Call for papers

Call for papers (for abstracts etc.) segnalati dai Soci.

[riceviamo da Maurizio Di Masi]

Costruire il reale: gli spazi del diritto / Constructing Reality: The spaces of Law

 [di seguito la call in inglese, qui il pdf in italiano]

Imaging society as the result of a continuous composition and re-composition of the interests of individuals and social groups implies to consider how the practices used for their management are developed.

In this scenario, law and architecture present descriptive and prescriptive elements that, both in theoretical elaborations and substantial applications, are bound to build functional models in order to deal with social issues that involve the population.

The architectural language, more than others, is close to the legal one: both display, freeze and set in time an accurate interpretation, representation and narration of society and the power relations that inevitably stand beneath it.

Law and architecture shape reality alternating and completing each other in a construction of spaces and representations (legal or not) that is the product of precise ideologies, policies and economic contingencies. As they both seek to respond to social needs, they establish relations of power between the parties, while at the same time defining the identities in which confined them. These dynamics affect notably social relations, outlining actual inclusion/exclusion strategies and hierarchical relations among individuals.

This is not a one-way process: law and architecture shape and conform the space they operate in and are at the same time modeled by it. So spaciality is not just physical or material, but also a socio-political and subjective concept. It is possible to say that there is a one-to-one relationship between people and places: if the former are influenced by the cultural context that is created within the architectural one, the latter are reconstructed through the lives of those who inhabit them.

Moving from this perspective, it is easy to imagine Legal Imagination(s) 2016 as a journey: If the functions and purposes of law and architecture represent its beginning and end, we still have to analyze the streams that link these two moments, the strategies made to address them, as well as their social, spatial and collective dimensions.

The call, therefore, is divided into three sections, beginning with general and methodological reflections (first section), will help us to analyze the role of law and architecture in different dimensions of general space (second section), focusing finally on the city as a paradigmatic form of spatial aggregation (third section).

 Section 1 – Legal and architectural imaginations

The first approach, that we would like to propose, within a sort of itinerary that leads from a general level to a more concrete one, is based on the relation between law and architecture on a methodological ground of the construction of reciprocal interactions. In order to understand the perfomative role played by the legal and architectural language, we may think to the legal text, how the same comes to life in the work of interpreters, how, by means of the doctrine, elaborate narrations that condition, over time, the way of thinking not only the text itself, but also the society, and the same staging (of trials) within the courtrooms. Similarly to the legal text, let’s think about the architectural project that comes to life and, as the result of the creative and cultural architect activity, at the same time develops the way individuals live and percept spaces being in contact with the designed building. It seems so that the architectural language, more than others, resembles the legal one: both are not limited to only an aesthetic level, but they shelve and fix over time a precise vision and narration of the society and the relations of power that inevitably, develop within it. Moreover, another traceable analogy is the one between the work of the exegete and the Builder: the interpretation intervenes “restoring” the law, as the architect renovate the use of an urban space. It is substantial in this regard, how the law uses architecture in the difficult task of making clear its concepts and how architectural terms manages to evoke the idea of law in the society.

The participants are called to present papers that develop one of the following points:

  1.           The aesthetic of social organisation. Law’s symbolism through architecture;

  2.           Construction of legal models through the architectural metaphors;

  3.           Legal and architectural spaces, regulations and informalities;

  4.           Space as a method in the law and/or in architecture;

  5.           Law and Architecture as theories and practices for building social spaces;

  6.           Legal and architectural heterotopias.

 Section 2 – Spaces’ Imagination: architectural and legal representations of power

When Law and Architecture shape reality, they do not merely recognize identified and organize physical spaces through their technical tools, but they actually conform the social space; they determineing in this way, dynamics of inclusion and exclusion, establishing hierarchical relations among individuals and introduceing hegemonic models of knowledge production. At the same time, people those who live in such places internalize these mechanisms and contribute to the ongoing process of fragmentation and reproduction of reality. It follows that there is a constant redefinition of boundaries and limits that is strictly connected to the coexistence and overlapping of formal and informal powers, the alternation of movements of assimilation and conflict, and the attempts to match individual and collective instances. Therefore, it seems increasingly urgent to analyse how law and architecture affect the relation between space and people and, in particular, what is the interaction between a defined urban, political or economic configuration of space and the governance and definition of population. In other words, considering the complex connection between power relations and individual expectations, what is the role of law in the space?

