CFP: Nordic Political Science Association

NoPSA Congress 2021 in Reykjavik, 10-13 August 2021

Call for Abstracts for a special workshop in the Nordic Political Science Association Congress 2021:

Workshop 36 –The minority status in the Nordic Region

Workshop chairs:

Marion Godman, Assistant Professor, Aarhus University, email: [email protected]

Annamari Vitikainen, Associate Professor, The Arctic University of Norway, email: [email protected]

Please send 150-300 word abstract to the workshop chairs by 1st February 2021 

Many groups whose lives and livelihoods have spread across borders in the Nordic region have faced challenges. Some groups are particularly hard hit. A stark example is the forceable relocation and assimilation of many indigenous Sami. Another is the history of discrimination facing the Roma. These historical injustices have arguably led to a widespread acceptance of giving special status to such minority groups (though the implementation and legislation of such rights has often lagged). More recently, a different set of groups have been added to the discussion of minority rights in the Nordic context. Do newly arrived immigrants or, e.g., members of the LGBTQ community share some moral standing with traditional minorities? Indeed, what constitutes a morally relevant minority deserving of special protection to begin with?

We invite political scientists and philosophers, as well as researchers in neighboring fields to think about both the tensions and commonalities facing different indigenous and minority groups, and their fights for recognition and rights. The questions to be explored in this workshop include, but are not restricted to:

-          Is there something distinctively ‘Nordic’ in terms of policy of minorities and how do the responses of Nordic states differ from one another?

-          What makes indigenous groups a special case; what can (or cannot) other groups learn from the indigenous struggles for rights and recognition?

-          Are there tensions between different (minority/indigenous) groups and if so how can they be resolved?

-          What are the legitimate limitations to minority protection in the Nordic context?

The workshop papers are expected to be organized under thematic clusters, e.g. in terms of addressing certain foundational issues (what grounds minority rights); certain national contexts (incl. regional and comparative approaches); and particular types of groups (e.g. indigenous, linguistic, immigrant etc.).

Target: Political philosophers &theorists, legal scholars and social scientists working on indigenous and/or minority issues

Language: The papers circulated in advance will be in English,but presentations and discussions will be in Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and English (depending on participants’ language competences).

For more information on the NoPSA Congress, incl. full program, running workshops, registration, conference fee etc.: https://nopsaiceland2021.is/

In case of continued travel restrictions in August 2021, the workshop chairs will look for possibilities for alternative / hybrid venues, in addition to the NoPSA online format.