Reading Evald Ilyenkov
Friday, 22th of November 2024
tranzit. ro/Cluj,
Napoca str, no 16, 1st floor, Cluj Napoca
Evald Ilyenkov (1924-1979) is the most important Soviet Marxist philosopher of the postwar. He has written on a large gamut of subjects, from problems of theoretical philosophy, theory of knowledge, the concepts of the “abstract” and the “concrete”, the “ideal”, and the universal, to Marx’s materialist dialectical method in Capital, problems of cybernetics, automation, machine-thinking, to problems of pedagogy, theory of education, psychology, human mind, and ethics and aesthetics. Ilyenkov can be considered the philosophical originator of what is known as “activity theory” in the Soviet Union, which in its turn precedes what is known as Cultural-Historical Activity Theory internationally nowadays. The concepts, ideas and theories of Ilyenkov have influenced generations of younger philosophers from the 1950s to present in Eastern Europe, while recently enjoying an increased attention in the anglophone world.
The aim of these monthly reading seminars is to closely familiarize the participants with the key concepts and theories developed by Ilyenkov with the hope of utilizing them in the face of contemporary polycrisis.
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Upcoming: The fifth edition of Ecologies of Emancipation – Imminent horizon: fascism or imperialism?
Organizational work of the fifth edition of the Ecologies of Emancipation summer school has begun. The school will take place at the hypha_etc campsite in Câmpu Cetății, between 10-16 August 2025.
The latest political and geopolitical developments, local and global, seem to confront us with a threatening double horizon: an accelerated slide towards fascism, or an equally precipitous retreat into imperialism - with all the overlaps, complicities and continuities between them. On the one side, then, a European democratic establishment that can only articulate its immediate future by renouncing the last remnants of a distributist state and democratic appearances, in a general arms race that promises nothing but authoritarianism and austerity at home, and devastating inter-imperialist conflicts on a global scale. On the other side, a populist insurgent bloc with deep roots and complicity in the very systems and apparatuses of Euro-Atlantic democracies, which is no longer shy in displaying its assumed fascism, and which promises, just as grimly, a harsh regime of austerity and authoritarianism at home, coupled with an equally provocative and bellicose attitude abroad, only in the name of a different set of values.
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Marxism in the Sciences: Toward an International Critical Knowledge Network
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION /
Marxism & Sciences Journal, in collaboration with tranzit.ro/cluj, organises its second symposium at the hypha_etc campsite in Câmpu Cetății (Romania) between 1–6 September, which attempts to foster a forum for discussing the chances for collectively building up an international network of projects in particular pertaining to Radical Science and Art activism, Socialist Heritage Studies and Critical Contemporary Research.
In today’s situation, when Marxist thought seems ‘undead’ and has retreated to the academic realm, all we offer, it seems, are attempts at dissemination of ideas and publication projects (book series, journals etc.). We want to discuss what can be done about it and how that ‘retreat’ is not fortuitous, since Marxist terminology seems indispensable especially in the realm of ‘knowledge production’ and ‘knowledge economy’. We would like to discuss the possibility of building up a platform of exchange, education and information that goes beyond a collection of papers, pamphlets, and books that describe the situation, but to actively connect local grassroots activism and global academic and artistic research. The split of the realms seems to be a major obstacle to us nowadays. This aim in mind we should start in the fields we already work in.
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POLYCRISES ACROSS DIVIDES
29 - 31 August 2024
Historical Materialism Cluj/Kolozsvár 2024
The first edition of Historical Materialism Cluj/Kolozsvár will take place between 29-31of August 2024, in Cluj-Napoca:
https://hmcluj2024.conference.ubbcluj.ro/
Open call for participation
1st of February - 1st of April 2024
The conference is organized by the Babeș-Bolyai University in partnership with Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory and tranzit.ro/Cluj.
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Marxism & Ecology Summer School
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION now open until the 15th of May /
Câmpu Cetății, Mureș County, Romania
𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟐𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐮𝐠𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟗𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐮𝐠𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒
With 𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐲 𝐕𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐞, 𝐊𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐇𝐮𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐝, 𝐀𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐚 𝐒𝐳𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐢 and 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬
Call for Participants open until the 𝟏𝟓𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒.
It is easy to grow numb to the litany of environmental devastation in recent years. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic killed thirty million people; atmospheric CO2 stands fifty per cent higher than two centuries ago (currently 423.6 ppm); wildfires rage in Chile and Argentina, while 11,300 people were killed by an overnight flood in Derna; less than a tenth of the world’s plastic is recycled; over 75 billion livestock animals are killed every year; the number of coastal ‘dead zones’ increased from 10 in 1960 to 415 in 2023; the US government declared twenty-one species formerly found in its territory extinct in 2023. One can go on, and on, and on.
At the same time, the last thirty years has seen the development of sophisticated radical critiques of environmental degradation and the ‘capitalocene’, the need for struggle to achieve transformation in response to the continued failure of centrists to achieve meaningful reform.
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Summer school: GREEN LINE: decentralisation, decoupling, degrowth
CALL for PARTICIPATION
open until the 30th of June 2024.
The summer school take place in the period:
29 July - 4 August 2024
hypha_etc, Câmpu Cetății, Mures county
The Green Line Summer School is aimed at students interested in the video essay as a form of argumentation and communication on the one hand, and the green transition as a subject on the other. The school is open to students regardless of field of study and previous experience.
