Catégorie : English

Venue: University St. Louis, Auditorium OM 10,

6, rue de l’Ommegang, 1000 Brussels

Simultaneous Translations in French, Dutch and English

Schedule: 9.00 AM – 7.00 PM

29 novembre 2018

He will be at the Forum ! He is italian

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Gianfranco Pasquino holds a degree in Political Science with a specialisation in Comparative Politics. He is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Bologna where he taught from 1969 to 2012. He has received three honorary degrees from the Universities of Buenos Aires, La Plata and Cordoba.

In August 2014, he was named Huésped de honor (1) of the city of Buenos Aires. He was Editor in Chief of the journal Il Mulino (2) and the Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica (3), of which he is a founding member. He is particularly proud to have co-edited with Bobbio and Nicola Matteucci the Dizionario di Politica (4).

From 1983 to 1996 he was Senator of the Italian Republic for the independent and progressive left. He was a member of the Bozzi Commission and one of the champions of the 1991 and 1993 referendums.

He recently published Cittadini senza scettro. Le riforme sbagliate ; La Costituzione in trenta lezioni ; NO positivo. Per la Costituzione. Per le buone riforme. Per migliorare la politica e la vita ; L’Europa in trenta lezioni(5). He is also co-curator of the Oxford Handbook of Italian Politics (6). His latest book is entitled Deficit Democratici (7). Since 2011, he is part of the scientific council of the Italian encyclopedia. And since July 2005, he is a member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.

(1) Honoured Guest.

(2) The Mill.

(3) Italian Journal of Political Science.

(4) Dictionary of Politics, 2016, 4a ed.

(5) Citizens without Sceptre. Bad Reforms (2015); The Constitution in Thirty Lessons (2015); NO Positivo. For the Constitution. For Good Reforms. Improving Politics and Life (2016); Europe in Thirty Lessons (2017).

(6) Italian Policy Manual, 2015.

(7) Democratic Deficits, 2018.

Venue: University St. Louis, Auditorium OM 10,

6, rue de l’Ommegang, 1000 Brussels

Simultaneous Translations in French, Dutch and English

Schedule: 9.00 AM – 7.00 PM

28 novembre 2018

He will be at the Forum ! He is Belgian

Youri Lou Vertongen is a PhD candidate and a FNRS Research Fellow at the Center for Research in Political Science (CReSPo) at the University Saint-Louis Brussels., He has been a research associate at the METICES research centre at the University Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) Since the beginning of 2015.

Yuri Lou is also a co-founder of a think tank called Migrations and Social Struggles. His research focuses on collective mobilizations around migration issues in Belgium and Europe. His thesis project tries to deepen the question of the ethical and strategic articulation between the groups of « undocumented » migrants and the groups of « documented » nationals, within the practices of resistance to the restrictive and repressive measures of Belgian and European migration policies.

Venue: University St. Louis, Auditorium OM 10,

6, rue de l’Ommegang, 1000 Brussels

Simultaneous Translations in French, Dutch and English

Schedule: 9.00 AM – 7.00 PM

28 novembre 2018

He will be at the Forum ! He comes from Paris

EL2

Eric Laurent is a psychoanalyst, psychologist, and holds a Doctorate in psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis with Jacques Lacan. Member of the l’École de la Cause freudienne (ECF). Former president of the World Association of Psychoanalysis (WAP), he teaches at the clinical section of the Department of Psychoanalysis University Paris 8.

Hi Articles and book chapters are translated into dozens of languages. Latest books published: L’envers de la bio-politique (1) La bataille de l’autisme ; de la clinique à la politique (2) (Translated in five languages).

(1) Navarin/Le champ freudien, 2016

(2) Navarin/Le champ freudien, 2012

Venue: University St. Louis, Auditorium OM 10,

6, rue de l’Ommegang, 1000 Brussels

Simultaneous Translations in French, Dutch and English

Schedule: 9.00 AM – 7.00 PM

28 novembre 2018

« Attention to democracy! » by Katty Langelez-Stevens

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In my little previous text, I said how Viktor Klemperer supported a thesis very close to Freud´s, at least as Lacan re-read it. During the twelve years of the German dictatorship, he observes and study how Nazism insinuated itself into the flesh and blood of large numbers through isolated expressions, turns of phrase, syntactic forms that were imposed on millions of copies and which were adopted mechanically and unconsciously. Like psychoanalysts, he thinks that language is the master of thought and not the other way around. The human is subject to the language and his desire is always the desire of the Other, that is to say of what is conveyed by the language. « Language does not just poeticize and think in my place, it also directs my feelings, it governs all my moral, the more naturally that I rely unconsciously on it. The words can be like tiny doses of arsenic: they are swallowed without being careful. » (1)

