An international, multi-disciplinary conference hosted by the School of
                              English, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK


                                                   Keynote speakers:
                                       Douglas Kellner (UCLA, USA)
                                     John Armitage (Northumbria, UK)

Theories of contemporary culture have foregrounded the significance of ‘late capitalism’ or ‘post-Fordism’ (Jameson; Harvey); simulation and ‘hyper-reality’ (Baudrillard); information technology and the ‘inhuman’ (Lyotard); the ‘panopticon’ (Foucault); ‘communicative action’ (Habermas); ‘desiring-production’ and schizophrenia (Deleuze and Guattari); risk (Ulrich Beck); and the cyborg (Haraway).

An alternative theorisation – which intersects with these perspectives, but diverges from them – views acceleration as the defining feature of the contemporary era. The French cultural theorist Paul Virilio has coined the term ‘dromocracy’ (from the Greek dromos: avenue or race course) to characterise this position. Under Virilio’s ‘dromocratic’ reading of history, scientific, technological, societal, military, and cultural change is propelled by the pursuit of ever-increasing speed. Our own era – with its fibre-optic cables, satellite-linked communications networks, supersonic aircraft, and cruise missiles – is, Virilio suggests, approaching the limits of acceleration, and teeters on the edge of the ‘integral accident’ – the true end of modernity.

This conference invites papers that explore any aspect of what the social theorist John Armitage – re-orientating Lyotard’s famous assessment of the contemporary – has called the ‘dromocratic condition’. What are the key characteristics of the contemporary culture of acceleration? How has the pursuit of speed impacted upon contemporary subjectivity, upon strategies of warfare and terrorism, or upon experiences of space and time? How have theorists, activists, writers, artists, and filmmakers responded to the speed-up of contemporary life? Is there necessarily a connection between speed and destruction, or can high-speed technologies serve a progressive or radical agenda? Is speed truly, as Virilio has claimed, ‘the location and the law, the world’s destiny and its destination’, or do movements exist that offer viable alternatives to the contemporary culture of acceleration?

The organisers envisage that a special issue of the journal Cultural Politics will result from the papers at the conference.

Registration and Programme information is now available on this site.

Accommodation

Online accommodation for this conference has now closed. If you are planning to attend and have not yet booked a room, please contact one of the conference hotels direct:

Caledonian Hotel:               +44 (0)191 281 7881
Gresham Hotel:                  +44 (0)191 281 6325
Springfield Hotel:                +44 (0)191 477 4121
Swallow Imperial Hotel:       +44 (0)191 281 5511