We expect students from both STEM and socio-humanities backgrounds, as well as high school seniors, to attend the school. There is no registration fee. We offer free accommodation in 4-6 bedded rooms, up to a maximum of 24 beds, plus free camping space. Travel expenses (train or bus) can be covered up to 130 RON.
Those wishing to participate are asked to send a letter of motivation by 30 June to telefonulfarafir2023@gmail.com.
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ANTIDOXA_7 – Reading group GMT
13 May2024, 6 p.m
tranzit. ro/Cluj, Napoca str, no 16, 1st floor, Cluj Napoca
[The event is held in Hungarian]
„The desirable goal of politics can be defined in philosophical terms by reflecting on what is Evil, the root cause of human suffering.” (New Eastern European Left)
„Hippies, punks, antifas.
Feather merchants and shirkers.
Niggers. Lesbians. Anarchists. Jewish commies.” (Dawn contemplation on communism and more)
There are many opinions about the thinking of Gáspár Miklós Tamás. Is there a political truth to be gleaned from his writings that goes beyond opinions? Once a month, we read a text from Gáspár Miklós Tamás' book „Antitézis” together, interpret it, discuss and debate it.
On the 13th of May, we will discuss "On solidarity". This time the discussion is led by Erőss Réka.
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REVISITING STATE SOCIALISM VIII
Thursday, 11th of April, 2024, 7 p.m
"Lucian Blaga" University Library from Sibiu/ Str. Lucian Blaga, no. 2A
tranzit. ro/Cluj in partnership with Babes Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca and "Lucian Blaga" University Library from Sibiu invites you to a lecture and discussion within the project
"Philosophy in Late Socialist Europe: Theoretical Practices in the Face of Polycrisis" on the topic of the polycrisis of the 1970s -1980 with the title
„Reframing Sovereign Power in Late Socialist Romania: Crisis, Militarism and the Nationalist Turn”.
The meeting is moderated by Ștefan Baghiu.
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REVISITING STATE SOCIALISM VII
March 28, 2024, 7 pm
tranzit. ro/Cluj, 16 Napoca str., Cluj-Napoca
We invite you to join our series of conferences at tranzit.ro/Cluj partnered by Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj under the project Philosophy in Late Socialist Europe: Theoretical Practices in the Face of Polycrisis.
The seventh meeting is chaired by Siyaves Azeri.
Una Blagojević
„Post-War ‘Crisis of Marxism’: Insights from Yugoslav Marxist Revisionists”
In my talk, I discuss the ‘crisis of Marxism’ and ‘crisis of socialism’ by looking at the example of Yugoslav Marxist Revisionists. Their discourses of crisis encompassed debates on the crisis of epistemology, the crisis of subjectivity, and the crisis of philosophy taking place in Western European intellectual circles. The disorientation and atomization of the human being—phenomena they adopted and adjusted from the analysis of Western technological societies—inevitably led to a disintegration of Yugoslav society, alongside the latent growth of ethnonational affirmations in the early 1970s. I point out how their conceptual framework of crisis facilitated the adoption of integral ethnonationalist philosophical and political positions.
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ANTIDOXA_6 – Reading Group GMT
18th of march 023, 6 p.m
Address:tranzit. ro/Cluj,
Napoca str, no 16, 1st floor, Cluj Napoca
[The event is held in Hungarian]
On the 18th of March, we will discuss two sections of „Truth and Class”, entitled „People, estate and class” and „The truth about class, or class and truth”.
This time the discussion is led by Erőss Réka and Bíró Noémi.
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Revisiting State Socialism VI. Dance music as a metaphor for socialist acceleration in Romania in the 1960s and 1980s.
On 15 March, at 19:00, the sixth edition of the project "Revisiting State Socialism" took place with the title "Dance music as a metaphor for socialist acceleration in Romania in the 60s and 80s". The guests were Paul Breazu and Mihai Lukács, and the meeting was moderated by Ștefan Baghiu.
Socialist time was perceived in the late 1960s as accelerated, no longer corresponding to a linear flow, the sound of factory production being associated with new music that was beginning to incorporate electronic sound. In the following decades, Romanian pop, light and electronic music grew in parallel with the new industrialization and development at speed, becoming a soundtrack of the new material conditions of late socialism. Romanian pop ("light") music branched out in new directions in the early 1970s, and its social character gained momentum for creators and the general public. Composer and music historian Laurențiu Profeta noted in 1976 the emergence of militant light music songs in the later years, many of which became slams, reaching a much wider audience. Seen as a result of the party's ideological programme, which left no artistic sector untouched, social-political light music songs became imposed themselves authoritatively. Socialism was not just an economic project, but a complex that encompassed political, social, cultural and artistic dimensions, so the systemic projection onto a pop sub-genre like dance music was not left to chance.
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András Vigvári: Zártkert-Magyarország
Book Launch in Cluj Napoca /
Thursday, 29th of February, 6 p.m.
Address: tranzit.ro/Cluj, Napoca str, no 16, 1st floor, Cluj Napoca
How do people address the housing crisis? András Vigvári's book deals with the grassroots responses to the housing crisis in Central and Eastern Europe, focusing on the settlement of suburban private agricultural areas. The book presents an ethnographic study of the settlement of a suburban garden area on the outskirts of a town near Budapest, once an agricultural and weekend housing area, and discusses the results of the fieldwork as part of global social and housing processes.
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Marxism in the Sciences: Toward an International Critical Knowledge Network
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION /
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ERSTE Foundation is main partner of tranzit:
