10th ESSEX CONFERENCE IN
CRITICAL POLITICAL THEORY
THEORY IN THE FACE OF GLOBAL CHALLENGES:
CAPITALISM & ECOLOGY, COMMUNITY & CITIZENSHIP
Call for Papers
Dates: 16-18 June 2010
Location: University of Essex, Colchester, UK
Call for Papers Deadline: 30 April 2010
Website:http://www.essex.ac.uk/idaworld/10th_Essex_Conference_in_Critical_Political_Theory.html
All Inquiries to: (polcon /at/ essex.ac.uk)
Keynote Speakers
ROMAND Coles is Professor of Community, Culture
& Environment at Northern Arizona University.
DIANA Coole is Professor of Political & Social
Theory at Birkbeck, University of London.
STEPHEN K. White is James Hart Professor of
Politics at the University of Virginia.
Other Confirmed Speakers Include
JANE Bennett, The Johns Hopkins University (USA)
WILLIAM E. Connolly, The Johns Hopkins University (USA)
ERNESTO Laclau is Emiritus Professor of
Political Theory at the University of Essex.
FRANCISO Panizza, London School of Economics and Political Science (UK)
Organizing Committee at the University of Essex
JASON Glynos, Department of Government, University of Essex
DAVID Howarth, Centre for Theoretical Studies, University of Essex
ALETTA J. Norval, Centre for Theoretical Studies, University of Essex
JONATHAN Dean, Department of Government, University of Essex
KHAIRIL Ahmad, PhD Candidate, Department of Government, University of Essex
GRAHAM Walker, PhD Candidate, Department of Government, University of Essex
Methodology Workshops Organizing Committee
GRAHAM Walker, PhD Candidate, Department of Government, University of Essex
The Conference Theme: Theory in the Face of
Global Challenges: Capitalism & Ecology, Community & Citizenship
FEW doubt, today, that we face a series of
connected global challenges: the dangers of
climate change and environmental degradation; a
crisis of international finance and global
capitalism; an ever-increasing logic of
minoritization, which threatens to fragment
communities and societies; greater social and
economic inequalities, both nationally and
globally; the intensification of various forms
of religious belief, including fundamentalism,
alongside a growing secularization of
communities and societies; and a palpable
disillusionment with politics and politicians.
THEORISTS and scholars in the humanities, social
sciences, and the natural sciences also face new
challenges: insistent demands to show the
?relevance? of their research for the ?real
world?; diminishing resources and institutional
support; a growing marginalization from
mainstream and corporately subsidized research.
Universities and colleges are being compelled to
show that their research has a ?direct impact?
on the economy, public policy, or society in
order to secure funding and research grants.
?THEORY in the Face of Global Challenges:
Capitalism & Ecology, Community & Citizenship?
takes up the challenge of rethinking different
aspects of global capitalism, religion, the
place of minorities, and the environment. It
will also problematize and explore the role of
theory in the academy and in relation to the pressing issues we confront.
HOW do we problematize and critically explain
these new phenomena? What are the limits and
potentials of contemporary political and ethical
theory in addressing these new issues? What is
the relationship between community, citizenship,
and democracy? What kind of ethos needs to be
cultivated in the face of these new challenges,
and how can it be brought about? Must ecology be
sacrificed on the altar of rebuilding the global
capitalist system, or is an eco-egalitarian
alternative possible? In what ways can various
fundamentalisms be challenged and engaged with
in the name of a democratic politics that is not
itself fundamentalist in character? What is the
relationship between cultural theory, radical
materialism and various sorts of naturalism?
What are the prospects and limits of pluralizing
pluralism? Ought we to restrict agency to
humans, or does it extend to the material and
non-human world more generally? What is the
relationship between nature and culture? How can
cultural theory respond to recent developments
in science? How do these broad sets of issues
and questions get addressed in specific contexts
and policy arenas? And what theoretical
languages and methods are best able to respond to these changes and trends?
THESE are just some of the tasks of critical
political theory today. Our invited speakers
shall deliver keynote addresses to the
conference that will shape the discussions with
their distinctive voices and perspectives. Each
of the speakers will address one or more of the themes announced in the title.
