Funded PhD position on ‘Democracy in transit’

There is a fully-funded PhD position currently advertised for the project ‘Democracy in transit: The circulation, adaptation and appropriation of democratic practices in environmental policy’ which will be lead supervised by me with support from my colleague Professor Jason Chilvers. This project builds on recent scholarship in Science and Technology Studies (STS) which has looked at the travel and translation of different ‘technologies of participation’ into new contexts, and brings it into conversation with recent work in Human Geography on policy mobilities. The project is suitable for candidates with a background in human geography, sociology and political science. For more information about this position and how to apply see here. We’re planning for a September 2020 start, with an application deadline of 30th January 2020.

I very much welcome inquiries from interested candidates – I’m very happy to give more details on the thinking behind this project outline, and to try to give you a sense of what it would be like to work with Jason and I over the next 3 years. The successful candidate would become a member of the 3S Research Group and through that would get to know all of the wonderful people who are part of this grouping, as well as being based in the ‘World-leading’ and interdisciplinary School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK. There would be lots of opportunities to get involved with other activities related to research, teaching and impact for those who are interested.

Below is the full project advert text.

Book review of ‘Democratic Experiments’ by Brice Laurent

I have a book review out in the Journal of Responsible Innovation of Brice Laurent’s ‘Democratic Experiments: problematizing nanotechnology and democracy in Europe and the United States‘, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 2017, pp. 261.

It’s a fantastic book which rewards close reading, with lots of useful insights into the governance of emerging technologies and the object of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). Laurent proposes the very useful concept of ‘critical constitutionalism’, which I summarised the review as “the need to conduct analysis in the midst of processes of problematization of technologies and democracy – rather than waiting until everything is settled and stabilised”. This is a disposition I will definitely be taking forward in future work.

The full review is available here, and I can also provide a pre-print version to anyone who is interested in reading it.

Digital democracy – CFP for the RGS annual conference

Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about digital participation and digital democracy lately, and hope to be able to do more writing on this topic and get some projects off the ground in 2019. I’m also hoping to connect with others with similar interests – thus this call for papers for the RGS annual conference in London this summer (28th-30th August). I’m also thrilled that the Digital Geographies Research Group of the RGS-IBG has agreed to sponsor this session at this year’s conference!

RGS-IBG CFP Decolonising geographies of democracy and participation

I currently have a call for papers out for a panel at the Royal Geographical Society’s Annual International Conference this summer on the topic of ‘Decolonising geographies of democracy and participation’. This is my response to the events of 2016 – including Brexit and Trump – focussing on what this means for how we think about democracy and participation. I was troubled by some of the assumptions which were being made about democracy, participation and the public through these events and the response to these events, so I have created a space to think about and debate this more deeply. I’m also using this as an opportunity to pursue my growing interest in post-colonial and feminist perspectives on citizens and subjects.

Please do share this with anyone who you think might be interested, and I’m also very interested to hear your thoughts and collect suggested readings around this topic.

 

London protest against the Brexit campaign, image from BBC newsbeat

Call for Papers: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, London, Tuesday 29^th August – Friday 1^st September 2017

Session: Decolonising geographies of democracy and participation

Convener: Dr Helen Pallett (University of East Anglia)

Sponsored by the Participatory Geographies Research group (PyGyRg) of the RGS-IBG

The events of 2016, from Brexit to Trump’s victory in the US election, have led many to claim that democracy is in crisis (e.g. Levitsky & Ziblatt, 2016). In particular, the project of multiculturalism has been held up by Western commentators and theorists of democracy, such as Jürgen Habermas (discussed in Bhambra, 2016), as a potential threat to genuine democratic participation and as fuel for right wing populism (cf. Lentin, 2016; Wilson, 2016). Post-colonial perspectives counter that these arguments fail to recognise the long histories of global interconnectedness through the European imperial project, which laid the foundations of liberal democratic institutions and practices (Bhambra, 2015; Jazeel, 2011).

These ‘democracy in crisis’ arguments are often based upon universalising and fixed models of democracy and assumptions about the public. For example, deliberative democratic theories are widely evoked, envisaging a harmonious deliberative public sphere enabled by a relatively homogenous and well-informed populous. Though, agonistic theories of democracy are also evoked and equally make normative assumptions about democracy and the public, emphasising discord and debate. By perpetuating fixed assumptions about democracy, participation and the public, these kinds of approaches fail to recognise the relational and interconnected way in which democratic practices and ideals are produced – discursively, spatially, materially and institutionally – and the global diversity of existing ways of understanding and practicing democratic participation. Furthermore, these fixed assumptions shape the way in which we study and intervene in democratic practices, potentially excluding certain knowledges and bodies (Spivak, 1988) and foreclosing what can be said or done within such processes (Chilvers & Kearnes, 2016).

To begin this project of decolonising geographies of democracy and participation, contributions to this panel could:

• explore what is excluded and marginalised by these dominant and universalising perspectives on democracy;
• seek to challenge them by exploring the global diversity of ideas about and practices of democratic participation, and drawing on insights from post-colonial and feminist theories;
• follow the connections, flows and interdependencies of particular ideas about and practices of democratic participation;
• or propose methodological innovations which can help geographers to do participation and democracy in a decolonial way.

Please email proposed titles and abstracts (250 words) or any questions you have to Helen Pallett (h.pallett[at]uea.ac.uk) by 10^th February. The format of the session(s) will be the presentation of 4-5 selected papers each lasting 15 minutes.

References

Bhambra, G.K., 2016. Whither Europe? Interventions, 18(2), pp.187–202.

Bhambra, G.K., 2015. Citizens and Others: The Constitution of Citizenship through Exclusion. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, 40(2), pp.102–114.

Chilvers, J. & Kearnes, M., 2016. ‘Participation in the Making: Rethinking public engagement in co-productionist terms’ pp 31-63 in Remaking Participation: Science, Environment and Emergent Publics Chilvers and Kearnes (eds) London: Routledge-Earthscan.

Jazeel, T. 2011. Spatializing Difference Beyond Cosmopolitanism: rethinking planetary futures. Theory Culture & Society, 28(5), 75-97.

Lentin, A. 2016. The ‘Crisis of Multiculturalism’ and the Global Politics of Trumpism. Sociological Review blog site. 4^th December 2016. Available at: https://www.thesociologicalreview.com/blog/the-crisis-of-multiculturalism-and-the-global-politics-of-trumpism.html

Levitsky, S. & Ziblatt, D. 2016. Is Donald Trump a Threat to Democracy? New York Times. December 16^th 2016. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/16/opinion/sunday/is-donald-trump-a-threat-to-democracy.html

Spivak, G.C., 1988. Can the Subaltern Speak? Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, pp.271–312.

Wilson, H. F. 2016. Brexit: on the rise of ‘(in)tolerance’. Society and Space blog site. 21^st October 2016. Available at: http://societyandspace.org/2016/11/21/brexit-on-the-rise-of-intolerance/