Content Short
4 Minutes Reading Time
Join our Kick-Off Event on 12th of May, 6.45pm – Talk on Crisis, Power, and Freedom: Are crises used as a way to govern?
Learn how events like disasters and market falls are used to advance certain political goals. Pablo Jiménez Cea will discuss the idea of Dark Enlightenment, focusing on the fast pace of capitalism, harm to the environment, and growing far-right movements. Firoozeh Farvardin will look at how fear is used in politics and discuss caring politics that help fight anxiety and loneliness. Gain insights from feminist groups and anti-authoritarian methods in the visual handbook Beyond Molotovs. This talk will challenge the current system while looking for better options to combat capitalism’s harmful effects.
The rough timetable:
- Beginning: 6.45pm CET
- Input 1 Pablo Jiménez Cea – On shock treatments of societies in the face of crisis and the concept of Dark Enlightenment
- Input 2 Firoozeh Farvardin – Politics of emotion, from (Indivudual) Fears to (Collective) Cares and examples of the anti-authoritarian strategy handbook: “Beyond Molotovs”
- Moderated Conversation and small group discussions
- Ending: 9pm CET
Place / Date
The event will take place online via “ZOOM”. The platform-link with instructions how to use it will be send after signing up for the event via E-Mail (see information below).
The event will take place 12th of May, from 6.45pm to 9pm.
Estimated Work Amount
If you like to prepare for the topic, feel free to stroll through materials in our “Resources” section. If you do not have anytime, do not worry and join anyways! We are happy to have you!
Barriers
You might need some steady internet connection. We also encourage you to use headphones, if you can. It increases concentration. We try to stick to 2 hours program. But also 120 minutes can get long. So get some drinks and snacks and a comfy position.
If you do need some help using the online platform, please join 15 minutes earlier – 6.45pm, we will explain everything and clarify open technical questions.
Language
The spoken language will be English. We will try to prevent a transcript in German and Polish of the most important parts couple of days after the event. We also try to have subtitles enabled, but please get in touch before the event, so we can make sure it works out. There might be a lot of academic content and very specific language on the topic. We will try to keep track of questions in the chat and explain some of the used concepts or words in easier language.
Please do not hesitate to get in touch and tell your needs at skills4crisis@protonmail.com!
Costs
The event is free of charge. If you feel like you want to support the project, feel free to donate though 🙂 https://skills4crisis.org/#get-involved
Applying
Please sign in via E-Mail to skills4crisis@protonmail.com or write a direct message on Instagram @educatkollektiv. We will send you the link to the online platform.
- name we can address you with
- one sentence of what interest you have in the event or project
- anything you want to share with us
Speakers
Firoozeh Farvardin
Firoozeh Farvardin is a feminist scholar and activist based in Berlin and Vienna. She was born and raised in Iran before moving to Europe. She studied sociology in both Iran and Germany and has actively participated in grassroots movements and initiatives primarily related to feminist and refugee struggles.
Since September 2024, she has worked as a university assistant at the Institute of Political Science (IPW) at the University of Vienna, specializing in politics and gender. Before her current position, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the International Research Group on Authoritarianism and Counter-Strategies (IRGAC) at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, where she continues to serve as a research associate and collaborates with them. She is also affiliated with the Middle East Research Group (MERGE) at the Berlin Institute for Empirical Integration and Migration Research (BIM), where she has been conducting research and teaching since 2015.
Currently, her research and activism concentrate on gender and sexual (counter)strategies and feminist utopianism under authoritarian neoliberalism, particularly focusing on the Global South(s).
Publication relevant for our project:
Firoozeh Farvardin, Gustavo Robles (2025): From (Indivudual) Fears to (Collective) Cares
https://irgac.org/articles/from-individual-fears-to-collective-cares
Pablo Jiménez Cea
Pablo Jiménez Cea has a Master’s Degree in Sociology and is a teacher of History and Social Sciences. His main research interests are related to radical social criticism, new readings of Marx and the critical analysis of contemporary social struggles in the context of the capitalist crisis. Some of his writings and translations can be found on the Nec plus ultra website (necplusultra.noblogs.org).
Publication relevant for our project:
Pablo Jiménez Cea (2024): Perverse Possibilities of Capitalist Collapse: Neoreaction and Dark Enlightenment as an Authoritarian Alternative to the Structural Crisis of Global Capitalism
