2007 July 27-28 ’Civil Rights, Liberties and Disobedience: Alternatives to Governance in the 21st Century’, Loughborough University

lawMOUFFE, Chantal

Conference Hosted by the Centre for the Study of International Governance, Loughborough University In conjunction with: CAMPACC, NASPIR, the PSA Anarchist Studies Network, PSA Specialist Group for the Study of Political Activism, and the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers. 27-28 July 2007

Conference Abstract:
For some the "War on Terror" is a necessary defence of liberty in the face
of a real, major and present threat: for others it portends the extended
curtailment of civil liberties, the repression and criminalisation of
protest and the steady encroachment of the state into civil society.
Numerous state and non-state actors have developed to respond to the
perceived threat of terrorism while social movements, civil liberties
campaigners and legal professionals have been engaged with challenging what
they see as the negative consequences of that response. This two day
workshop seeks to discuss these contemporary political trajectories, the
structures and practices that permit and enable them, and the campaigns,
movements and ideologies related to them.
The conference will be distinctive in considering the strengths and
weaknesses of alternatives to traditional understandings of governance.
Such alternatives tend to be motivated by the question of how people might
effect governance when elected representatives charged with protecting
freedoms are perceived by some as being responsible for eroding them. The
conference will consider the roles of social movements and due legal
process in articulating and promoting these alternatives.
The aim of the conference is to bring academics, campaigners, civil
liberties groups and lawyers together to discuss and advance our knowledge
of possible changes in the nature of governance in contemporary global
political community and the role of academics, lawyers and activists in
this process. Our aim is to critically assess both theoretically and
empirically community actions, global networks, campaigns and actions that
claim to affirm collective autonomy in the face of what they see as civil
and political repression.
The conference will be hosted by the Centre for the Study of International
Governance at the Department of Politics, IR and European Studies,
Loughborough University. The work of the Centre "proceeds from an
assumption that in the absence of an over-arching political authority,
debates on the principles and practice of international governance will be
varied and often highly controversial. The concept of governance itself is
contested and in this light the Centre welcomes a wide range of viewpoints
and aims to embrace broad thematic coverage."
The conference is being co-convened by two PSA Specialist Groups. The first
is the Anarchist Studies Network (ASN). The establishment of the ASN aims
to consolidate interest in post-statist forms of social organisation and
post-statist ideologies of social change and order. Building on the work of
theorists of radical democratic politics, such as Chantal Mouffe, Ernesto
Laclau and others, the group aims to consider critically the importance of
anarchism’s potential contribution to contemporary debates in political
theory. No less is the group concerned with understanding and providing a
conceptual paradigm for understanding post-Marxist and anti-authoritarian
social movements. The aim of the conference is to bring anarchism to the
foreground of academic debates by evaluating its potential contribution.
The second is the PSA Specialist Group for the study of Political Activism
(SGPA). The groups aim is to promote British Politics and International
Relations scholarship concerning non-violent action against oppression.
What constitutes oppression and appropriate forms of non-violent action to
combat it are open questions: the group’s activities and the proposed
conference are aimed at promoting free and varied exchanges of ideas in
relation to those questions.
Since these are questions and issues engaged with daily by groups like the
Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC), Amnesty
International, Greenpeace, Trident Ploughshares, the Haldane Society of
Socialist Lawyers and other groups, we invite them to share their
experiences and their concerns so that academic research can learn from and
engage with these voices. Political research ought to, and often does,
evaluate the effectiveness of these campaigns and organisations, their
rationale and the structures of global power they oppose. Our overarching
aim with the conference will be to evaluate these discourses, goals and
strategies, and make the core issues transparent and available to academic
debate.
This conference builds upon the successful ’Reclaiming our Rights’
conference hosted by the Human Rights and Social Justice (HRSJ) Research
Institute at London Metropolitan University on the 2nd of December 2006,
which focused on debates around the War on Terror. In comparison, our aim
is to broaden the analytical focus and the geographical participant base of
this conference. First, by capitalising on the research strengths of the two
co-convening Specialist Groups and the thematic priorities of the Centre for
the Study of International Governance at Loughborough, we aim to deepen the
theoretical and empirical study of contemporary political process and civil
society movements. The civil liberties focus of the HRSJ conference in
London will be expanded to assess the role and success of civil
disobedience movements and the ideologies which animate them. Second,
taking the conference north of the capital, and providing travel bursaries
for participants, will open up the concerns of a traditionally London-based
cluster of lawyers, researchers and activists to an audience north of the
capital. Loughborough’s central location is ideal in this regard. We look
forward to welcoming you here.

Day 1 Friday 27th July

11:00 - 13:00 Registration
(Sandwiches and light refreshments will be available)
13:00 - 13:45 Plenary 1:
Professor Bill Bowring, Birkbeck, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Title t.b.c.
Session 1
1400: 15:30
Panel 1: The Nexus of Politics and Law
Dr Adriana Sinclair, TransState Project, University of Bremen
Activism and International Law: The Case of Trident Ploughshares’
Professor Christopher May, Lancaster University
’Openness contra property: The Internet, the global governance of
intellectual property and alternative models for the utilisation of
valuable
knowledge’

Dr. Gurch Sanghera, University of Bristol
’Reclaiming Rights Discourses for Counter-Hegemonic Struggles’
Panel 2: Understanding Movement for Social Change
Zinthiya Ganeshpanchan, Loughborough University
’Mothering the other- Women and mother Politics in Sri Lanka’
Jo Wilding
Title tbc
Dr Stuart Price, De Montfort University
The Transformation of Reality: the Spanish revolution, libertarian
activism
and
mediated culture’

15:30 -16:00 Refreshments
Session 2
1600- 17:30
Panel 3: Governance and Change
Dr Stephano Harvey, Queen Mary, University of London
’The new state-form: nine formulations on governance’

Tony Bunyan, Director, Statewatch
’The state, democracy and civil liberties in the EU’
Dr Thomas Davis, St Anthony’s College, Oxford
’The Rise and Fall of Transnational Civil Society’
Panel 4: Politics in Anarchy
Dr Uri Gordon, University of Tel Aviv
’Power and Anarchy: In/equality + In/visibility in Autonomous Politics’

Dr Andrew Robinson, Nottingham University
’The social logic of the state: Kropotkin’s ’political principle’ and
totalitarianism in everyday life’

Clive Gaby, Open University
’Anarcho-Cosmopolitanism: The Universalisation of the ’Equal Exchange’
20:00 Dinner

Day 2: Saturday 28th July

10:00 - 10:45 Plenary 2:
Dr Ben Franks,
’Anarchism, Vanguards and Paternalism - Problems of collective resistance’
Session 3
11:00 - 12:30
Panel 5: Questioning State Practice
Dr. Les Levidow CAMPACC
’Anti-terrorism: UK governance strategies and counter-strategies’
Des Fernandez, De Montfort (1994-2006) CAMPACC
’Civil Rights, Liberties and Disobedience: Alternatives to Kemalist
Governance and ’Anti-Terrorism’ strategies in Turkey’
.
Alex Fitch
Title tbc
Panel 6: Questioning International Relations
Florent Blanc, Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris/ Northwestern
University
’Distancing Dissent: Modalities of Resistance in Times of Exception’
Michael Mulligan, Alex Prichard, Loughborough University
’Anarchy, Sovereignty, and Imperialism’
Dr Eric Herring, Bristol University
’Remaking the Mainstream: Activist IR Scholarship’
Lunch 12:30-13:30
13:30 - 14:30 Closing Plenary:
Professor Simon Tormey, Nottinham, Director CSSGJ
’The Power of the Powerless (Revisited)’

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