Turbulence Collective

Turbulence is a writing and publishing project made up of seven people based in four countries and on three continents. We first encountered each other within the counter-globalisation movement. Our hope was to provide an ongoing space in which to think through, debate and articulate the political, social, economic and cultural theories of this ‘movement of movements’, as well as the networks of diverse practices and alternatives that surround it.

We didn’t want to become yet another journal claiming to offer a ‘snapshot of the movement’. Instead we hoped to carve out a space where we can carry on difficult debates and investigations into the political realities of our time – engaging the real differences in vision, analysis and strategy that exist among us.

Several Turbulence publications ( 1, 2,  3) are available or forthcoming from PM Press.
Our website is: www.turbulence.org.uk

Turbulence are: David Harvie, Keir Milburn, Tadzio Mueller, Rodrigo Nunes, Michal Osterweil, Kay Summer, Ben Trott

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Praise

“Where is the movement today? Where is it going? Are we winning? The authors of the essays in this volume pose these and other momentous questions. There are no easy answers, but the discussion is always insightful and provocative as the writers bravely take on the challenge of charting the directions for the Left at a time of ecological crisis, economic collapse, and political disillusionment.” —Walden Bello, Executive Director of Focus on the Global South

“Turbulence presents an exciting brand of political theorising that is directed and inspired by current strategic questions for activism. This kind of innovative thinking, which emerges from the context of the movements, opens new paths for rebellion and the creation of real social alternatives.” —Michael Hardt, co-author of Commonwealth, Multitude and Empire.

“The history of the past half-century and particularly the last decade is as easily told as a series of victories as defeats, maybe best as both. Sometimes we won–and this is what makes the What Does It Mean to Win? anthology such a powerful vision of the possible and the seldom-seen present. The authors of this book connect some of the more remarkable events of the last decade–in Oaxaca, in the banlieus of Paris, in the crises of neoliberalism–into a constellation of possibilities and demands, demands on the world but also demands on the readers, to think afresh of what is possible and what it takes to get there. As one author begins, ‘The new movements embodied and posited deliberate reactions to the practical and theoretical failures of previous political approaches on the left.’ This is the book about what came after the failures, and what’s to come”
—Rebecca Solnit, author of Hope in the Dark and A Paradise Built in Hell.

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About

CONTENTS
1)    ‘Introduction: Present Tense, Future Conditional’ by Turbulence
2)    ‘1968 and Paths to New Worlds’ by John Holloway
3)    ‘The Politics of Starvation: From Ancient Egypt to the Present’ by George Caffentzis
4)    ‘6 Impossible Things Before Breakfast: Antagonism, Neoliberalism and Movements’ by The Free Association
5)    ‘Global Capitalism: Futures and Options’ by Christian Frings
6)    ‘The Measure of a Monster: Capital, Class, Competition and Finance’ by David Harvie
7)    ‘The Abolition of the Parliamentary Left in Italy’ by Sandro Mezzadra, with an Introduction by Keir Milburn and Ben Trott
8)    ‘There is No Room for Futurology; History Will Decide’ by Felix Guattari, with an Introduction by Rodrigo Nunes and Ben Trott
9)    ‘This is Not My First Apocalypse’ by Fabian Frenzel and Octavia Raitt
10)   ‘The Movement is Dead, Long Live the Movement!’ by Tadzio Mueller
11)   ‘Network Politics for the 21st Century’ by Harry Halpin and Kay Summer

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About

Whether it’s the G8 summit at Heiligendamm or experiments in Latin America, the politics of climate change or uprisings in the French banlieues, questions of visibility and illumination crop up again and again. But our experiences create their own luminosity, and their own areas of darkness. How can we overcome our night-blindness once we move beyond the familiar?

Book Events

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Reviews

• What Would It Mean to Win? in Social Movement Studies Journal
• What Would It Mean to Win? in Radical Philosophy Journal
• What Would It Mean to Win: A Review
• The Turbulence Collective’s What Would It Mean to Win?
• Red Pepper Book Review: Turbulent Tome
• After the Occupation

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Interviews

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Mentions

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Blog