SANA/AES 2008 Conference

Call for Papers
 

Democracy, Disorder, and Discontent

April 3 -5, 2008

Holiday Inn Sun Spree Resort Hotel
Wrightsville Beach, NC

Extended Deadline for Paper Submissions:
February 8th, 2008

Instructions for paper and session proposals

The 2008 SANA/AES conference seeks panels and papers that creatively engage the discrepancies between the idea and the practice of democracy and that explore the forms of disorder and discontent engendered by these contradictions. What is democracy? How are democracy and citizenship being resignified and configured in an age of increasing transnationalism and neoliberalization? Liberal Democracy is widely understood as an expansion of individual freedoms, the spreading out of economic equality through participation in the market, and an alternative to excessive government regulation. Yet despite these optimistic claims, there remains an inherent tension between economic inequality and democratic politics. Emergent social and political orders in many parts of the world are characterized by growing inequality, and they are neither democratic nor secure. Furthermore, established rights, entitlements, and democratic principles in the United States itself have eroded, as wealth is increasingly redistributed upwards. Are alternative democracies possible without liberalism?

We seek participants who address the tensions inherent in democratic processes and the disorder and discontent that arise from these disjunctures, and we seek papers, panels, and participants that critically and creatively engage the fluid relationship(s) between Democracy, Disorder, and Discontent from a variety of theoretical, conceptual, and methodological perspectives.

Topics and geographic areas are open, and we strongly encourage a wide range of topical and thematic panels and papers. Key questions include, but are of course not limited to, the following broad areas of inquiry:

Key Word Panels: How are Democracy, Disorder, and Discontent experienced, imagined, understood, and contested in a variety of settings? Key Word Panels can examine each trope individually, in conjunction with other key words, or with other topics and/or locations.

Difference and Neoliberalism: How do race, gender, class, citizenship, and sexual orientation shape the ways that different kinds of people understand democracy and democratic participation in the age of neoliberalism?

Citizenship and Sovereignty: Within emergent and long-standing democracies, how are citizenship and popular sovereignty linked to new forms of inclusion and exclusion?

Violence: How and to what extent do democracies use incarceration, police brutality, military and paramilitary activities and other forms of violence, even as they create political opportunities to critique them?

Opposition: What are the possibilities and pitfalls of new oppositional discourses that focus on individual, social, and human rights?

The Promises and Limits: What kinds of pedagogies can be developed to help our students understand the promises of limits of democracy?

Freedom: How does freedom relate to democracy? How do freedom and order for some create disorder and discontent for others? Is it possible to balance the conflicting values of freedom and democracy?

Anthropological Responses: How should the discipline of Anthropology rethink itself in light of the critique of actually-existing democracies.

Questions? Contact Andy Bickford.

Instructions for paper and session proposals
 

We encourage you to think about creative as well as traditional formats for presenting your work. Guidelines are below.

1. Sessions will generally be scheduled for 1.5 hours (1 hour and 30 minutes), which allows time for 5 fifteen minute paper presentations and a discussant or discussion.

2. Paper presentations should be prepared with a fifteen minute time limit in mind.

3. Organized session submissions are encouraged, but individual papers are also welcome. Individually volunteered papers will be organized into sessions by the program committee according to theme. All paper proposals, whether submitted individually or as part of an organized session, will be evaluated individually.

4. Roundtable discussions can be a useful alternative to traditional sessions. Instead of formal paper presentations, these involve informal discussion of a theme. Participants would be encouraged to circulate papers prior to the conference and to make copies available either at the meetings or on-line for others to read. Roundtable discussions have the potential to include more participants than traditional sessions, although they would be limited to the same 1.5 hours.

5. Other types of sessions are also possible, including poster sessions and workshops. Contact conference organizers if you wish to submit proposals for these or other types of sessions.

6. Video screenings. If there is interest and time, we are happy to screen ethnographic films. Please contact conference organizers to discuss arrangements.

Proposals may be related to the conference theme, but we welcome proposals on other topics as well.

1. For papers, please use the form below. Fill out the form completely and be sure to include an abstract. If your paper is part of an organized session, please list the title for that session.

Download Paper Submission Form (html)
Download Paper Submission form (Word)

2. For sessions, including panels, workshops, roundtables, etc., please use the form below. Note that individual participants will need to fill out the paper submission form as well.

Download Session Submission Form (html)
Download Session Submission Form (Word)

3. All forms, including abstracts, should be sent by email as attachments no later than January 15, 2008, to Andy Bickford, 2008 SANA conference chair.