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Conference Announcement "Recognition and Self-determination" 4th Annual Workshop MCRI Project on Ethnicity and Democratic Governance MCRI Project on Indigenous Peoples and Governance Consortium on Democratic Constitutionalism (Demcon), University of Victoria Victoria, BC (Canada) 29 February - 2 March 2008 __________________________________________________ Politics today takes place through the medium of recognition. Indeed, for the last 25 years, the politics of recognition has been a primary framework by which politics in diverse societies is understood. Recognition in this context refers to the ways in which political and legal institutions mediate relations between different groups by translating, and characterizing the substance of one groups demands, interests, perspectives, character or identity in a manner that another group can understand or recognize. A couple of dimensions of recognition are especially important. First, recognition focuses our attention on the ways in which groups are not only dependent on each other but partly constituted by how they are recognized by another. Second, recognition tends to be distorted and potentially damaging when powerful groups attempt to recognize less powerful ones. Even as powerful groups attempt to amend their historical wrongs, they choose how they do so in a manner that can fall well short of recognizing the groups they have wronged as equals. In addition to exploring at a theoretical level what is or should be meant by recognition, considering how recognition relates to self-determination, and exploring challenges associated with recognition in practice, we expect the workshop to draw intensely upon empirical cases of recognition, especially current developments in institutions and practices that mediate the struggles between indigenous peoples and political institutions. How are current trends in the development of national or international legal capacities for indigenous people changing how they are recognized either by settler states or by the international community? What impact are struggles of recognition having on indigenous communities? What principles should guide recognition in this context? We also want to consider whether the very concept of recognition is or should be varied in its application depending on the context (e.g. indigenous peoples as opposed to cultural minorities produced by immigration). This workshop will bring together researchers from the MCRI project on Ethnicity and Democratic Governance, the MCRI on Indigenous Peoples and Governance and Consortium on Democratic Constitutionalism at UVIC. Because it is jointly sponsored and because we want to promote an intense interaction where the conversation is likely to progress over the course of the conference, we know that we will have to make some choices about speakers. But we are anxious to know if you are currently working on something central to the topic and would be keen to present. You should also know that we are planning to use at least three means to expand the circle of participants beyond the number of slots in the program: a) a one-day pre-conference for graduate students; b) a discussion forum for papers, including both papers to be presented and papers that are acutely relevant but that cannot be accommodated given our constraints of space; and c) the possibility of drawing on papers additional to those presented in the publication to result from the conference. Co-organizers: Avigail Eisenberg (Political Science, University of Victoria) Jeremy Webber (Law, University of Victoria) Glen Coultard (Political Science, University of Victoria) Contact: Pat Skidmore, Coordinator Consortium on Democratic Constitutionalism (Demcon) Faculty of Law PO Box 2400 Stn CSC University of Victoria Victoria, BC V8W-3H7 Canada Phone: +1 (250) 721-8914 Fax: +1 (250) 721-8146 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.law.uvic.ca/demcon/ __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org
