Author: Tommaso Vitale Date: To: ML movimenti Bicocca Subject: [movimenti.bicocca] CFP: activism and the state of neoliberalism
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>
> CALL FOR PAPERS
>
>
> Graduate Conference on
>
> Activism and the State of Neo- liberalism
>
> 22-23 June 2007 in Budapest, Hungary
>
> Deadline for submitting abstracts is 31 March 2007
>
> The Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology of Central
> European University is pleased to announce its First Graduate
> Student Conference that will take place in Budapest on 22-23 June
> 2007. The conference aims at bringing together graduate students,
> scholars, and activists who are committed to understanding forms of
> neo-liberal governance and capitalist states as well as the
> concrete mechanisms of resistance to and contestation of neo-
> liberal imperatives. We invite abstracts that address related
> theoretical concerns, discuss empirically based research, or
> present the particular experiences of activists. Our goal is to
> bring together participants of a variety of disciplines and
> geographical loci.
>
> Our key speakers include:
>
> Dr Gavin Smith (University of Toronto), who will talk on “Organic
> ideology and political economy: Modes of resistance and modes of
> rule”.
>
> Dr Paul Stubbs (The Institute of Economics, Zagreb), who will talk
> on uneven neo-liberalisms and the present problems and
> possibilities for various kinds of activism.
>
>
> Submitted abstracts shall address one of the topics of the panels:
>
> PANEL DISCRIPTIONS
>
> 1. Panel: States of Neo-liberalism
>
> The panel seeks to discuss the complex and often ambiguous
> processes connected to the transformations that states are going
> through due to neo-liberal reforms of the last decades. The
> ‘retreat’ of the nation-state from economic and social regulations
> has been accompanied on the one hand by the increasing prominence
> of supranational organizations like the IMF or World Bank, and on
> the other by increased opportunities for sub- national groups or
> organizations. At the same time, the state itself is undergoing
> important transformations, inviting further analysis of how
> practices of neo-liberal governmentality are relayed through
> clearly identifiable state policies and apparatuses.
>
> This panel invites contributions focusing on:
> the new types of relations between state actors and non- state
> actors such as social movements, NGOs, international organizations,
> and the business sector;
> the novel practices of the neo-liberal state such as re- scaling,
> devolved sovereignty, and the new forms of spatiality and their
> cultural-ideological representations.
>
> 2. Panel: Of markets and transnational movements
>
> This panel invites papers that examine the concrete links between
> civic activism and donors, charity organizations and other funding
> bodies. The focus of the panel is on the specific cases of
> distribution and/or competition for money in the framework of the
> marketization of civil society and the paradoxes of cooperation
> between civic movements and trans/national sponsoring agencies.
>
> The panel encourages the submission of abstracts related to the
> following themes:
> civil society initiative, fund raising, accountability;
> allocation of aid, conditionality of financial support,
> transnational donors and European Union initiatives.
>
>
> 3. Panel: Fighting subalterities
>
> Though subalterity seems a position from which the most urgent
> criticisms of the global neo-liberal regime and its transfiguration
> onto local politics can be launched, it is also a condition that
> people usually seek to overcome. This panel seeks to explore the
> complex processes involved in simultaneously organizing as a
> subaltern group and overcoming subalternity, i.e., of ‘fighting
> subalternities’. In particular we hope to look at how the internal
> dynamics of organized subaltern (indigenous, Roma, dalit..)
> movements have been affected by neo-liberal rule.
>
> The panel calls for papers that look at:
> the divisive pressures of neo-liberalism on leaders and
> constituencies of subaltern social movements;
> the difficult connection between lived subaltern experiences and
> their public, political representations.
>
>
> HOW TO APPLY
>
> Applicants from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds are
> encouraged to submit an abstract (not more than 300 words) and a
> short cv to the following e-mail address:
> Activism_vs_Neoliberalism@??? (cc: to oustinova-
> stjepanovic_galina@???).
> Please state clearly if you are interested in presenting your paper
> within a specific panel. If not, your paper will be allocated to
> one of the panels upon our discretion. Completed applications
> should be submitted electronically no later than 31 March 31 2007.
> Applicants will be notified about the results by 15 April.
> Presentations should not be longer than 15-20 minutes. A written
> outline of the presentation should be submitted two weeks before
> the conference. For any further questions, please contact us at
> Activism_vs_Neoliberalism@??? (cc: to sphstl01@???).
>
> Visa
> Those requiring support to obtain a visa to Hungary, please contact
> us mentioning your passport details.
>
> Funding
> Limited funding to cover travel costs and accommodation is
> available. However, we encourage participants to also try to find
> travel support at their home institutions.
>
