Dear all,


Thomas Fraise and I are putting together a panel on vulnerability for the
upcoming ISA 2024 meetings, and are launching a late call for papers that
might be of interest to some of you. You will find more details on this
proposed panel “Unseen vulnerabilities in the Anthropocene” in the
description below.



We are welcoming contributions from a range of thematics as wide as
possible – including but not limited to security, climate, gender – to
enrich our understandings of the concept’s applicability to contemporary
IR. If you feel like your research might relate in any way, please reach
out to us, and we will be glad to engage in the discussion.



Title and abstracts should be sent to both of us before Tuesday 30th May
given the ISA deadline 1st of June, apologies for this last minute call for
contributions.



Best regards,



Anaëlle Vergonjeanne and Thomas Fraise,

Sciences Po – CERI

[email protected]

[email protected]

*Call for contributions - ISA 2024 panel *

*Unseen vulnerabilities in the Anthropocene*

*Anaëlle Vergonjeanne (Sciences Po/CERI), Thomas Fraise (Sciences Po/CERI)*

This panel proposes to deepen our knowledge of what vulnerability entails
in an age of growing anthropogenic existential threats by diversifying our
understanding of “vulnerability”. What are the forms of vulnerability which
are specific to our historical time? What creates vulnerability, and who –
or what – are vulnerable subjects in the Anthropocene?

Long unseen, humanity’s material vulnerabilities to climate change occupy
the forefront of scholarship’s concerns with international relations in the
Anthropocene. Risks of societal collapse induced by rapidly changing
climate conditions, of world-sweeping pandemics or even of an unlivable
planet earth have been the object of renewed attention by many academics in
the recent years. But it seems there is more than this to say about our
vulnerabilities in this age.

Feminist contributions have opened the way of studies on vulnerability,
with firstly care theories considering humanity as vulnerable (Gilligan,
1982; Tronto, 1993); then focusing on forms of bodily vulnerability and its
implication for moral judgments (Butler 2006; Mackenzie, Rogers, and Dodds
2014). Contributions more firmly grounded in International studies have
sought to construct vulnerability as a variable in the explanation of state
behaviors (Cooper and Shaw 2009), or on the vulnerable subject as an agent
in IR (Clark 2013). More recently, studies have focused on the
vulnerabilities of political systems through the studies of the historical
conditions of societal collapse (Centeno 2023).

We identified key features of vulnerability as unaccomplished risk,
invisibility, shared and common responsibility to care, and
interdependency. Beyond this early definition, what are other forms of
unseen vulnerability, whether individual, institutional, or cognitive?
Leads could be examining political vulnerability to authoritarian
tendencies as solution for security, or the epistemic vulnerability which
emerges when knowledge is necessary, but cannot be trusted (Pelopidas
2022). Moreover, what are the other *sources* of vulnerability left unseen
in existing studies which nevertheless should the object of our attention.
Finally, what are some uses of the category of vulnerability in modern
international relations, such as the “most vulnerable” label often used in
global governance to define actors — such as children (Gilligan 2009),
women, or developing countries in climate negotiations (Webber, 2013;
Weiler, Klöck & Dornan, 2018).

We aim at developing our understanding of vulnerabilities, by questioning
vulnerability as a theoretical concept and as an empirical category. This
panel looks for contribution which relates to the concept of vulnerability,
and its expressions which stems from the specific historical material
conditions of the Anthropocene. It aims at identifying forms of
vulnerability which have remained unseen and underexplored in existing
analysis. We welcome contributions in both theoretical and empirical forms,
using the concept of vulnerability to make more sense of the meaning of
international politics in an age of existential threats (Sears 2021).

- you may find the list of references in the joint document -

*Abstract *: 200 words

*Deadline *: May 29th.

Anaëlle Vergonjeanne

*PhD Student CERI - Sciences Po*
*Former OXPO fellow - Department of Politics and International Relations,
University of Oxford*
https://www.sciencespo.fr/ceri/anaelle.vergonjeanne
<https://www.sciencespo.fr/ceri/fr/cerispire-user/39303/38936.html>
https://www.politics.ox.ac.uk/person/anaelle-vergonjeanne
https://gram.cnrs.fr <http://gram.cnrs.fr>

[image: Sciences Po]
28 rue des Saints-Pères, 75007 Paris France
[email protected]
www.sciencespo.fr/ceri
[image: Twitter CERI] <https://twitter.com/CERI_SciencesPo> [image:
Facebook CERI] <https://www.facebook.com/ceri.po>

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"gep-ed" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to [email protected].
To view this discussion on the web visit 
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gep-ed/CALM8aL-mcq%3DzKWiy3F9aoLSSkyqAGBQQpHSO86BzzBKHsQTanQ%40mail.gmail.com.

Attachment: Unseen vulnerabilities in the Anthropocene.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

Reply via email to