Sunday 14 September 2008

ASIRA "Academics and Students interested in Anarchism"


After its welcome from the ASN, ASIRA has now been formed with a yahoo group and a sub-committee as part of the ASN.

Check out ASIRA here

Thanks to Alex for setting this up.

"Aims of this Group

Religious anarchism, especially Christian anarchism, has been around for at least as long as “secular” anarchism. The academic literature tells us that Leo Tolstoy is its most famous proponent, but there are many others, such as Jacques Ellul or the Catholic Workers. There are also anarchists in other religious traditions, but these are often omitted by anarchist literature.

The main aims of this group – which was born out of the Religious Anarchisms sessions at the first ASN conference in Loughborough in September 2008 – are to provide a forum for people interested in religious anarchisms to converse on the topic, to publicise their work, to advertise related events, and to plan events and joint projects themselves.

An underlying aim is to thereby help establish the religious anarchist voice within anarchist academic writings – hence this group’s affiliation to the ASN and through it to the PSA. It is therefore both about bringing religious anarchists together as about placing religious anarchisms on the broader map of anarchist thought and practice.

Although the literature tends to focus more on Christian anarchism, this predominance need not be repeated here – indeed, the more anarchists from other traditions, the richer the conversations.

Moreover, activists and “practitioners” are just as welcome as academics and theorists. Both on the internet and in the streets, a number of people and groups have been discussing and exemplifying religious anarchisms. Their voice is important in any debate on the issue.

Finally, although not the primary focus of the group, contributors, conversations and events on the often uneasy relation between religion and anarchism are also welcome."