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Call for Papers Theme: Governance and Political Leadership in East Asia Type: International Workshop Institution: Seoul National University Location: Seoul (Korea) Date: 3.–4.6.2011 Deadline: 1.3.2011 __________________________________________________ In the last two decades, as Asian societies have asserted their economic and political power, their traditions and institutions are beginning to compete with those of the West for study and emulation. A premise of the project proposed here is that the globalization of economic, social and political relationships calls for a globalized approach to theoretical reflection on the determinants of political order and the normative standards by which we evaluate political orders. The “Asian values” debate, which drew sharp contrasts between “Asian” and “Western” understandings of human rights and political order, is giving way to a more nuanced encounter between different strands within (for example) classical Confucianism, neo-Confucianism, Western natural law traditions, Enlightenment universalism, liberalism, republicanism, feminism, postcolonialism and democratic theory. Yet in the academy – in leading scholarly journals and in undergraduate classrooms – these encounters remain the exception rather than the rule. Although non-Western traditions have their own ideas about legitimate political order, the academy is still in the early stages of developing methods of systematic and productive engagement across the theoretical traditions of different parts of the world. That said, there is now a small body of scholarship that defines an emerging field of comparative political theory. The East Asian Perspectives on Political Legitimacy (EAPL) project aims to advance comparative political theory along two trajectories. First, we will develop a significant body of work exploring the meanings of political legitimacy in East Asian contexts, looking not only at the conceptual resources of historical traditions of thought, especially Confucianism, but also at the intellectual formations that emerged in nineteenth and twentieth century encounters with modernity and with the West as well as to more recent theoretical debates. Second, we seek to strengthen understandings of the methodologies and pedagogies that are appropriate to high standards of scholarship in comparative political theory. The broad purpose of this project is to advance the field of comparative political theory through a series of six workshops, each focused on a dimension of politics in the East Asian context. The first workshop took place at Fudan University on May 1-2, 2010. The second workshop, “East Asian Perspectives on Legal Order,”took place at the National University of Singapore on August 26-27, 2010. The third workshop, “Governance and Political Leadership in East Asia,” will be held at Seoul National University on June 3-4, 2011. The workshop will be conducted in English. This workshop will foster comparative inquiry into the historical and contemporary meanings of good leadership in East Asian societies and their relationship to the design of democratic and non-democratic institutions. A workshop dedicated to graduate students working on comparative political theory and Asian political thought will be held on June 5, 2011. Because our principal funding source is the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Canadian citizens and doctoral students at Canadian universities are preferred. However, all eligible candidates are welcome to apply. Successful candidates will present a paper at the June 5 workshop, and should be attending the larger conference, too. Papers will be circulated in advance and must be completed no later than May 5, 2011. Funding is available for up to 4 researchers and will cover the full costs of economy class airfare, reasonable ground transportation costs, and 4 nights’ hotel accommodation. To apply, send a paper title and abstract of no more than 300 words, together with a current curriculum vitae to <[email protected]> no later than March 1, 2011. Successful candidates will be notified by email by March 20, 2011. Further information about the project is available at: http://www.ethics.utoronto.ca/index.php?id=6&iid=11 Contact: Youngmin Kim Department of Political Science College of Social Sciences Seoul National University San 56-1 Sillim-dong, Gwanak-gu Seoul 151-742 Korea Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.ethics.utoronto.ca/index.php?id=6&iid=11 __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org __________________________________________________
