On the birth of Argos Aotearoa

So pleased to announce the publication of Issue No. 1 of Argos Aotearoa, a new journal out of New Zealand whose special issue The University Beside Itself has published my first co-writing project with my dad, Mark Amsler: ‘Imagining Unthinkable Spaces’. Early conversations on the importance of intergenerational analyses of neoliberalisation…

‘Argos aims to circulate writing about topical matters of public and political import that is local, critical and accessible. We believe critical intellectual conversation should be heard here in Aotearoa-New Zealand, not simply published for credit in international fora for more limited and specialised audiences. Of particular interest to us is writing that grounds its concern with the public or political good of place-making in theory or philosophy.’

I don’t know that this isn’t for a certain audience, although perhaps one not so narrowly specialised. But it opens many ways in to critical thought: the defense of thinking and speaking that cares about where it lives, putting the criteria of ruling knowledge in their place, daring to experiment with different forms of reading and inviting others freely, celebrating and militating for a joy of learning where ‘the life-blood of the Spirit is a margin for mistakes, not formatted, not unexplored but gifted’ (Anne Jones 2014).

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