Participants are called to present papers one of the following points:

  1.  Centre and periphery: from geographic boundaries, to cultural and virtual ones;

  2.  Inclusion and exclusion process: relations of powers and the construction of social and individual identities.

  3.  Security, social control and new conflicts.

  4.  Sovereignty, territory and population: what does it remain of national state?

  5.  Subsidiarity and crisis of the welfare state: active citizenship, participation and exclusion in decision-making processes.

  6. Law vs. Economics: boundaries of law between economic conditionality and external constraints.

 Section 3 – Imaginations of the city

Law and architecture reflect and, in turn, build relations of powers, which in the city end up by shaping not only the economic sphere, but also the personal one and the individual identities that dwell it. The shape, the placement and the development of the city are not, in fact, left to chance, but they represent, the way in which are structured interests and power relations. The city, as is a collective product for excellence, is historical example of the human ability to construct the physical space: the study of the city, in any society, allows to identify the way in which a community defines the relations between urban planning, property, spaces of production and reproduction and social relations. At least since XVII century, in fact, the organization of the city becomes a biopolitics instrument, aim at several aspects: political, social, functional, economical, hygienic, technological, legal, to name just a few. Today, the city seems to embody a series of contradictions: it is inclusive and at the same time “exclusive”, it is a space for meeting and social confrontation, solidarity and individualism, security and insecurity, it defines and redefines places in an anthropological, social and legal sense.

Participants, then, are called to present papers that develop one of the following points:

1.         The statute of the contemporary city: smart city, city of art, “sustainable” city, metropolis, common city, open city, etc.;

2.         Urban planning, participation and land use;

3.         Regenerate, reuse, retrain the space: legal and architectural practices;

4.         Private, public and common in the city: from the right to housing to the shared management of the urban spaces;

5.         Sovereignty, discipline and security in the city;

6.         From the factory to the metropolis: new spaces of production and reproduction.

 The Call for papers is open to young researchers (Ph.D. students, postdocs, research fellows) of different legal disciplines, social sciences and architecture.

The conference will take place at the University of Perugia (Department of Law) from July 7th to 8th, 2016.

Those interested in presenting papers should send a proposal (max 1500 words) about one of the three topics identified by the call (Legal and architectural imaginations; Spaces’ Imagination: architectural and legal representations of power; Imaginations of the city) and a short curriculum vitae (max. 2000 characters) by June 10th, 2016. Proposal and curriculum vitae can be sent to our email address, visionidelgiuridico@gmail.com.

The selection results will be communicated to the applicants by e-mail by June 17th, 2015. Those who will be selected and contacted by the Organizing Committee have to submit a paper of max 20.000 characters (including spaces)by June 30th.

The Presentation during the Conference can be in Italian or in English, as you want. The Organizing Committee reserves the possibilityto publish on-line the submitted proposals. It is planned to publish the Workshop Proceedings.

There is no registration fee. Travel and accommodation costs will be sustained by participants.

 

 

 

[riceviamo da Lorenzo Coccoli]

 

Call for Abstracts for Essays in Why Charity: The Politics and Ethics of Charities and Charitable Giving Today

 

In 2014, the University of Brighton held a two-day conference on the ethics and politics of charity and charitable giving. The forty or so papers and presentations covered a wide range of topics: examinations of the day-to-day issues faced by charity workers and recipients of charity; the concomitant rise of neoliberalism, poverty and charitable giving; the shifting legal and institutional frameworks within which charity functions; the complex practices and meanings of charity in different contexts; and the possible moral legitimacy of charity as such. Although marked by significant diversity of opinion and robust contestation of particular arguments throughout, the conference culminated in a shared sense that charity ought to be unnecessary and that, in today’s conjuncture, charity is to be understood as symptomatic and reflective of the social, political and economic structures that create and perpetuate poverty.

In light of that, the conference also concluded that an edited volume of essays focused on central aspects of the meaning of, and prospects for, charity today would constitute a timely and valuable intervention in the question of charity, not least given the limited nature of the extant literature.