In order to impose the LTI, Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda of the Third Reich, used newspapers and radios. The Bible of this language was Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf. Then it was widely distributed thanks to the strict control of the media that Goebbels orchestrated. No more question of writing as before, it was necessary to stick to the new vocabulary and the prescribed syntax. In this way, an organized paranoid delusion could spread massively: the Other wicked persecutor, an enemy of the German people was the Jew. This demonized figure allowed all those who felt cheated, frustrated, embittered to assemble against and finally accepted a war in the name of his own defense. Thanks to the language of the Third Reich and its delusional organization around an enemy, the Jew, and a savior, Hitler, the German people wanted to believe that they were attacked and that they could legitimately defend themselves. Paradoxically, what made this destructive collective madness possible is democracy and freedom of expression. In the name of these two eminent principles, the worst enemies of the human race can impose their hateful and twisted rhetoric. Once in power, they quickly take the necessary steps to reduce freedom of expression and lock democracy by attacking the principles of the rule of law. The Polish and Hungarian examples in Europe are very explicit on this subject.

So, should we, or not, frame freedom of expression? Especially the one that rages savagely on the web. Should we, or not, invite representatives of the extreme parties on the TV sets and give them the chance to mass broadcast their simplistic ideas, without ethics or even crime-inducing? Viktor Klemperer regretted that in the 1920s, the Weimar Republic allowed the dissemination, publicity and propagation of Nazi ideas. At a time of instantaneous globalization of information, it may be necessary to find ways to frame and enforce existing laws to punish racist and anti-Semitic statements.

That the most virulent and hateful far-right site is called « Participatory Democracy » should not surprise us since extremists are still Democrats as long as they are not in power. Its title allows them to catch in their nets many misguided naïve.

Many titles of far-right parties in Europe contain either the word democracy or the word liberty. In Germany the NDP (National Democratic Party), in Austria the FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria), in Croatia the Croatian Democratic Alliance of Slavonia and Baranya, in Spain National Democracy is a nationalist and populist party, in the Netherlands The Party for Freedom, in Sweden the Democrats of Sweden. And finally, in the European Parliament, we find The Alliance for Peace and Freedom, a European political movement created in 2015, which brings together various ultra-nationalist movements in Europe and the group Europe of freedom and direct democracy.

The twisted and perverse use of words is also a principle of the LTI. It is up to us today to be vigilant and to denounce these malignantly slips introduced in the language.

(1) Viktor Klemperer, LTI, the language of the Third Reich, Albin Michel, 1976. p. 40.

Translated by Lorena Hojman Davis

27 novembre 2018

She will be at the Forum ! She is from Portugal

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Having arrived in Brussels three years ago, Adriana Costa Santos has been consistently engaged with the Citizen Platform; she had initially joined as a volunteer for a month at Park Maximilian. She reported on her work in the field in a Portuguese daily newspaper, this increased the impact of her presence in Brussels. In 2016 she won a Journalism Award, in the category of Human Rights.

Co-chair with Mehdi Kassou of the Citizen Support Platform for Refugees (BXLRefugees – 10,000 active volunteers and 47,000 members), she coordinates the accommodation (200,000 nights for refugees at citizens’ homes and in shared accommodation as well as the Porte d’Ulysse). On the 19th of October the Platform and its 47,000 citizens, for their contribution to freedom of expression, were honoured in the Senate with the Henri La Fontaine Foundation prize for Humanism, 2018.

Adriana is also studying in Anthropology at ULB. (Downwards Social Mobility among refugees is the theme of her dissertation).

She has co-authored with M. Kassou, the preface to the book Beyond Borders, by F. Gemenne and P. Verbeeren.

Venue: University St. Louis, Auditorium OM 10,

6, rue de l’Ommegang, 1000 Brussels

Simultaneous Translations in French, Dutch and English

Schedule: 9.00 AM – 7.00 PM

(1) https://www.doktersvandewereld.be/politiegeweld-tegen-vluchtelingen-en-migranten-onderweg-belgi%C3%AB

27 novembre 2018

« “Not everything is our responsibility”: the justification of violence » by Evi Verbeke

A recent rapport from Doctors of the World (1) didn’t reveal anything good. Refugees often encounter excessive violence by Belgian police officers. Refugees talk of getting no food for 15 hours after arrests, of beatings and of being locked up in cold cells, almost completely naked. One of the most distressing examples of this violence was probably the death of toddler Mawda, who was shot by a police officer when they followed a van with migrants.

