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Conference Announcement Theme: Decolonization Subtitle: A New Paradigm for the Theory of Global Justice Type: International Workshop Institution: Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queen's University Belfast Location: Belfast, Northern Ireland (United Kingdom) Date: 31.5.–1.6.2018 __________________________________________________ Aims of the Workshop The topic of global justice – that is the moral obligations we have to one another as human beings rather than as citizens of one political community – has in recent decades become an appropriately central concern in contemporary political theory. This is reflective of the historical process of increasing globalization and a growing awareness of the deepening interdependence among the peoples, states and regions of the world. Both the causes of, and the likely solutions to, many of the most acute problems we face clearly lie beyond nation-state or regional boundaries. So while theoretical conversations about justice have moved on to a global terrain, what practical impact has this had? This conference is motivated by the following thought: that much of the presumptively progressive, and undoubtedly well-meaning, contemporary academic work on global justice is characterised by a crippling failure to make the critical connections between theory and practice that are required if such work is to contribute to the struggle for human freedom. Our intention is to explore the possibility of developing a new paradigm for the theory of global justice, one that abandons the ahistorical, abstract approaches that have dominated Anglophone, academic debates on global justice for the past three decades at least. We need to change fundamentally the focus of this theoretical conversation so that we can begin to grasp the fabric of global justice, that is the history and structure of those hierarchical relations of power between the peoples of the world that have been institutionally embedded throughout colonial and neo-colonial eras. By proposing the word ‘decolonization’ as the key term that marks the distinctiveness of this alternative paradigm, we seek to emphasise the need to ground our understanding of global justice in the history of struggles against the systematic practices of racialised, colonial oppression visited on most peoples of the world by North Atlantic powers throughout modernity. Decolonization is an ongoing challenge since contemporary struggles against global injustices are marked indubitably by the legacy of that historical process of racialized colonialism. Justice demands that all aspects of that legacy must be overcome. This will involve the achievement of a new set of relations between the peoples of the world based on equal respect. Substantive decolonisation requires nothing less than the mutually supported realisation of political, economic, social and cultural aspects of self-determining freedom by all the peoples of the world. This can only come about in the context of a process in which neo-colonial structures of power, often working through global institutions, are dismantled so that the world order is reconstituted as a global community of peoples enjoying equal respect. We intend to explore this research agenda with a view to replacing the abstract, disengaged analyses that have dominated academic debates on global justice within political theory, with a vibrant, critically engaged set of interdisciplinary inquiries that dig under the surface of contemporary social and global orders to expose the pervasiveness of (neo-)colonialism. We want to imagine an alternative, truly decolonized world in which freedom for all can best be realised. Programme Thursday, 31 May 2018 2pm Refreshments & Welcome 2.45pm – 4.15pm Shane O’Neill Global Justice as Decolonization (Keele University, England / Queen’s University Belfast) 4.15pm – 4.30pm Coffee / Tea 4.30pm – 6pm Catherine Lu Decolonizing Borders, Self-Determination, and Global Justice (McGill University, Canada) 6.15pm Reception Common Room – Mitchell Institute 7.30pm Conference Dinner Barking Dog Restaurant (invited guests only) Friday, 1 June 2018 9.30am – 11am Franziska Duebgen Paradoxes of Justice. Normativity in a Postcolonial World (University of Koblenz, Germany) 11am – 11.20am Coffee / Tea 11.20am – 12.50pm Gary Wilder TITLE tbc (City University of New York, USA) 12.50pm – 1.50pm Lunch 1.50pm – 3.20pm Nicholas Smith Global Injustice and Basic Income (Macquarie University, Australia / Keele University, England) 3.30pm – 4pm Concluding Discussion Venue: Newark Room, Queen's University Belfast Please rsvp by May 26th to either Suzanne Whitten (swhitte...@qub.ac.uk) or Fabian Schuppert (f.schupp...@qub.ac.uk). Conference website: https://www.qub.ac.uk/Research/GRI/mitchell-institute/DecolonizationANewParadigmfortheTheoryofGlobalJustice.html __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: https://interphil.polylog.org InterPhil List Archive: https://www.mail-archive.com/interphil@list.polylog.org/ __________________________________________________
