This seminar series engages with feminist theory in media and communication studies to rediscover older and forgotten ways of knowing and thinking about these issues, and to imagine alternative ways of communicating in an era marked by global crises and armed conflicts. It is organized by the Department of Communication (IKO), Lund University, in cooperation with researchers from Goldsmiths, University of London.

 

Theorizing Interdependence, Envisioning a Politics of Care

In this talk, Catherine Rottenberg charts key themes that have preoccupied her over the past decade – from neoliberal feminism to interdependence. She discusses how her interrogation of neoliberal feminism attempted to understand and theorize forms of governance and domination. She outlines her more recent work on the politics of care, focusing on the notion of interdependence. Offering a more robust theory of interdependence is key to reorienting our political vocabulary and practice in order to develop an emancipatory lexicon that cuts across identity claims and can more effectively challenge the hegemony of liberal imaginaries. She concludes by sketching possible alternatives to our violent present by drawing on The Care Manifesto’s feminist, queer, anti-racist and eco-socialist vision.

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Catherine Rottenberg is a Professor at the Department of Media, Communication and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London. Her research is concerned with understanding and theorizing forms of governance and domination. This concern stems from her belief that to cultivate and orient practices and policies toward a vision of social justice, we must continuously interrogate how power, privilege and domination operate.