In bookstores now: "Anti-Democratic Thought"

Edited by Erich Kofmel, published by Imprint Academic, ISBN 9781845401245

250 pp., pbk., £11.96 (approx. $25.00 / €20.00)

Browse and buy the book on Google Book Search: http://books.google.com/ADT

Out 1 August 2009: "Anti-Liberalism and Political Theology"

Edited by Erich Kofmel, published by Imprint Academic, ISBN 9781845401573

250 pp., pbk., £11.96 (approx. $25.00 / €20.00)

Pre-order your copy: www.amazon.com/anti-liberalism-political-theology-erich-kofmel/

The Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS) is working at the same rigorous

intellectual level as the world's foremost universities and research centres. Differently from these,

SCIS is however not bound to prevailing paradigms of social and political discourse. SCIS will shift

paradigms.

SCIS is independent of the University of Sussex, but the founding members of SCIS – and many

of our Research Associates – were and are doctoral candidates and young researchers at that

University. Since 2009, SCIS is based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Our distinguished International Advisory Board and Senior Research Associates have been known

to include world-renowned senior scholars and full professors from universities such as Harvard,

Berkeley, UCLA, British Columbia, Essex, Northwestern, and Chicago, representing a wide array

of academic disciplines.

Our excellence in research has been acknowledged by invitations to speak at institutions as

austere and diverse as the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the London School of Economics,

Sciences Po/The Institute for Political Studies in Paris, the Russian Academy of Sciences in

Moscow, the European University Institute in Florence, the European Science Foundation, the

European Consortium for Political Research, and the American Political Science Association.

We aim to create a worldwide inter- and transdisciplinary network of highly original researchers,

particularly in the social sciences and humanities, as well as artists – a network of people who feel

that the current higher education system stifles their abilities and potential.

While our focus is on "the individual and society" we believe that a vast variety of daring and

unusual research projects can be carried out under this heading (there are no restrictions) and

that the personality and way of thinking of the individual researcher are what is all important.

23 July 2008: Erich Kofmel (SCIS) participates as Invited Speaker in the opening

Plenary Round Table: "Global Values" of the Second Global International Studies

Conference of the World International Studies Committee (WISC),

at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

About SCIS

It is surprising that a concept used as frequently as "the individual and society" should not have

led to as many research institutes and programmes at universities all over the world. In fact, there

appears to be no research centre at any university in the world that applies itself to looking at the

individual and society in breadth and depth and from a variety of angles.

In creating a research centre dedicated to "the individual and society" we filled this academic gap.

However, as we also wish to retain our individuality as researchers, the research centre is entirely

independent of the University of Sussex and its administrative structures.

SCIS is working interdisciplinary within the social sciences, humanities, and arts as well as related

disciplines in natural and life sciences and technology (such as Social Psychology, Cognitive

Science, and Artificial Intelligence). We aim to work more interdisciplinary than is common (or

commonly possible) at universities. In the process, we will overcome linguistic, disciplinary,

sectoral, conceptual, ideological, and cultural boundaries and transcend even interdisciplinarity.

We wish to apply different perspectives, various angles, and the methodological apparatuses of

many disciplines to a more thorough study of the interaction of the individual and society than has

ever been attempted.

SCIS was set up in 2006 in an historic cottage (39 Tenant Lain, right at the entrance of Falmer

campus) that we got to rent from the University. The University of Sussex, at Brighton, England,

is situated in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, soon to be the South Downs National Park.

Since 2009, SCIS is incorporated as an international association under Swiss law and based in

Geneva.

Media coverage on SCIS includes:

- The Guardian: http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/story/0,,1861193,00.html

- The Independent:

www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/who-needs-state-funding-anyway-415813.html

- Times Higher Education:

www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=204947

- BBC: Research students 'go it alone', 30 August 2006 (also in Chinese)

- Intute: www.intute.ac.uk/socialsciences/cgi-bin/fullrecord.pl?handle=20060906-121423

The individual and society

The terms "individual" and "society" have given rise to many definitions and conceptualizations.

Manifold are the proposed interconnections and causal relationships between the two.

Most relevant courses taught in degree programmes at universities and colleges focus on "the

individual in society" and concern themselves with issues such as nationalism and fascism.

Speaking of "the individual and society" does not narrow down possibilities as much. The

individual in society makes a number of assumptions and prioritizes certain theoretical bases –

i.e. that the individual can only be conceptualized as an integral part of society and the product of

historical and social conditioning by way of beliefs, customs, and attitudes –, whereas and

provides greater scope for change and moving to a different world view and praxis. Using and

does not deny a social context but it problematizes the priority given to either the individual or

society. It rejects in equal measure the other extreme which claims that society does not exist and

only individuals should be studied ("methodological individualism"). That both society and the

individual can find manifold definitions requires suitable research into how they might be separate

rather than the unthinking assumptions that the use of in brings.