ROMAND Coles is Professor and Director of the
Programme in Community, Culture & Environment at
Northern Arizona University. He works at the
intersections between radical democratic theory,
continental philosophy, and grassroots
democratic activism. During his two decades at
Duke University he co-founded and co-directed an
interdisciplinary project called Dialogical
Ethics and Critical Cosmopolitanism, as well as
The Third Reconstruction Institute, which
cultivated collaborations between scholars and
grassroots organizers across the South-Eastern
United States. He currently directs the
Programme for Community, Culture, and
Environment at Northern Arizona University where
he writes, teaches and organizes politically on
issues pertaining to building grassroots
democracy in schools, developing a green
economy, crafting public spaces, immigration
rights, urban agriculture, and the engaged
pedagogy movement in higher education. His
writings include: Self/Power/Other: Political
Theory and Dialogical Ethics; Rethinking
Generosity: Critical Theory and the Politics of
Caritas; Beyond Gated Politics: Reflections
Toward the Possibility of Democracy; and (with
Stanley Hauerwas) Christianity, Democracy, and
the Radical Ordinary: Conversations Between a
Radical Democrat and a Christian. Romand?s
address will explore possibilities for radical
democratic transformation toward a green
political economy, focusing on vital
micro-relational dynamics among humans and the
nonhuman that nurture revolutionary enthusiasms,
hopeful visions of possibility, and networks of
political power necessary for constructing
alternatives to ecocidal global capitalism. His
discussion will make connections between
grassroots community organizing initiatives in
which he is involved, theories of mimesis and
mirror neurons, and broadening experiments in alternative political economy.
DIANA Coole is Professor of Political and Social
Theory at Birkbeck, University of London. Her
many books and articles include Women in
Political Theory: From Ancient Misogyny to
Contemporary Feminism, 2nd Edition (Hemel
Hempstead, Harvester-Wheatsheaf & Colorado,
Lynne Rienner, 1993); Negativity and Politics:
Dionysus and Dialectics from Kant to
Poststructuralism (London & New York, Routledge,
2000); Merleau-Ponty and Modern Politics after
Anti-Humanism (Rowman and Littlefield, 2007);
Materialism and Subjectivity (Duke University
Press, 2007). Her address will focus on the
discursive and ethical framing of question the
population question for developed countries. Her
concerns thus engage the intersection between
capitalism and the environment, whilst raising
significant controversies about immigration,
community and new forms of citizenship. Drawing
on her extensive knowledge of modern political
and social theory, and contemporary continental
political philosophy, she will also explore the
role of theory and theorists in addressing these
issues and their policy implications.
STEPHEN K. White is James Hart Professor of
Politics at the University of Virginia. His
books include The Recent Work of Jurgen Habermas
(Cambridge University Press, 1988) and Political
Theory and Postmodernism (Cambridge University
Press, 1991); Edmund Burke: Modernity, Politics
and Aesthetics (Sage, 1994). He has also edited
volumes entitled Lifeworld and Politics: Between
Modernity and Postmodernity (University of Notre
Dame Press, 1989) and the Cambridge Companion to
Habermas (Cambridge University Press, 1995). His
contribution to the forthcoming conference
arises from his most recent book - The Ethos of
a Late-Modern Citizen where he contends that
the global challenges facing Western democracies
require a systematic re-examination and
re-articulation of the role of citizens and
citizenship. His approach does not deny, in the
name of tradition, the force of what is new, nor
does he imagine that we can adequately confront
change by simply rejecting the traditions of
modern Western political thought. Instead, he
offers an incisive interpretation of our
late-modern ethical-political condition and
explains how a distinctive ?ethos? or spirit of
citizenship might constitute part of an
exemplary response. This ethos requires
reworking basic figures of the modern political
imagination, including our conception of the
self, citizenship, and democratic politics.
***
THE TENTH CONFERENCE IN CRITICAL POLITICAL
THEORY at the University of Essex provides a
space to address and engage with these issues.
