CALL FOR PAPERS
THE RULE OF ALL
DEMOCRACY AND DEMOCRATISING MOVEMENTS TODAY
Venue: The Danish Institute at Athens, March 4.-6., 2019
Over the last decade, a plethora of progressive movements have begun experimenting
with new forms of democratic government and democratization: from the various
movements of the squares and the communes in Venezuela to the democratic
confederation of Rojava, the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages in Barcelona
and Momentum in the UK. While these movements have different compositions and
strategies in relation to parties, states and municipal governments, they have all taken up
the challenge of implementing democratic government in a world otherwise ruled by
elites and oligarchs.
In doing so, these movements have opened up a number of practical and theoretical
questions: how is it possible to implement and sustain democracy as the rule of all? How
can decision-making processes be structured so as to make them efficacious, inclusive
and open at the same time? How can these democratic experiments reach and include
more people and how do they scale up? How do they relate to, bypass or confront existing
social and political structures? How are internal disagreements and critique incorporated?
How is internal and external communication handled?
The aim of the conference is to gather scholars from various fields (sociology,
anthropology, philosophy, history, political theory, media studies, etc.) to discuss and
assess the democratic possibilities and limitations of some of the experiments,
experiences and theories that have been developed by these movements across the globe
in recent years. Moreover, the conference hopes to move beyond the narratives of crisis
and critique that tends to dominate much of contemporary scholarship, and towards a
more affirmative and constructive focus on the on-going experiments with democracy
and democratising processes.
We invite empirically as well as more theoretically grounded papers. Since the aim of the
conference is to draw inspiration from and build on the concrete experiences and
experiments with democracy and democratization, we encourage all presentations to
consider concrete political practices from recent history, but will also consider proposals
drawing on movements and forms of democratic government in the past.
The confirmed keynote speakers are:
Tithi Bhattacharya
Professor of South Asian History and the Director of Global Studies at Purdue
University
Stathis Kouvelakis
Reader in Political Theory at King’s College, London
Aside from the two keynotes, the conference will consist of a set of panels organized
around topics relating to the overall theme. The proposed topics are:
(1) Democracy and municipal governments.
(2) Organising the economy democratically (locally, regionally, etc.).
(3) Democracy and the role and organisation of parties.
(4) Democracy and/as civil society movements.
(5) Democratic potentials and limitations of the nation state.
(6) Democratic potentials of information technologies and media.
When submitting your paper proposal make sure to state which one or two topics the
paper addresses. We reserve the right not to consider proposals with no such indication.
To facilitate a collective, coherent and constructive debate on the possibilities of
democratising society in radical ways, the entire conference will take place in a single
room, the auditorium of the Danish Institute in Athens, over the course of three days. We
expect participants to partake in the entire event. This will allow us to get to know one
another and have a continuous and progressive discussion. But it also means that any
absences will leave a significant hole in the schedule. You should therefore ensure that
you will actually be able to partake in the event before submitting your proposal.
There is no registration fee.
Unless we receive additional funding, we will unfortunately not be able to cover any
participants’ travel expenses.
There will be a conference dinner Tuesday evening. Pre-registration with the organisers
is necessary. Payment in cash on the day of the dinner; expect about 20€.
Proposals of no more than 300 words and a short biography of the author(s) should be
sent to Nicolai von Eggers: nicolai.von.eggers@diathens.gr.
Entitle your email “The Rule of All” and make sure to indicate which of the above topics
your paper addresses. The deadline for proposals is 27 December 2018.
