HomeThe communicative construction of transnational political spaces and times
The communicative construction of transnational political spaces and times
An interdisciplinary conference
Published on Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Abstract
Announcement
Bielefeld,
27-29 April 2007
Organised by the Collaborative Research Centre/SFB 584 "The Political as
Communicative Space in History" (Department of History) and the Graduate
School "World Concepts and Global Structural Patterns" (Institute for
World Society Studies)
Conveners: Mathias Albert, Gesa Bluhm, Jan Helmig, Andreas Leutzsch, Jochen
Walter
Transnationalism has developed into a key research program in history,
sociology and political science during the second half of the 1990s. Due to a
growing globalisation of everyday life, the transnational and/or global
perspective has established itself in the attempt to overcome the national
paradigm, which was associated with a conceptualisation of nation-states and
their societies as independent and self-enclosed entities.
The conference primarily seeks to examine the construction, transformation and
maybe also dissolution of transnational political spaces as they are
constituted through language, social interaction and symbolic practices. It
focuses on European and Western states and societies in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries during which national identifications became increasingly
challenged by other representations transcending the frame of the nation.
The aim of this conference is, furthermore, to stimulate and advance the
interdisciplinary analysis of political transnationalism by inviting
contributions particularly from the fields of history, sociology, and political
science.
While the conference will have a number of invited papers, most papers will be
drawn from the proposals resulting from the present call for papers. We
particularly encourage proposals aiming at the following five subject areas:
1. The Communicative Construction of Transnational Political Spaces
This panel is concerned with the various ways in which political communication,
discourses and semantics contribute to the construction of transnational
communicative spaces. Different perceptions of the political and of
transnationalism correlate in these linguistic constructions of reality. How do
political spaces develop when they are not primarily constituted of territorial
units, but when their changing interior structures and exterior boundaries are
established by communicative processes? What is the role of the media in these
developments?
2. Civil Society and Governments. Who Are the Agents of Political Transnationalism?
Transnational political spaces can be established by different groups of
agents, state and non-state actors alike. Through communicative practices, the
involved agents constantly negotiate which social groups are part of or are
excluded from a political space. How do these "negotiations" proceed
on the transnational level where agents of civil society and governmental
agents representing nation states interact? What are their power relations? Is
there something like a politically active transnational civil society, or is
political transnationalism still dominated by governmental interactions?
3. Methodological Approaches to the Analysis of Transnational Political Spaces
Different national, linguistic and scientific contexts have generated various
approaches to transnationalism such as comparatism, (cultural) transfer,
histoire croisée, entangled histories, or global and world history, all of
which imply contrasting subjects of research and different conceptualisations
of the political and the transnational. Which are their advantages and
disadvantages? The aim of this panel is to assemble some of these
methodological perspectives in order to relate them to each other and assess
how they might complement one another.
4. Transnational Spaces and/or/in World Society? World Society Theory and
Global History of the Political
As the role of political space is experiencing a profound change in world
politics, the concept of world society may be helpful in understanding this
development. World society studies as inspired by Niklas Luhmann treat the
political system as an internal differentiation of a larger system. We would
like to ask whether there are ways of writing a history of world society
instead of writing a history of globalisation as a summary of different
processes. Contributions discussing the changing role of space, its relevant
transnational semantics, the concept of world society and possible transfers
between political transnationalism and world society theory are particularly
welcome.
5. Spatial and Temporal Dimensions of Political Transnationalism
Spatial and temporal categories are interrelated - otherwise we could neither
measure distance nor orient ourselves in space. Analysing the history of
political spaces thus necessarily includes temporal categories. Likewise,
reflecting on the emergence of temporal categories implies thinking about their
use in spatial contexts. In this panel, we would like to discuss the connection
between temporal and spatial views in conceptions of the political. Especially
proposals concerning the use of temporal categories in the construction of
political spaces in national or universal historiographies would be
appreciated.
To propose a paper, please send an abstract of no more than 750 words by 31
July 2006
to:
cfptransnationalism@uni-bielefeld.de
The conference language will be English only.
The conference seeks to discuss full papers. Thus, it is expected that papers
accepted for presentation will be delivered by 1 April 2007.
Accommodation and second/economy class travel expenses will be reimbursed for
paper presenters.
Subjects
- Political studies (Main category)
- Zones and regions > Europe
- Society > History
Places
- Bielefeld, Federal Republic of Germany
Date(s)
- Monday, July 31, 2006
Contact(s)
- Gesa Bluhm
courriel : cfptransnationalism [at] uni-bielefeld [dot] de
Information source
- Gesa Bluhm
courriel : cfptransnationalism [at] uni-bielefeld [dot] de
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« The communicative construction of transnational political spaces and times », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Tuesday, April 18, 2006, https://calenda.org/191453