The conference has achieved a renowned
reputation for the quality of the papers
presented and the large number of international
participants. Previous guest speakers have
included Bill Connolly, Michael Hardt, Wendy
Brown, Judith Squires, Quentin Skinner, Joan
Copjec, James Tully, Jane Bennett, Fred
Dallmayr, Bonnie Honig, David Owen, David
Campbell, Simon Critchley, Ernesto Laclau, and
Chantal Mouffe, amongst others. This year the
conference will be hosted by the IDAWorld,
Centre for Theoretical Studies, and the
Department of Government at the University of Essex.
THE conference provides an important opportunity
to engage with the contemporary challenges and
possibilities of social and political theory and
to exchange views on ongoing research. We
welcome papers from all scholars, including
postdoctoral researchers, postgraduates and
early career scholars from a wide variety of
backgrounds in the field of social and political
theory. But as is customary with the Essex
conference, the themes are in part shaped by the
thought and writings of our invited guests, and
this year is no exception. We are delighted to
host Professors Romand Coles, Diana Coole, Ernesto Laclau & Stephen White.
Broad Themes Include
* Rethinking Community and Citizenship
* Critical Political Economy
* Discourse & the Media
* Politics of Immanence and Transcendence
* Ecology and Capitalism
* Politics and Technology
* Latin American Politics
* Universalism and Particularism
* Democracy and Representation
* Capitalism, Multiculturalism, Globalization
* Identity Politics and Mobilization
* Subjectivity and Psychoanalysis
* Religion, Faith and Pluralism
* Discourse and Affect
* Fundamentalisms
* New Ecologies
* Philosophies of Nature
* Discourse, Governance & Public Policy
* Culture and Political Economy
* The Politics of Space, Time and Territoriality
* Reworking Identity/Difference
Proposals for Papers, Panels and Roundtables
The conference organizers welcome proposals for
individual papers; full panels (with papers);
and roundtables (focused on discussion of a
common theme rather than the formal presentation
of papers). Paper, panel, and roundtable
proposals (short abstracts) should be sent to
(polcon /at/ essex.ac.uk) no later than 30th April,
2010. Inquiries may also be sent to that
address. Decisions on proposals will be made on
a rolling basis. Inquiries may also be sent to
that address. Final papers will be posted on the conference website.
Methodology Workshops
Some of the sessions will be devoted to
methodological workshops. The 90-minute workshop
sessions feature specialists in different
aspects of critical and poststructuralist
political analysis. The workshop sessions take
the form of a ?master-class?, with senior
researchers meeting a small number of early
career researchers using a particular
methodological strategy or technique. The focus
will be on questions raised by researchers, and
their research will be treated as case studies
to generate and engage a set of methodological questions.
The workshops aim at creating a setting where
early career researchers can benefit from
interaction with experts in their field. The
sessions will be facilitated by fellow early
career researchers, and the discussants will be
established and renowned names in the field of
interpretative political analysis, such as Jason
Glynos, David Howarth and Aletta Norval. The
sessions are fully incorporated into the regular
conference program, and the sessions are open to all conference participants.
In order to take part in a workshop session,
early career researchers invited to present
their work in one of these will be asked to
introduce their research project in a 2-3 page
summary, pointing to the particular difficulties
or methodological questions that arise from
their research that they would like to explore
in the workshop. Please note it clearly in your
inquiry if you wish to be considered for
inclusion in a Methodology Workshop. The
deadline for inquiries is 30 April 2010. For
additional questions, please do not hesitate to
contact the chair of the Methodology Workshop
Advisory Board ((polcon /at/ essex.ac.uk)) marking your
inquiry clearly for attention: Graham Walker.
Conference Fees*
Conference fees for Staff: £140
Conference fees for Early Career Researchers: £80
*Conference fees include coffee/tea, 3 lunch
vouchers and the conference dinner (excluding wine) on Thursday night.
Note: Those not wishing to attend the conference
dinner may subtract £30 from the conference fee.
Conference Site
The University of Essex is located in the
ancient market town of Colchester and near the
picturesque village of Wivenhoe in Northeast
Essex. It is about 45 minutes from London by
rail, 30 minutes from London?s Stansted Airport
by cab or about an hour by bus. The conference
programme will offer opportunities to enjoy the
traditional villages and countryside in this
scenic part of England. More information about
accommodation, costs, and venue is available on the website.
