Seminar 1: Contentious Politics and New Democratic Spaces

This event is now fully booked

Location:

HI – LT10 (Hicks Building), University of Sheffield

Objectives:

The opening seminar of the series aims to map the existing landscape in terms of both academic research and practitioner engagement. It’s  intended to provide the broad foundations on which later seminars will be based.

The aims of this seminar are to:

1. Explore narratives of democratic ‘crisis’
2. Investigate the emergence of new democratic spaces and new participatory repertoires
3. Identify spaces where opportunities for political expression and dialogue are closing
4. Examine periods of sudden political change and their legacy effects
5. Consider the ‘nexus’ or point of connection between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ ways of ‘doing politics’
6. Discuss what is missing from the analysis of democratic change and renewal.

This list, though not exhaustive, provides an indication of the breadth of the canvas that this seminar will be working across.

It invites contributions from multiple disciplines and seeks to draw-out insights from (inter alia) aesthetics, anthropology, social movement and civil society studies, non-violent action, strategic studies, political and social theory, and media analysis to better understand the challenges of democratic renewal in the twenty-first century.

Speakers:

• Professor Jenny Pearce (Professor of Latin American Politics and Director of International Centre for Participation Studies, University of Bradford)
• Professor Ioannis Papadopoulos (Professor or Public Policy, University of Lausanne)
• Professor Matthew Flinders (Director of the Crick Centre, University of Sheffield and Chair of the Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom)
• Dr Rosemary Bechler (Freelance Journalist and Mainsite Editor at openDemocracy)
• Dr Dan Mercea (Lecturer in Sociology, City University London)
• Matteo Bergamini (Founder and Director at ShoutOut UK)
• Dr. Ali Bilgiç (Assistant Professor of International Relations at Bilkent University)
• Imad Mesdoua (Political Analyst at Africa Matters Ltd.)

Participants:

Dr Thomas Davies (City University London); Dr Alejandro Peña (University of York); Dr Holly Eva Ryan (University of Sheffield); Dr Helen Yanacopulos (The Open University); Dr Sam Halvorsen (University of Sheffield); Dr Chris Rossdale (University of Warwick); Dr Anna Feigenbaum (University of Bournemouth); Professor Bobby Bannerjee (Cass Business School); Dr Anastasia Kavada (University of Westminster); Dr Josh Fortztenzer (University of Sheffield); Dr Chandra Morrison (School of Advanced Studies); Rt Hon. Lord David Blunkett; Alex Prior (University of Leeds); Dr Cemal Burak Tansel (University of Sheffield); Dr Matthew Wood (University of Sheffield); Dr Armine Ishkanian (LSE); Maro Pantazidou (Amnesty International); Ignite Imaginations; 38Degrees; ShoutOut UK.

Sign up:

This event is now fully booked.

 

Seminar Resources:

Holly Eva Ryan – Introductory Remarks

Matthew Flinders – The Problems with Democracy / Punk Political Science?

Ioannis Papadopoulos – Democracy in Crisis? / Deliberative Systems

Rosemary Bechler – Commons Sense

Rosemary Bechler interviews Thomas Davies  – Learning From Social Movement Failure

Ali Bilgiç – The Curious Case of Gezi

Imad Mesdoua –   North African Youth: Engaged or Excluded

ShoutOut UK – A Voiceless Generation?

Jenny Pearce – Violence and Democratic Renewal