A public lecture by Prof NICK COULDRY: GOLDSMITHS, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON WEDNESDAY, 17 FEBRUARY 2010, 6 for 6.30pm Room 411, Building 2, UTS (Enter via Tower Building 1)

This talk will start out from the way neoliberal discourse’s absolute prioritization of market functioning over and above other political and social values generates a crisis of voice in what we might call neoliberal democracies, a crisis that operates along many dimensions: in the economic sphere, in politics, and in culture. After outlining aspects of that multiple crisis, I will explore what values are available from which a counter-rationality (in Wendy Brown’s term) to neoliberal discourse can be developed.; in this, I will draw on various sources from Amartya Sen’s criticism of the assumptions of neoliberal economics to Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition. While drawing particularly on the dilemmas faced within the UK’s governance culture, I will reflect also on their relevance for other countries which have adopted neoliberal discourse to a significant degree. I will end by reflecting on the implications of my argument for current priorities for media and cultural studies research.

Nick Couldry is Professor of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London and Director of its Centre for the study of Global Media and Democracy. He is the author or editor of eight books including most recently Media Consumption and Public Engagement: Beyond the Presumption of Attention (Palgrave 2007, new edition February 2010, co-authors Sonia Livingstone and Tim Markham), Media Events in a Global Age (Routledge 2009, coedited with Andreas Hepp and Friedrich Krotz) and Listening Beyond the Echoes: Media Ethics and Agency in an Uncertain World . (Paradigm 2006). His next book is Why Voice Matters: Culture and Politics After Neoliberalism (Sage June 2010).

Prof Couldry’s public lecture is funded by the ARC’s Cultural Research Network and hosted by the Transforming Cultures Research Centre, UTS. Please join us for a drink before the lecture.

All welcome. See you there.