by Professor and researcher Eugène Enriquez as an attempt to demonstrate the relations between psychoanalysis and social sciences. Defending that it's not possible to think in a psychoanalysis seperate from the social space in which it's own subject is comprised of. Also will be approached how one assures his place in the social dynamics, which is "a place one should invest narcissistically to continue the tradition or fight it".

(Text in Portuguese) Psicanálise e Ciências Sociais

Hacktivism and Cyberwars: Rebels with a cause?

"As global society becomes more and more dependent, politically and economically, on the flow of information, the power of those who can disrupt and manipulate that flow also increases. In Hacktivism and

Cyberwars: Rebels with a cause? Tim Jordan and Paul A. Taylor provide a detailed history of hacktivism’s evolution from early hacking culture to its present-day status as the radical face of online politics. They describe the ways in which hacktivism has re-appropriated hacking techniques to create an innovative new form of political protest. A full explanation is given of the different strands of hacktivism and the ‘cyberwars’ it has created, ranging from such avant-garde groups as the Electronic Disturbance Theatre to more virtually focused groups labelled ‘the digitally correct’. The full social and historical context of hacktivism is

portrayed to take into account its position in terms of new social movements, direct action and its contribution to the globalisation debate. This book provides an important corrective flipside to

mainstream accounts of e-commerce and broadens the conceptualisation of the Internet to take into full account the other side of the digital divide."

Tim Jordanis a Lecturer in Sociology at the Open University and Paul A. Taylor is a Senior Lecturer in the Institute for Communication Studies at the University of Leeds.

Available here

Electronic Civil Desobedience

This article by Stefan Wray discuss the genealogy of the cyberactivism. From the earlier days of activists networks to the direct actions in the late 1990's, Wray gives a good first look at the movement. An essential piece of work for discussions about the present and the future of cyberactivism.

Link: http://switch.sjsu.edu/web/v4n2/stefan/

Putin's Khanate: How Moscow is trying to integrate crimean muslims

On the following link, Rober D. Crews will briefly defend how the Crimean crisis correlates with the Islam's role in Russia.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141105/robert-d-crews/putins-khanate

Ocupy New York: digital reflexes

An empirical study available here presents data about the posts of O.N.Y movement adherents on Twitter. The periodic analysed embraces a fifteen months period, initiated three months before the beginning of the protest. One of the results found is that, during the time, the number of people in the
movement was decreasing. Another discovery was that allusions to revolutionary movements wasn't too much significant; among another things.

(blog) Activists and Scholars debate Social Movements and Social Change

With the purpose of enhancing dialogue between scholars and activists, the Mobilizing Ideas blog has published interdisciplinary perspectives on social movements, social change and public sphere, featuring original essayas responding to a wide variety of concerning issues.

Violent state repression is currently the debated issue, and the idea is to provoke reflection on some of these questions in light of contemporaray cases: How does repression affect future protest? How do states decide to engage in violent repression? What responses are available to protestors? And, does the type of protestor or the cause matter for who is repressed?

Founded in August 2011, Mobilizing Ideas is hosted by the Center for the Study of Social Movements at Notre Dame. Check it out here.

Istiván Mészáros - The state's conundrum and Lukács' concept of dialectic

Professor Istiván Mészáros was in Goiânia/Brazil on November 2013 doing a lecture for his book's premiere in Brasil (Lukács' concept of Dialectic, originally released on 1972), but discoursing mostly about his recent research object, that is: The State. About this he has a six-years-long project - of which he already did three - articulating a grave critic of the state.

The following video is a non-complete recording of the lecture, but have most of that.
He talks large part of the time in English, but how it was in Brasil, you'll have to deal with the
simultaneous translation, but it worths.

  

Žižek, Assange and the cyber-activism

Žižek talking about the experience that he had when meet Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder; about the persecution suffered by Assange; about the perspectives of socialization of information with the internet; and about cyber-activism in general.

Click Here!

The congregation's disbelief and the sunset of a cult. Löwy about the capitalism's dynamic and the protests

The French-Brazilian thinker Michael Löwy, grounded in the theories of Marx and Walter Benjamim, among others, does an analysis about the contemporary capitalistic global conjuncture linking this with the protests in Brazil and Europe. (the text is in Portuguese)

Click Here!

Europe - Page with news about the Europian continent

A Facebook page that brings news and analysis about the Europe, specially crises, uprisings and its relations with the social-political situation of the continent

Click Here

World Protests 2006-2013

A great study about the protests and uprisings that occurred in the world since 2006 was elaborated by Isabel Ortiz, Sara Burke, Mohamed Berrada and Hernán Cortés. The study embraces 843 protests, in 87 countries, which means about 90% of the global population. The material can be accessed in the following link

Click Here!

David Harvey - Totalitarian Democracy

The British geographer David Harvey talking about the actuality of his book, the limits of capital, released thirty years ago, and also talking about the economic crises and its relation with the riots of last year. (the interview is in Portuguese)

Click here!

students' strike in Canada

The following link leads to an interesting book review dedicated to the students' strikes in Canada on 2012 as remarkable anti-austerity struggles.

Click Here!

Mészáros, the today's Marxism, the crises and the protests

An interview with the Hungarian thinker István Mészáros, that, among other topics, talks about his new book, his experience as pupil and friend of György Lukács, about the contemporary crises of capitalism and, also, the protests that occurred in Brasil, USA and other countries.

Click Here!