Rethinking Anarchy: Anarchism and World Politics Hosted by the International Politics Research Group, Department of Politics, University of Bristol, and supported by the ESRC and the PSA Anarchist Studies Network. 17th-18th June, 2010

As Kenneth Waltz once argued, ‘[t]he problem is this: how to conceive of an order without an orderer and of organizational effects where formal organization is lacking’ (Waltz, 1979: 89). This problem is rarely stated as parsimoniously in anarchist theory. Paradoxically, states in a condition of anarchy might represent a quintessential anarchist community, and yet despite a demonstrable tradition of anarchist engagements with this concept of anarchy, as well as anarchist engagements with world politics as such, few if any of the anarchists or their ideas have been discussed in a discipline traditionally structured around the requirements and problem-fields of the world’s Foreign Offices and State Departments. This colloquium will provide a forum for the discussion of anarchist writings about, and approaches to, anarchy, world politics and global capitalism.
The central analytical theme of the colloquium will be anarchy, but we welcome papers that address this issue though an engagement with the history of world politics in anarchist thought or contemporary anarchist work in either IR, political theory or cognate disciplines. Questions for discussion include: what is specific about anarchy in anarchist thought that IR scholars have overlooked? What is specific about the promise of a world without sovereigns? How does anarchist thought challenge traditional thinking in IR? Does anarchist thought promise anything for our (meta)theoretical or conceptual understandings of world politics?
We also welcome papers that engage with specific empirical issue areas from an anarchist perspective. These might include war, the state, colonialism, imperialism, global social movements, the democratic deficit in international organisations, labour organising, everyday life, climate catastrophe or disenfranchisement in the global political economy. Here we might discuss what anarchist analysis brings to debates in these areas, and investigate whether anarchy is a viable solution to these problems as opposed to being the problem itself. And finally, we also welcome papers that criticise the legacy of Euro-centric, sexist and racist tendencies within and outside anarchist thought. What does the de-centring of political community and the sovereign male voice, or the arrival of the post-colonial moment, suggest for contemporary anarchist thinking about world politics?
Funding has been made available to support domestic and international travel. A small registration fee will be charged and places will be limited. Please send an abstract of 250 words, including full contact details and a short biography, to Alex Prichard, a.prichard@bristol.ac.uk, by January 29th 2010. Further details regarding the colloquium will be made available on the ASN website in due course: www.anarchist-studies-network.org.uk. ESRC Grant Code: PTA-026-27-2404