Reconfiguring Freedom for the Future

Workshop with Wendy Brown and Eva von Redecker

23 May 2025, 10am - 6pm

The Institute for Czech Literature, Seminar room on the ground floor (dolní sál)
Na Florenci 3, Prague 1

If you would like to attend this workshop, please register by sending an email to cetep@flu.cas.cz by 19 May 2025.

Organisers: Iwona Janicka and Jan Bierhanzl

In modern times, the concept of freedom has driven human emancipation, and yet been closely entwined with the idea of dominion over things, people, and non-human lives. What is more, the capitalist system has universalized the concept of the commodity, which provides a rationale for the extraction of maximum profit from resources and labour alike. The response of contemporary politics to the neoliberal exacerbation of these inherent tendencies of Western modernity is manifested in various forms, some of which are more alarming than others. These include, for instance, phenomena described by Eva von Redecker as ‘phantom possession’ or the domination of politics by nihilism, as discussed by Wendy Brown. In light of the climate crisis and the unsustainability of the capitalist way of life, it is imperative that the fundamental principles of modern philosophical, political, and ethical systems be re-examined, with a particular focus on the concept of freedom.

The objective of this seminar is to reconsider the relationship between democracy and the climate crisis in dialogue with two prominent thinkers – Wendy Brown and Eva von Redecker – in order to propose alternatives to the prevailing destructive ways of life. In the face of climate disruption, how will an emerging responsibility for life affect politics? How can the non-human articulate its needs? How can we practice ‘reparative democracy’ (Wendy Brown) and a ‘revolution for life’ (Eva von Redecker)? What politics of counter catastrophe can be undertaken collectively today?

Programme

10.15 – 10.30 Welcome from the organizers (Iwona Janicka, Jan Bierhanzl)

10.30 – 12.00 Re-Evaluating our Approaches to Failure

Josefína Formanová (Charles University Prague)
“Breaching Apathy—Apprehending Loss: On Value-Creating Failures”

Jorge Arjona (University of Pardubice, Czech Republic)
“Queer Joy, or How Not to Give in to the Catastrophe of Queer Failure” 

Marie Petersmann (LSE Law School, UK) 
“Re-Pairing Ecologies of Harm” 

12.00 – 13.00 Lunch

13.00 – 14.30 Repairing Practices

Rose Troll (WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Germany)
“Considering Ambivalence: Answers to the Climate Crisis” 

Lucia Rončíková (Charles University Prague)
“Re-Existence as Counter-Catastrophic Practice from Ruins of the Post-Uprising Chile”

Robert Řepka (Charles University Prague)
“Troubled Mountains. High Tatras in Late Anthropocene”

14.30 – 15.00 Coffee break

15.00 – 16.30 Climate Policy, Technology and Democracy

Matilde Leoncelli (University of Pavia, Italy)
“Freedom: Between Democracy and Climate Crisis”

Matyáš Mandík (Charles University Prague)
“Rethinking the Environment, Democracy, and Artificial Intelligence”

Cassiopea Staudacher (University of Hamburg, Germany)
“When Are We? A Sociology of A/Synchronicities in the Nuclear Anthropocene”

16.30 – 17.00 Coffee

17.00 – 18.00 The Aesthetic Dimension of Radical Change

Jenny Fadranski (University of Iceland/ Berlin, Germany)
“Socially Engaged Art as Interstitial-Metaleptic Practice. The Role of Sensibilities in Reconfiguring Freedom” 

Sabrina Muchová (Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences)
“Aesthetic Utopia and the Possibility of Social Change”

18.00 End

This one-day workshop is aimed at junior scholars: graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and early career academics, who would like to present their work and receive constructive feedback from Wendy Brown and Eva von Redecker. We encourage junior scholars to join us for this event as attendees. Please register if you would like to join us.