In Memoriam, Couze Venn

“The key issue…for the contemporary phase of globalisation is the systematic reliance, then and now, of the prosperity of the ‘West’ upon the profit derived from activities in the colonies and now the ‘postcolony’…. Many of the instruments may not be the same, but the attitudes remain the same, and many key institutions and infrastructures set up in the colonial period continue to provide support for the new mechanisms of private and corporate accumulation. Here one could highlight the role of ‘treasure islands’ ….such as the British Virgin Islands…and the wide range of practices to do with ‘offshoring’ regarding banking, financial capitalism, commercial transactions, the secreting of wealth from tax regimes and so on…” (Couze Venn After Capital 2017).

Couze Venn has passed away. For many of those who have published and worked with Space & Culture, Couze was a friend, mentor and an incredibly thoughtful editor. He wrote several books, including Changing the SubjectThe Postcolonial ChallengeOccidentalism, and After Capital, which have made impressive contributions to social theory and the study of late modernity. Soft spoken, civil, Couze was a key figure in the editorial group of Theory Culture and Society, a measured voice of editorial insight and a dedicated and sympathetic reader and champion of the contributions of a who’s who of late twentieth century intellectuals. Couze was also the author or co-author of countless articles that synthesized multiple academic fields, such as history of science, psychology, subjectivity, biopolitics, political economy, media theory and cultural studies. His ideas and influence will have a profound, lasting impact.

-Jim Morrow (University of Alberta)