CFP: New populisms and diverse paths of Euroscepticism

New populisms and diverse paths of Euroscepticism

Public debate and an academic conference 

November 29-30, 2017

Venue: Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

Organizers: Monique Canto Sperber (ENS/CNRS) & Evens Foundation

The rise of various forms of populism seems to be a blatant reality, both in Europe and in the Western world in general. This is certainly not the first wave in the international history, yet the impression of its originality is widespread. A technical novelty of the situation raises no doubts: all movements have a strong Internet presence, and they use the web to broadcast their positions. The political situation is also unusual, given the reassuring framework of the European Union. Yet this framework is increasingly designed as being the source of many problems, which tend to erase the very reasons why it was established.

After 70 years since the signature of the Treaty of Rome, we would like to raise a number of questions that seems to be relevant in most of the countries of contemporary Europe, whether these questions are indeed new or they are only an enhanced version of an ever-existing phenomenon. We must get a better understanding of reasons why these problems arise in order to re-think the definition of the European project and find ways to answer these persistent worries.

The conference will unite a number of expert of European issues, political philosophy and political history of the continent.

We would like to raise several questions, including, but not limited to, what follows:

• Distrust toward elites (political, intellectual, scientific)
• Increasing similarity between the arguments used by the far right and the far left politicians
• The People and its enemies – are immigrants part of the people?
• Sovereignty – against whom and why?
• Identity – cultural, national, religious or universalist?
• Anti-System discourses and ideologies (both in politics and in science, with “alter-science”)
• Disqualification of public debate and of the notion of truth

Conference

November 30, 2017, 11:00 – 20:00

Keynote Speaker:

Wolfgang Merkel, Head of the Bridging Project. Against Elites, Against Outsiders: Sources of Democracy Critique, Immigration Critique, and Right-Wing Populism.

Call for Papers

In addition to invited papers (keynote speakers include Wolfgang Merkel), we invite researchers and postgraduate students to contribute to our project.

Those who are interested in presenting a paper should send abstracts (400-500 words) by no later than September 30, 2017, to [email protected]; preferably in Word format, with a short information about the author. Contributions can be submitted both in French and in English.

There is no registration fee for the conference, yet accommodation & travel costs will be covered by the accepted speakers.