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Call for Applications
Theme: Political Community
Subtitle: Authority in the Name of Community
Type: PhD Summer School
Institution: Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law
(CISRUL), University of Aberdeen
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland (United Kingdom)
Date: 26.–27.6.2014
Deadline: 28.2.2014
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We confirmed in the June 2013 workshop that the term “political
community” was appropriate for identifying a core set of issues that
interest us at CISRUL, even though it was evident that no term will
ever carry all the right connotations and none of the wrong ones.
Though we each have our own preferred approach, reflecting the wide
range of perspectives in CISRUL, several of us are using the term
“political community” for one whose members feel somehow represented
within its structures of authority, and thus somehow obliged to their
fellow-members to follow its norms and accept its decisions. A
political community could also be termed a democracy but we prefer to
use the term “democracy” for a form of government; our focus is more
on the link between authority and community than on the precise
structure of government. In a political community, authority is
exercised in the name of some kind of community of members – this is
the point on which for the most part we converge.
That said, we understand both “authority” and “community” in a
variety of ways. We are interested in:
- established political institutions but also less formal and/or
emergent structures of authority
- nations as the (arguably) paramount political communities of the
contemporary world but also other forms of political community:
pre-modern cities are obvious examples, but we are open to the
possibility that there are political communities other than nations
in the present day, even if these may be linked to or embedded
within nations.
We prefer, on the whole, to reserve the term “political community”
for those that claim a degree of self-sufficiency (or
self-determination) and we distinguish political communities from
political collectives such as trade unions or churches which see
themselves as players in a broader arena. However, we are still very
much interested in how authority is exercised internally in the name
of members of such entities, as well as in how they position
themselves in relation to the political communities that host them.
We acknowledge, too, that political communities such as nations also
see themselves as players in a broader, international arena.
We are open to a full range of topics but are particularly interested
in:
- how political communities compare to communities that we might
consider less or non-political, such as kin groups or cultural
associations:
* is it the case, for example, that what we are calling “political
community” is a community only because it has a political
authority which rules in the name of the members?
* is it really possible to form a “political community” of people
with no common worldview and who disagree about issues and
priorities or simply don’t like each other?
- how one might differentiate between forms of political community,
including that of nations:
* how the largely involuntary nature of membership in nations
conditions the structures of authority that we know as states
(for example, where it leaves those who are citizens but do not
identify with the nation), and how this compares to other forms
of political community in which membership may be more voluntary
* whether and how one can differentiate between stronger and
weaker forms of political community:
~ nationalism generally entails strong community bonds which
support the strong claim to authority known as national
sovereignty – do weaker community bonds make for weaker
claims to authority, and if so, to what effect?
~ by what criteria might one consider some communities more
political than others, and how might one account for the
difference?
- the role of international law in the contemporary world in shaping
political community, primarily by recognizing the self-determination
of “peoples”
* for example, how successful have indigenous peoples been in
challenging the virtual monopoly of nations on
self-determination?
- the relation between electoral democracy as a form of government
and political community as authority in the name of community
* for example, how has the recent “transition to democracy” in
many countries affected the shape of political community?
- how political community relates to 3 other key concepts that CISRUL
has examined since 2009:
* citizenship: understood both as formal membership with rights
and obligations and as a broader set of commitments to others
within and beyond the political community
* civil society (topic of our 2012 workshop): a concept whose
analytical value is debatable but which remains an important
source of political legitimacy in the world today
* rule of law: if political community is about authority exercised
in the name of community, how does it relate to the idea of
authority being subject to law?
- in relation to CISRUL’s ongoing research projects:
* what is the role of education (historically and in the present)
in shaping senses of political community in young people (see
below our Sense of Political Community project)?
* what are the dynamics of political community when valuable
resources (such as oil and gas) are at stake (see below our
Energy Politics Forum project)?
- the significance for political community of minority nationalism,
multiculturalism, indigenous rights movements, urban citizenship,
cosmopolitanism, global civil society, etc.
- the extent to which recent socio-political movements such as Occupy
or the Indignados are proposing alternative forms of political
community, as well as whether the European Union (and other such
arrangements) represents a new departure in political community.
As in all CISRUL activities, our approach is fully inter-disciplinary
and our interests include but go beyond contemporary Europe and North
America. To give an idea of our range of interest, speakers at our
June 2013 Political Community workshop presented on 18th-century
Ireland and on contemporary Argentina, Mexico, Israel-Palestine and
Canada, as well as on political community in theology, philosophy,
post-colonial studies, and constitutional and international law.
We welcome your comments on the CfP and other thoughts on the topic –
the best way is to contribute to our Political Community email
discussion list.
Instructions
The summer school is intended to give PhD students the opportunity to:
- relate their research to broader, inter-disciplinary debates on
citizenship, civil society and rule of law, with a view to
rethinking and developing their arguments
- present their research in a supportive setting and receive feedback
on the content and form of their presentation
- discuss their research informally with scholars and with other PhD
students – we recognize that PhD students are sometimes relatively
isolated
Successful applicants will attend the CISRUL academic workshop on
Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th June, and then participate in the PhD
summer school on Thursday 26th and Friday 27th June:
- on Thursday morning, students will reflect on the workshop with
several of the speakers, followed by discussion on Thursday
afternoon of a set of related readings
- on Friday morning and afternoon, students will draw on their PhD
research to address the topic, receiving feedback from the workshop
speakers as well as their fellow-students.
The fee for attending the workshop will be waived. Successful PhD
applicants will also receive board and lodging for the duration of
the workshop and summer school, as well as the first £200 of their
travel expenses. In return we ask that you commit to:
- preparing a 10-minute presentation, drawing on your PhD research to
address the topic
* after your presentation you will receive questions and comments
from the scholars and other PhD students
* you are also expected to pose questions and comments about the
presentations of your fellow PhD students
- doing the selected readings in advance of the summer school, with a
view to discussing them in the Thursday afternoon session
- contributing where possible to the 2-day workshop as well as taking
notes on the workshop to discuss in the first session of the summer
school, which will reflect on the workshop
We anticipate that admission will be competitive, because we will cap
the number of summer school students at 15 to allow time for full
discussion of all presentations and for enough personal contact
between PhD students and the scholars present.
Summer school applicants should complete and submit the following
information, together with your CV, to the summer school
administrator, by 28th February to [email protected].
Website of the summer school:
http://cisrul.wordpress.com/political-community-workshop-2014-cfp/
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InterPhil List Administration:
http://interphil.polylog.org
Intercultural Philosophy Calendar:
http://cal.polylog.org
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