EQUAL-L: Call For Papers: Social Movements and/In the PostColonial:

CALL FOR PAPERS:

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND/IN THE POSTCOLONIAL:

DISPOSSESSION, DEVELOPMENT AND RESISTANCE IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH*

A conference hosted by the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice,
of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham

June 23 25 2008

The popular classes of the global South are up in arms. From Soweto to Caracas to Nandigram, social movements are making demands for social justice and human dignity against the multiple processes of dispossession that are the hallmark of neoliberalism. In and through these practices of resistance the direction and meaning of the process and project of postcolonial development are transformed. Such struggles, with their challenges to the hegemony of liberal democracy and questioning of state-centric strategies of social change, suggest the need for the development of new categories of political analysis and a critical interrogation of the progressive potential of state-centric theoretical frameworks. They compel us as academics, committed to social justice, to critically interrogate whether it is both possible and/or desirable to resurrect the development state as part of a radical political project.



The Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ) wishes to make a contribution to the development of empirically grounded, theoretically informed and politically enabling analyses of these processes and therefore invites proposals for papers for the conference Social Movements and/in the Postcolonial: Dispossession, Development and Resistance in the Global South. The two-day conference will be structured around the following two streams of discussion:

Struggles over dispossession in the global South

in which we seek papers that offer theoretical and empirical analyses of:

(i) the nature of dispossession and its impact upon conceptions of social justice and democracy.

(ii) forms of opposition to processes of dispossession related to neoliberal restructuring.

(iii) the relationship of such struggles with the state and market

· Social movements and the politics of development - in which we seek theoretical, conceptual and empirically focused papers that deepen our understanding of:


(i) how and why social movements politicise development

(ii) the practices/conceptualisations of development that are a result of such politicisation

(iii) the relationship of such practices/conceptualisations with other transnational and national actors, institutions, and networks.


CSSGJ will actively seek to publish an edited volume on the basis of the conference proceedings.


Abstracts should be of a maximum of 200 words. Proposals for panels should offer a short overview of the panel and then up to a maximum of three abstracts. The deadline for proposals is March 1 2008. Notification of acceptance will be in late March. Please contact Dr Alf Nilsen (Alf.Nilsen@nottingham.ac.uk) and Dr Sara Motta (Sara.Motta@nottingham.ac.uk) for further information and/or with your proposal.

Dr. Alf Gunvald Nilsen
RCUK Fellow, Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice, School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/politics/research/research_CSSGJ.php




*The organisers have clarified that they are happy to interpret Ireland as falling within the "global South" or at any rate being postcolonial for the purposes of this conference!

Source: Equal-L list