The blog

AIME Workshop on properties/property
Saturday 23 March, 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Goguel meeting room (Salle Goguel) at Sciences Po, Paris.

The Economy plays a crucial role in the assemblage of our inquiry into the modes of existence since its goal is to accompany the move towards an understanding of ecology as an alternative to modernisation. Economic forms are also the forms that mobilise the most sophisticated formalisms, the most fascinating fictional beings and, the most tears! So, it is with this in mind that we have decided to focus our session on the 23 March, on the economic question; taking advantage of the fact that Vincent Lépinay, one of the Inquiry’s mediators will be there. We are interested in the chapters in AIME that deal with the economy and organisation (chapters 14 and 15) with a special focus on the difference between properties in the plural and property in the singular.

The mode of existence [ATT] attempts to capture the innumerable and multiplying properties of objects. However, property presupposes a division between relations to which the Economy, particularly with the use of mathematics and calculations, attempts to render indisputably solid and robust. It appears to us that economic calculations - an odd mixture of [ATT], [ORG] and REF - seem to hold the promise of a sort of closure, however temporary, of the collective. The bottom line of budget managers and accountants has hastily closed, by a simple calculation, the proliferation of attachments that should be the objects of another economy. If we decide to to open up the economy again, the dance of [ATT], [ORG], [REF] and [MOR], could be evaluated in a new light.

We would like to change the format of these discussions so as to remain more faithful to spirit of the how the AIME project is run. So, it is with this in mind, that we would like to put the modes of existence as outlined in these chapters to the test. We will do this by using documents brought in by participants in the workshop, allowing us to support or contradict the numerous examples alluded to in the text (without however, being able to go into great detail). It is with these materials, that we would like to move towards more refined characterisations of how the modes [ATT], [ORG] and MOR are interwoven; as well as examine the problems that these present to the diplomatic task to come.

That said, if you would like to participate in this collaborative workshop on the question of properties/property, simply signing up will not be enough. Before participating, you will have to have to send in (in whatever form you prefer) the document that you would like to start the discussion off with (a piece of text, an image, a story, a file) as well as a short outline of several lines of a passage in the final chapters that you would like to have put to the test. Based on ideas that you send us, we will select those that will allow us to move through the test as well as organize the workshop as quickly and efficiently as possible. So, this is how we would like for you to  participate in this workshop on the 23rd. This procedure, while different to the previous sessions, is really the only way to move beyond the format of a presentation followed by a Q&A session that does not really allow us to head towards the type of inquiry that we would like and that the next update to the site will allow us to develop further still.

To pre-register for the AIME workshop, please send us your document and outline, before Monday, 11 March, to contact[at]modesofexistence[dot]org

Best regards,

The AIME Team

« The research has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC Grant ‘IDEAS’ 2010 n° 269567”