It’s strange that public opinion hardly condemns this violence. Quite the contrary, in most instances violence is justified in different ways. One of these justifications particularly strikes me, and that’s the idea “It may be serious, but not everything is our responsibility”. The West can’t save the whole world so the ‘fortune seekers’ (2) cross the sea at their own risk, being illegal is one’s own choice and so they should be prepared for problems with the police,… This explanation strikes me because I often hear the exact same thing within the context of psychiatry. Patients who for example need long-term care or who don’t fit within regular treatment models, don’t get any help, with the reasoning: “We get it that you need help, but not everything is our responsibility”. The catch is that everybody uses this explanation and so a lot of people don’t get any care and many refugees are stuck in a no man’s land.

I think the word ‘responsibility’ functions as what Lacan called a master signifier. It only refers to itself (why isn’t this our responsibility? Because!) and remains an empty shell. In this way we don’t have to worry about the bad things happening to refugees. By constantly repeating these words, we no longer think about the context of this discourse. When we do start thinking, we notice that it isn’t that simple. Isn’t responsibility a delicate issue? Can we, in this international conflict, blame the individuals who flee, or the totalitarian regimes or the welfare gap between the West and the rest of the world? And even if a single cause was to be found, would it suffice to justify this violence? And if nobody is responsible, should we just do nothing then?

Is it this word, devoid from any context, that causes aggression against refugees? It’s not that straightforward. Like Arendt (3) notices: violence always needs justification and this is why violence can bring about a racist ideology. In this sense, it’s not the empty discourse that causes violence but it’s violence that comes first and discourses serve to justify this violence. And this legitimization is, among other things, found by referring to ‘responsibility’. It fits well within contemporary discourses that preach autonomy, responsibility, making something of your own life, freedom,… as if they were individual ideals devoid of a social context.

In other words: we take something from the ruling discourses (you’re responsible for the luck in your life) and use it to justify violence and exclusion. It doesn’t fix anything and causes even more aggression. Moreover, it erases our indignation. If we have an explanation like this we don’t need to be ashamed, or so it would seem, we can explain it and so it’s not that bad.

As long as we think that it’s about who’s responsible or not, we will keep individualising problems and forget the context of mechanisms of violence and exclusion. Let’s have the guts to examine violence and its accompanying anxiety, without hiding ourselves behind hollow words. Let us really investigate the problem of immigration thoroughly without discourses that reduce the refugee to a refusee.

(2) In Dutch ‘fortune seekers’ is often used as a swear word. People use it to minimalize the causes of war, climate change,… that make people flee and to denote the economic aspect. It’s a very strange logic that looking for happiness someplace else, has become something evil.

(3) Arendt, H. (1969). On Violence. New York: Harcourt Inc, p.77.

Maleval notices the same within the context of the unmotivated murder: the violence of the passage à l’acte comes first. It’s only thereafter that justifications come into life to explain this violence (Maleval, J.C. (1991) Logique du meurtre immotivé. In: Psychose naissante, psychose unique? H. Grivois (Ed.). Paris: Masson.

25 novembre 2018

He will be at the Forum ! He lives in Brussels

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Martin Deleixhe is Acting Professor at Saint Louis University – Brussels. He also teaches at Sciences Po Lille [Lille Institute of Political Studies]. His research focuses on issues at the crossroads of theories of democracy with respect to the sociology of migration. In addition to numerous scientific articles on this subject, he has also published two books. One is devoted to the unique intellectual journey of the political philosopher Étienne Balibar, L’illimitation démocratique [Democratic Illimitation] (1), and the other explores the normative difficulties raised by border controls in contemporary democracies, and in particular at the external borders of Europe. l’Union européenne, Aux bords de la démocratie [European Union, On the Edges of Democracy] (2).

(1) Paris, Michalon, 2014.

(2) Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2016.

Venue: University St. Louis, Auditorium OM 10,

6, rue de l’Ommegang, 1000 Brussels

Simultaneous Translations in French, Dutch and English

Schedule: 9.00 AM – 7.00 PM

23 novembre 201823 novembre 2018

She will be at the Forum ! She comes from Brazil

Angelina Harari is a member of the Escola Brasileira de Psicanálise (EBP) and President of the World Association of Psychoanalysis (WAP). She works in São Paulo and is Editor in Chief of the Portuguese language journal for Brazilian and international psychoanalysis, Opção Lacaniana.

Venue: University St. Louis, Auditorium OM 10,

6, rue de l’Ommegang, 1000 Brussels

Simultaneous Translations in French, Dutch and English

Schedule: 9.00 AM – 7.00 PM