3rd CASA Conference, 2014
Call for papers
Transition 2.0? Anthropology
of the world(s) in reform
Prague, September 12-13, 2014
In the decades following the end of the Cold War, the developments in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) were frequently explained in terms of a grand transition from state socialism to parliamentary democracy and market economy. Both the transitory and the post-socialist character of societies so designed imply a hierarchy and marginalise historical agency of the societies in question (e.g. Buden 2009). The same power equation translates into the hierarchies of knowledge production about those societies (Buchowski 2001, 2006; Prica 2007). While this grand transition was symbolically accomplished by many CEE countries with the EU membership, soon after, with the advent of the “Crisis”, their societies, along with the world they had strived to be part of, were confronted with an imperative of a further reform – of another transition to a state, which has no name, no definition, and no tangible working example.
We propose to call it the transition 2.0 and encourage an anthropology of the world(s) in reform. The dynamics of reform and resistance intersect geographical, cultural and social boundaries and bring about a new air of coevalness, along with fresh imagination about possible futures (e.g. Graeber 2013). The 2014 CASA conference aims to address precisely this transition 2.0 in process.
We welcome papers based on original research of the world(s) in reform with focus on but not limited to CEE area. In particular, we invite papers on dynamics of debt ideology and practice; forms of rejuvenated nationalisms; discursive coercion, social exclusion, violence in public space, competitiveness of labour, and other emerging forms of disciplining individuals and segments of society; civic activism; effects of budget cuts on institutional frameworks; reforms of the academia and their consequences on the teaching and practice of anthropology; and other subjects related to world(s) in reform. We encourage equally presentations on public activism and resistance as well as on spaces and strategies of alternative forms of sociality emerging in response.
In addition to research based papers the 2014 CASA conference welcomes contributions to theoretical understanding of world(s) in reform and how it can inform teaching and research in the field of anthropology. Special consideration will be given to multidisciplinary approaches.
Graduate students of social anthropology and related disciplines and early career researchers are in particular invited to submit papers and panel proposals which deal with presented topics to parallel Graduate Conference supported by Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague.
References:
Buden, Boris. 2009. Die Zone des Übergangs: Vom Ende des Postkommunismus. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag. In English one chapter as „Children of Postcommunism“. Radical Philosophy no 159, January/February 2010: 14-22. Czech translation as Konec Postkomunismu: od společnosti bez naděje k naději bez společnosti. Praha: Rybka Publishers, 2013.
Buchowski, Michal. 2001. Rethinking Transformation: An Anthropological Perspective on Postsocialism. Poznan: Wydawnictwo Humaniora.
Buchowski, Michal. 2006. „The Specter of Orientalism in Europe: From Exotic Other to Stigmatized Brother“. Anthropological Quarterly 79/3:463-482.
Graeber, David. 2013. The Democracy Project: a history, a crisis, a movement. 1st ed. New York: Spiegel.
Prica, Ines. 2007. „In search of Post-socialist subject“. Croatian Journal of Ethnology & Folklore Research / Narodna Umjetnost . Vol. 44 Issue 1, p163-186.
Keynote speakers:
Michal Buchowski, University of Poznań
Dimitris Dalakoglou, University of Sussex
Venue: Faculty of Humanities, Charles University
U Kříže 5, Prague 5, Czech Republic
Date: September 12-13, 2014
Fee: 400 CZK / 16 EUR
300 CZK / 12 EUR for CASA members
200 CZK / 8 EUR for students
150 CZK / 6 EUR for student members of CASA
Upcoming Deadlines:
Panel topic proposals are due June 20, 2014.
Paper proposals (max. 300 words) shall be sent to the Organising Committee by June 25, 2014. Authors of successful proposals will be notified by July 8, 2014.
Mail submissions and panel proposals at:
Organising Committee on behalf of CASA:
Zdeněk Uherek
Luděk Brož
Petra Ezzeddine
Martin Hříbek
Martin Heřmanský