Questions to be addressed by us include the very nature of what qualifies as a "society", and what

distinguishes society from other categories such as "community", the "state", a "nation", or a

"tribe"; then, what may be summarized as the individual in society: ideological collectivisms, modes

of social and political organization, mechanisms of power and coercion, and psychological and

evolutionary studies into the perceived "herd" mentality of human beings; furthermore,

individualism in its various manifestations, such as classic liberalism, anarchist individualism, the

professed mass individualism of consumerist society, and evidence of "great", or superior,

individuals; collectivisms of all kind (such as religion, economy, labour, communitarianism, and

collectivist anarchism); the formation or pre-existence of individual and collective identity and

identities; education and the individual, education and society (a preferred way of aligning the

individual with society's demands and needs, but also aiding the acquisition of critical faculties);

deviant behaviour (for example, "crime", medical deviations from the "norm", "outsiders");

resistance and modes of resistance; utopia and dystopia; the individual and society in social and

economic development, and comparative and cross-cultural research into these and related

concepts.

Independence

SCIS is positively elitist and meritocratic. We wish to re-create the academic ethos that got lost in

today's mass universities.

We know where our strengths lie and we do not wish to waste our time doing anything but what

we do best. We resist the process of Foucauldian "normalization" and induction into a discourse

that we believe to be largely irrelevant. We refuse to waste our potential and we know that we can

do our best work now and in the years lying immediately ahead of us. Being able to spend our

time productively researching and writing is the most important reason why SCIS has been set

up as an independent centre dedicated purely to research and research-related activities. SCIS

enables its members and associates to circumvent the intellectual pretentiousness of today's

higher education system and work on research projects that due to ideological and/or other

restrictions could not easily be undertaken in a university.

SCIS provides an intellectual space where men and women who identify with our objectives can

meet and interact and find relief in the company of others with a similar mindset. We want to break

free, comprehend, reconceptualize, and reorientate the world and structures that impinge potential

and achievement rather than facilitating or encouraging it. Individuals involved in SCIS will preserve

and develop challenging and in fact threatening ideas. We will create the thoughts of the future.

Against a world that refuses to make value judgements, we will propose political, social and

educational alternatives that hold up the values of freedom, tolerance, and charity without leading

to mediocrity.

SCIS will alter the application of knowledge. Against its prevailing application in pursuit of certain

narrow goals, such as increases in the accumulation of capital and possessions and the stability

and fixity of systems of consumption and labour, we will set flux, the application of knowledge for

diverse ends, and a change of language, attitudes, and actions. We do wish SCIS to have an

impact in the world.

From the outset, we enjoyed the ambiguity of being, at the same time, independent of the

University of Sussex and on campus, of being research students but also student leaders and

researchers of our own making.

We believe that the higher education system, in different ways and at different levels, on the one

hand obstructs but on the other hand aids individuals who resist "normalization" and being told

what to do. It can still be turned into a powerful tool that assists the development of truly critical

and creative thought. While weak individuals are being absorbed by the system, strong

individualists will fight against it – and win.

Legal form

SCIS was first registered, in 2006, as a Company Limited by Guarantee and Not Having a Share

Capital (that is, not for profit) in England and Wales (Company No. 5850511). No shares were

given out and no dividends paid to members. The Company Secretary is Erich Kofmel.

From its inception, SCIS was independent of the University of Sussex and included research

associates from other universities in the UK and worldwide as well as non-affiliated scholars. Over

the past three years, SCIS has become ever more international and academics from all five

continents have now participated in SCIS-organized events that took place on three continents.

To support the further internationalization of our research and activities, the Sussex Centre for

the Individual and Society decided in 2009 to change its legal personality to that of an international

association under Swiss law.

The association has been incorporated under the same name and takes over all rights and duties

of the former company, which will be dissolved. SCIS is now based in Geneva, Switzerland. All

SCIS activities will be continued by the association (events, publications, mailing lists, etc.). SCIS

remains a non-profit organization. Any profits, or other income, are to be spent in promoting the

association's objects. The liability of members is limited. The association's President and Managing

Director is Erich Kofmel.

History

31 March 2006: Foundation of the Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS)

21-23 July 2006: Inaugural International Symposium at the University of Sussex

22 December 2006: Alex Higgins resigns from SCIS for personal reasons

23 July 2008: Erich Kofmel Invited Speaker at triennial Global International Studies Conference

1 December 2008: "Anti-Democratic Thought", ed. Erich Kofmel, published by Imprint Academic

16 February 2009: SCIS incorporated as an international association under Swiss law

Members

Current and past members of SCIS include:

Erich Kofmel

The founding Managing Director of SCIS is Erich Kofmel, Master of Management in Public and

Development Management, with specialization in Governance and Public Policy (University of the

Witwatersrand, Johannesburg), and Master of Philosophy in Theology (St Augustine College of

South Africa). He holds a Commercial Certificate of Ability (Switzerland) and a Postgraduate

Certificate in Comparative and Cross-Cultural Research Methods (University of Sussex) and is a

part-time European Doctorate candidate in Social and Political Thought at the University of Sussex

and Sciences Po/The Institute for Political Studies (IEP) in Paris. He served, among other things,

as Chairman of the Postgraduate Association of the University of Sussex (PGA) and a member of

the University's Research Degrees and Professional Doctorates Committee and as Coordinator of

the "Career Development" workgroup of the European council of doctoral candidates and young

researchers (Eurodoc).

www.erichkofmel.com

Alexander W. Higgins

Also a founding member of SCIS was Alexander W. Higgins. He held the position of Researcher

in SCIS and served as a Director. At the end of 2006, he decided to leave university and SCIS for

personal reasons. Without Alex Higgins, SCIS would not exist. He worked tirelessly to make it a

success. You will always be welcome back! HAPPY WEDNESDAY, dear Alex.

Research Associates