Alex Williams: Against 'the Local'

1.2: Conditions are Now in Transition: The Local, The Border
Counterpoints to dominant forms of globalisation often put emphasis on various kinds of locality: the traditions of a place, the cultures of communities, the subjectivity of a person or a body, the inalienability of an experience. Yet, as the system of contemporary art biennials makes clear, such localisms are now constructed as terms of a global condition. Furthermore, if the spatial border has historically been how the integrity of the local is constructed and recognized, such a differentiating scheme is itself now in transition: the modern nation-state is intrinsically part of super-state bodies like the EU or trade blocs such as ASEAN and NAFTA; national sovereignty is eroded by the universalism of human rights claims; material pollution extends in space and time beyond the confines of its sources; the internet and phone technologies configure material-spatial bodies and subjects, and so on.
In general, the local and the boundary are now constructed in a planetary condition and as such are themselves in transition. This series of lectures explores recent challenges to the self-contained notion of the local and the border, both of which have been conditions for material and legislative space and bodies.
What, if anything, should be obtained from the local or the border to challenge or transform globalization and its aftermath? Are localism and borders adequate bases to address current planetary-scale formations?
ALEX WILLIAMS (CITY UNIVERSITY; UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON): AGAINST ‘THE LOCAL’
Today notions of ‘the local’ have exploded across a variety of ideological and disciplinary contexts. From the communitarian politics of left and right localisms, such as Occupy, or David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’, to art world discourses of site specificity, to culinary notions of ‘local food’, a certain figuration of ‘the local’ has become a ubiquitous feature of the contemporary space of ideas. This talk mounts a critique of these tendencies, in political and philosophical terms. It argues that the concept of ‘the local’ requires a deeper examination than it usually receives, and that therefore the implications of localism for politics and aesthetics needs to be critically reconsidered. Yet rather than rejecting ‘the local’ as horizon of action or thought, we must instead re-imagine its location within our spatial imaginary.
Bio: Alex Williams is a political theorist whose work focuses on the relationship between social complexity and political hegemony. With Nick Srnicek he is the author of Inventing the Future (Verso, 2015).