We hold bi-monthly web-based discussions via video-conference. Check out the programme here.

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Past symposiums

ifi.2018 Copenhagen – Deconstructing Neoliberal Hegemony

The run-up to our June conference made waves, leading to new members and supporters. The intensity of international experiences, personal histories and depth of discussion made ifi.2018 a special and moving event. (see full report)

In addition to extraordinary individual presentations, a new book by the Real Democracy Movement, Time’s Up for Neoliberalism, was launched. Participants were privileged to share a private viewing of Alexander Rozhkov’s 2018 film about Ilyenkov.

Our main focus is the relevance of Ilyenkov’s method. Collective reading and discussion of his foundational books is at the core of our work. We do this through monthly online webinars, sharing news and concerns via the IFI Facebook page. Recently we have been reading Ilyenkov’s Dialectics of the Abstract and Concrete in Marx’s Capital.

Drawing on Ilyenkov’s approach, we welcome members’ presentations on contemporary challenges. In the past these have included waste management, concept formation, educational theory and organisation, conceptualisation and data analysis, the global economic crisis, the state, hegemony and neoliberalism.

A little bit of history

IFI was first formed at the Spinoza in Soviet Thought Symposium held at the Aleksanteri Institute of Helsinki University in May 2012. The society took a leap forward in 2018 by holding its second Symposium in Copenhagen. Members from around the world took part in presentations and discussions in person and via video-conferencing. (see full report)

Our first symposium took place in Helsinki in April 2014, where we celebrated the publication of Dialectics of the Ideal – Evald Ilyenkov and Creative Soviet Marxism. We held a one-day conference with participants from Finland, Taiwan, China, Scotland, Spain, England, Brazil and Wales. UK members presented the paper Contradictions within the Ideal, mediation and transformation in global capitalist society