Global Justice and Populism Workshop

Organized by Global Justice: Theory Practice Rhetoric and the Global Justice Network

Hosted by the Max Weber Programme, European University Institute

Organizers: Miriam Ronzoni (Manchester) and Tiziana Torresi (Adelaide).

Dates: June 3rd - 4th 2019.

Location: The European University Institute, Fiesole (Florence), Italy.

CFP Deadline: January 31st 2019.

Keynote speakers: Nadia Urbinati (Columbia); Benjamin McKean (Ohio State); and Anna Triandafyllidou (European University Institute).

Call for Papers:
Populism characterises the politics of our times. Actors across the political spectrum are accused of engaging in it, whilst others celebrate it as the only kind of politics that can realise genuine rule by the people and justice for all.

As such, populism raises numerous and urgent theoretical questions. First of all, despite its centrality to politics today, it is still far from clear how exactly populism is to be defined and understood, let alone how “new” and distinctive contemporary populism actually is. For scholars of global justice in particular, populism raises specific challenges. Its association with nationalism and authoritarianism, its anti-globalization  and anti-immigration rhetoric, and its critical if not outright hostile stance towards supranational institutions, seem to pose insurmountable challenges to the realisation of principles of global justice. How are global justice scholars to respond to this challenge?  Does the rise of populism show the unfeasibility of cosmopolitan solidarity and a renewed vitality of localised identities and allegiances, or does it rather embody and dramatically prove the dangers of growing inequality and indeed the failure to realise principles of global justice? What does it entail for projects of cosmopolitan democracy and fairness in migration? Finally, can there be a populist politics that avoids racism and nationalism, and can instead successfully promote global justice aims – by, saying, mobilising citizens against transnational elites?

The workshop welcome papers on these and related topics. We also particularly welcome papers with an interdisciplinary perspective. If you think that the topic of your paper is related but does not address any of the questions above, you are welcome to add a paragraph of explanation.

The selected papers, along with the papers delivered by the keynote speakers, will be published in a Special Issue of Global Justice: Theory Practice Rhetoric which will appear in 2020, after a process of peer and editorial review. Sending an abstract will be taken as expressing consent to being considered for the Special Issue and committing the paper to it upon acceptance.

Please send your abstracts to Tiziana Torresi: tiziana.torresi@adelaide.edu.au.