Call for papers: What is the common?

University of Gothenburg, Sweden, is calling – submission deadline: September 5th, 2009:

In the shadow of the global crisis of capitalism, the common, somehow obliterated in the recent past, has emerged as an indispensable and central notion. The conference addresses this notion both as a real movement and as an already present horizon, a dynamic principle, for societal life. It is a critical topic today, not only because the public, administrated by the state, is reduced to expendable assets for regulating a supposedly self-regulating machine called Market, but more importantly because the emerging forms of the common impose themselves with an unprecedented acuity and in opposition to the doxa of the private property.

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Water cannons against water scarcity??!

Wasserwerfer gegen Kritiker des WeltwasserforumsSince yesterday the Turkish government hosts the fifth World Water Forum against a backdrop of what is probably the most sweeping water privatisation programme in the world. As well as privatizing water services, the government plans to sell of rivers and lakes. Turkish social movements, who hosted their own conference in Istanbul last month, suspect the Government is using the World Water Forum to push through this highly controversial agenda. Protesters are struck back with water cannons… Read more

River privatization in Turkey

The Turkish government intends to privatise their water sources throughout the whole country in 2009. Rights of water use will be sold to international corporations for up to 49 years – amongst others Siemens seems to be in on it. The reason behind this is to build and run power plants which are marketed as tackling climate change. Read more