The book proposal (provisionally titled, Why Charity? The Politics and Ethics of Charity Today) has been met with considerable interest from Rowman and Littlefield International. It sets out the volume’s rationale, central themes, organisational structure and related matters. The core question the volume seeks to address is straightforward: how should we understand the rise and function of charity and charitable giving in relation to the structures and discourses that today produce, perpetuate and deepen inequality and poverty?

The 15 essays (of around 7000 words including footnotes and bibliography each) that comprise the volume should offer a clear examination and analysis of relevant themes in relation to that question (see below for details). The deadline for submission of final drafts is 31st December 2016

To take the project forward Rowman and Littlefield International have asked that we provide short abstracts for each proposed essay in order to flesh out the volume’s contents for reviewers’ consideration.

To this end, we invite abstracts of around 500 words from academics, charity workers and others that speak to the volumes’ sectional headings. These headings and some of the central questions that might be addressed under each are set out at the foot of this email. 

The proposal form attached provides a fuller sense of the nature of the volume. Please send abstracts to Toby Lovat by April 30th 2016, at T.Lovat@Brighton.ac.uk, from whom you may also obtain any further information.

With best wishes,

The co-editors: Toby Lovat (University of Brighton), Janelle Pötzsch (Ruhr University Bochum), Lorenzo Coccoli (University of Rome) and Rachelle Bascara (Birkbeck, University of London), under the aegis of the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics & Ethics (CAPPE), University of Brighton.

 

Sectional Headings and Related Questions

Section One:  The Idea of Charity.


This section will focus on the cultural, theological and historical roots and genealogies of the meaning, nature and practices of charity. 


Related questions:

– How have the meanings and functions of charity been expressed and represented in different times and places, and in different cultures and religions?

– What are the historical and genealogical roots of charity today?

– How has charity been justified at different times and places?  How might charity be justified today?

– Who are the recipients of charity and how has their identity changed over time?

– What are and what have been the motives of public and private charity?

– What kinds of relation between donors and recipients is charity meant to establish in its various theorizations?


Section Two: The Politics of Charity

This section will be specifically concerned with the analysis of charity as it relates to, amongst other things, today’s neoliberal conjuncture. In addition, therefore, to an analysis of the structural relationship between charity and the politics of austerity, this section will address the political economy of charity, examining, for example, the relationship between charitable funding, privatisation and welfare provision. 

Related questions:

– What is the role of charity and of charities in the neoliberal dismantling of the welfare state?

– What claims do neoliberal thinkers make about private charity and how should we understand these claims?

– What kinds of subjectivity does neoliberal charity give rise to?

– Do the recipients of neoliberal charity succeed in using it to elaborate some sort of “politics of the governed”?

– Can we today distinguish between neoliberal forms of charity and others?

– What are the effects of neoliberal charity on political institutions?

           

Section Three: The Ethics of Charity

This section will concern ethical issues surrounding charity, again with a particular focus on the moral implications and problems of charity under neoliberalism.   

Related questions:  

– Is charity justice? Might it be?

– To what extent, if at all, is charitable giving an expression of the love of humankind? If it is not, then might it be?

– How and to what extent do relations of giver and receiver in charity differ from, for example, redistribution of wealth through taxation?

– If charity merely perpetuates and maintains the suffering engendered by capitalist or neoliberal relations (and attendant subjectivities) should charity be ended?

– How should we understand the tension between ameliorating immediate suffering (through, for example, charity) and the fact that charity perpetuates suffering and/or emerges from a system predicated on suffering?

– How, if at all, can we think about the difference between good and bad charity?


Section Four: The End(s) of Charity

This section will address two questions: whether, and if so, how, might charity be understood, defended and repurposed to combat and undermine the systemic production and reproduction of poverty and inequality from which it emerges; and how, if at all, might the limits of charity be overcome?

Related questions:

– What are the ends of corporate charity, and how are its patterns changing?

– How is charity used to replicate existing power relations and inequalities?

– Is there emancipatory potential in any possible or current charitable practices?

– Might charities be wholly politicized? How and in what ways?

– How might charity be used to subvert existing power relations and wealth inequalities?

– Should charity be eliminated?

– What’s to be done about charity?