[Commlist] DiscourseNet Winter School 7 in Valencia

Capitalism in Global Crisis
economic transformations, new authoritarianism, and resistance

https://discourseanalysis.net/en/DNS7

The DiscourseNet Winter School brings together advanced MA as well as 
PhD students (BA students with an own research project are also welcome) 
who want to pursue research on Capitalism in Global Crisis revolving 
around economic transformations, new authoritarianism, and resistance 
with respect to Discourse Studies and to discuss the methodological and 
theoretical
challenges of their thesis projects or first ideas.


In the last decades, the economies in different countries and regions as 
well as the global economic
power relations have changed. Three characteristics are significant: 
first, the US economic
hegemony, expressed by a dominant position in almost all traditional 
leading industries, becomes
step by step replaced by a tri-pole structure consisting by a rising 
Asian field of economic innovation
(with China as regional superpower), a declining North American pole and 
a consolidating European
pole (with Germany as regional hegemon) torn between the aspiring East 
and former West. Second,
rising economic inequalities can be observed in all capitalist 
economies, including China, Russia and
East/Central Europe, with the formation of a small wealthy elite on the 
top of economic hierarchy,
shrinking middle classes splitting up between the top and bottom, and a 
widening array of lower
classes more and more excluded from social recognition, welfare, 
consumption and other forms of
social participation. Wealthy and innovative areas on the one hand, and 
declining regions
disconnected from global innovations on the other hand reflect these 
cleavages geographically. And,
finally, a forth technological revolution (catchwords: Industry 4.0, 
digitalisation, 5G, green economy)
is currently changing global value chains, working relations and the 
general distribution of labour
and value. These tendencies of the global economy have huge impacts on 
political discourses, social
identities, life styles, social conflicts and the formation of new 
milieus. Among diverse social, cultural
and political reactions to these global transformations new forms of 
authoritarianism seem to be of
significant analytical importance.

New authoritarianism can take different forms. The narrative that the 
(Western) world inscribes
itself within a history of progress, of political and social advances 
and that this process is irreversible
are no longer convincing. New forms of nationalism, nativism, racism, 
anti-semitism, anti-feminism,
chauvinism, anti-social, religious extremism, ethnocentrism and 
ideological responses to economic
crises are threatening human emancipation. New forms of authoritarian 
governance arise on a
plurality of social backgrounds and in a variety of forms, from 
nationalism, to populism and from
right-wing extremism towards ideologies of economic impositions. These 
anti-emancipatory
tendencies are not limited to specific social movements or politics. 
Therefore, they require an
analysis of a diversity of social phenomenon, like power constellations, 
discourses, historic memory,
economic conditions, processes of subjectivation, etc. In contrast to 
extremism, the approach on
authoritarianism does not analyze its objects from the margins of 
society; and unlike populism,
authoritarianism does not require an approach on hegemony. However, 
there are also forms of
extremist or populist authoritarianism. Yet, the role of new 
authoritarianism for and within ongoing
global transformations of the economy seems to be oscillating between a 
consolidation of existing
power relations and a nationalist form of resistance against certain 
neoliberal policies.
Despite the rise of authoritarian tendencies, there is a notable amount 
of social movements resisting
them: the feminist movement, LGBTQ movement, ecological movements, 
minority group movements,
worker movements, refugee movements, anti-racist, anti-nationalist, 
anti-fascist, anti-capitalist
movements, and also more authoritarian resistance. Many of these 
movements explicitly argue
against silencing of experiences of various social groups, and do the 
work revealing structures of
power, imagining alternatives and proposing solutions to power 
imbalances, exclusion, symbolic and
physical violence. In this ideological work, new subjectivities are 
formed and existing ones redefined,
new ways of expressing agency are created. Development of the digital 
communication
infrastructure has been especially important in these processes, as 
online spaces have been pivotal
for coordination of social action, assisting in formation of global 
social movements. Critical discourse
studies have been especially active in critiquing the less-democratic 
discourses, while the analysis of
resistant discourses and clashes between different kinds of discourses, 
as well as conditions that
allow them to arise and develop, are also of significance. We welcome 
papers exploring these and
other possible dimensions of resistant discourses.



Possible topics include:
• Race, class and gender in global capitalism
• Material resistance and counter discourses
• Forms of authoritarianism and its relation to neoliberalism in crisis
• Intersectionality, identity politics and new subjectivities
• Global political economy and economic discourses
• (Post)colonial capitalism in new global constellations
• Anti-Fascism, socialism and left-wing authoritarianism
• Old and new exclusions: migration, borders and ecologic crisis
• Ideologies and post-truth in times of technological revolutions
• Digital transformation & forms of culture and sociality in late capitalism



The aim of the Winter School is to bring young and established discourse 
researchers together to
address practical challenges in discourse research. The event will 
provide a collaborative exchange
and hands-on research experience in a rather informal workshop setting. 
Introductory workshops on
the following fields of inquiry will be given by more experienced 
scholars from the Universities of
Giessen, Moscow, Warwick, Tyumen and Valencia, together with guests from 
other international universities:

Discourse; New Authoritarianism; Resistance.

Our keynote speaker Ngai-Ling Sum from the Lancaster University will 
provide a lecture on

“The Cultural Political Economy of Hope/Fear: Ordoliberal 
Authoritarianism and the Case of China”

Participants from the disciplines and fields of sociology, political 
sciences, literary and cultural
studies, media and communication, education, geography, philosophy, 
linguistics and related areas in
the social sciences and humanities are all invited.


Applicants are expected to send in proposals which include an abstract 
with one’s project (no more
than 250 words) as well as an academic CV. The abstract will consist of 
a title and a description of the
proposed research project or presentation.


Proposals should be sent in by the 30th of September 2020. We will 
inform you on 15th of October
if you are accepted or not.

In case of acceptance, each participant will be asked to send in a 
10-page version of the research
project by December 31st 2020. These longer texts should delineate the 
research object, lay out the
research questions, situate the project in the field, and reflect on the 
preferred methods. These
versions will be circulated among the participants prior to the event 
and will be used by the
commentators. Each participant will get two comments on their paper by 
two experts. During the
Winter School, the students will not present their entire papers but 
elaborate on specific points,
practical problems and methodological challenges of their projects. If 
they wish, the participants can
stay the weekend after and join in the social activities with the 
organisers in the Valencia region.
The DiscourseNet Winter School is free of charge. In case of equal 
quality of the application,
DiscourseNet members will be considered first. If you want to join 
DiscourseNet, please write a
message to (membership /at/ discourseanalysis.net) 
<mailto:(membership /at/ discourseanalysis.net)> including your name, email 
address and professional
status (e.g. PhD student, professor, independent researcher). There are 
places for up to 25
participants. The working language is English.

The Winter School is organised by members of the DIPE (Discourse, 
Ideology, and Political
Economy) research group within DiscourseNet. DiscourseNet is an 
interdisciplinary and
international association of discourse researchers existing since 2007.

To apply for the Winter School and for any inquiries or questions, 
please contact:

(DNWinterSchoolValencia /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(DNWinterSchoolValencia /at/ gmail.com)>


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