This conference of the Nordic Network for Critical Theory takes its cue from a well-known quote by Antonio Gramsci: “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born. In this interregnum, monsters appear.”

Several authors (Fraser 2019, Stahl 2019, Streeck 2024, Ó Rálaigh 2025) have applied Gramsci’s diagnosis to our own time. Old structures and practices get merged with technological revolution and neoliberal globalization into a “polycrisis” (Tooze 2022). Today’s global capitalism takes its intrinsic dynamics of acceleration, alienation and impoverishment to levels that threaten both the human and the non-human foundations for life. Digital technologies and social media have become tools for authoritarian and fascist movements; brutal wars drive technological development; and the unreflected use of AI puts labour and the production of knowledge at risk.

The conference will examine which analytic and normative tools critical theory can offer in order to develop a critical and emancipatory understanding of this situation and the social forces that operate in it. Besides, there will also be talks presenting current research on other aspects of critical theory.

University of Bergen, Department of Philosophy, Sydnesplassen 12/13 (google maps), room t.b.a.

On October 14th, 2026, 20h-21.15h, Litteraturhus Bergen will host a panel conversation where our keynote speakers Nikita Dhawan and Rahel Jaeggi will discuss their recent books. For more info, click here.

9:00 — Welcome & opening remarks
Keynote:
9:15 — Nikita Dhawan (TU Dresden): Rescuing the Enlightenment from the Europeans: Critical theories of decolonization
Panel 1:
10:30 — Mikael Hekkala (Turku), Olli Herranen (Tampere), Sami Torssonen (Tampere): From a polycrisis to a total crisis
10:50 — Linus Bertilsson (independent): Forming monsters: Hegemony and crisis in Gramsci
11:10 — Discussion
11:40 — Coffee break
Panel 2:
12:00 — Kim Pedersen Philipp (UiO): Contradictions of capital and knowledge: The epistemic crisis as a crisis of capitalism
12:20 — Mimosa Suontama (Toronto): On institutional trust
12:40 — Discussion
13:10 — Lunch
Panel 3:
14:20 — Helene Aarseth/Rebecca Lund (both UiO): Towards a feminist materialist theory of Eros
14:40 — Franz Knappik (UiB): Managing surplus populations? On contemporary state violence
15:00 — Discussion
15:30 — Coffee break
Panel 4:
15:50 — Hans Marius Hansteen (UiB): Hope and remembrance
16:10 — Jasper Friedrich (Oxford): The dialectics of nostalgia
16:30 — Discussion
17:00–18:00 — Network meeting

20:00 Conference dinner, Allmuen Bistro

Keynote:
9:00 — Rahel Jaeggi (HU Berlin): Remembering, repeating, working through: Social movements as transformative processes of experience
Panel 5:
10:15 — Zahra Rizvi, Jill Walker Rettberg & Elise Strand Hagen (all UiB): Cosy fascism: A critical approach to tradwives and AI nostalgia
10:35 — Christopher Senf (UiB): Algorithmic exploitation and recognition struggles
10:55 — Discussion
11:25 — Coffee break
Panel 6:
11:45 — Georg Picot (UiB): The end of neoliberalism?
12:05 — Eirik Tangeraas Lygre (UiO): Economics and climate politics
12:25 — Discussion
12:55 — Lunch
Panel 7:
14:10 — Rose Trappes (UiB): Exploitation in citizen science
14:30 — Sara Swerdlyk (Toronto): Critical theory and researching the far right
14:50 — Discussion
15:20 — Coffee break
Panel 8:
15:35 — Anna Enström (Södertörn): Weed utopia
15:55 — Magnus Hörnqvist (Stockholm): The utopian dimension of punishment
16:15 — Discussion
16:45 — Coffee break
Panel 9:
16:55 — Sjur Sandvik Strøm (UiO): Towards a discourse theory of counter-rights
17:15 – 17:30 — Discussion

are available here.

Registration closed on October 8th. It is possible to attend the conference without registration, but please be aware that free refreshments/lunches and the conference dinner are reserved for registered guests.

Depending on availability, conference guests can book hotel rooms at Hotel Zander K in the city center with university discount (single room 1059 NOK per person/night). If you would like to book such a room, please contact booking@zanderk.no, with kirsten.bang@uib.no in cc.

If you fly to Bergen, we recommend that you take the lightrail Bybanen (line nr. 1) to the city center. You can find more information here.