Researchers from the PREDEF project are convening two panels at the DVPW congress "Politik in der Polykrise" taking place September 24th-27th 2024 at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.
Panel 9. Civil Disobedience: Towards New Forms of „Respect for the Law”?
26 Sept, 09:00-10:30
Organisator*innen / Organizers:
- Gebh, Sara, Dr., Universität Wien, sara.gebh@univie.ac.at
- Trimcev, Rieke, Dr., Universität Greifswald, rieke.trimcev@uni-greifswald.de
Kurzbeschreibung / Abstract:
The concept of crisis has accompanied the practice and theoretization of civil disobedience since its beginnings in the civil rights movement. Civil disobedience – acts of politically motivated lawbreaking that prefigure new forms of citizenship – seeks to produce, visibilize or reframe experiences of crisis. This feature is most evident in the recent revival of civil disobedience by climate activists and activists engaging in rescue missions in the Mediterranean. In this context, the panel proposes to revisit one of the most contested aspects of civil disobedence: the “highest respect for” or “fidelity to the law” (King/Rawls) that lawbreakers must demonstrate, e.g. by renouncing violence and accepting punishment. Radical democrats have persuasively criticized legalist readings of this idea for their status quo-bias, undermining civil disobedience’s subversive potential (Celikates). But this “anti-legal turn” (Scheuerman) has come at a price: theoretically, the abdication of a potentially effective source of critique, i.e. the law itself; and practically, a blind spot vis-à-vis recent protestors’ insistence on their respect for the law and their experiments with new forms of its enactment, e.g. beyond appeals to the constitutions of their home country (international law, human rights etc.). Against this background, political scientists need to analyze, compare and re-theorize “respect for the law”, without falling prey to the fallacy of legalism vs. anti-legalism. We look forward to contributions from various fields of expertise, particularly political theory and history of ideas, legal theory and protest and movement research, that creatively explore the precarious relation between civil disobedience and the law.
With contributions by: Dorothea Elena Schoppek, Anna Wieder, Iman Al Nassre, Carolina Vestena
Panel 90. The Crisis of Political Imagination
25 Sept, 16:00-17:30
Organisator*innen / Organizers:
- Diehl, Paula, Prof. Dr., Universität Kiel, diehl@politik.uni-kiel.de
- Seitz, Sergej, Dr., Universität Wien, sergej.seitz@univie.ac.at
- Gebh, Sara, Dr., Universität Wien, sara.gebh@univie.ac.at
Kurzbeschreibung / Abstract:
Climate crisis, economic crisis, “migration crisis”, pandemic, war, crisis of political representation, and the democracy crisis generated by the global rise of far-right and authoritarian movements are the major mutually reinforcing crises, producing what has been called a polycrisis. Surprisingly, one of its key elements has not been addressed by the debate yet: the crisis of political imagination. Scholars working on political representation have pointed to this problem (Rosanvallon, Schedler, Diehl). The best-known manifestation of this crisis is the TINA ideology, which prevents the social imaginary to conceive of new political alternatives and visions for the future. Most pressingly, the crisis of political imagination contributes to sustain an ecologically unsustainable economic system, to block challenges to the hierarchy between north and south, to envision alternative ways to deal with migration, injustice and the lack of democracy both national and globally. This can be described as a closure of the imaginary (Castoriadis) or a blocked political imagination (Rosanvallon). We invite scholars from political theory and connected disciplines to analyze and conceptualize the origins, symptoms, and intersections of the crisis of political imagination. We are particularly interested in
- addressing the concept of political imagination, its relation to social imaginaries and the inherent tension between disclosure and closure;
- reflecting the temporalities of the political imaginary, how it changes over time and history’s role as an archive for resuscitating radical imagination;
- exploring institutional perspectives, particularly how they can foreclose alternatives but also serve as vessels to widen the political imaginary.
With contributions by: Rainer Stummer, Marlon Barbehön, Michaela Bstieler, Stephanie Graf, Paula Diehl, Sergej Seitz.
Full Conference Program here.
