October 26-28, 2023
INSECURITY AND THE ECLIPSE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
21st Annual Conference
CALL FOR PAPERS, CONFERENCE SITE, ETC.
Brixen, South Tyrol
Bressanone, Alto Adige
ITALY
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Call for Papers
Looking back upon almost the first quarter of the 21st century, two themes have risen to the top of the social theory agenda and are likely to continue to become more pronounced: the proliferating sense and reality of insecurity, and the accelerating eclipse of enlightenment. Thus far, the 21st century has been characterized by changes in the structure and functioning of global capitalism, which has transmuted from neoliberalism into varieties of neoauthoritarianism. Determining whether these changes have been fundamental and transformational, or merely adaptive and superficial, especially as far as social structure and social processes are concerned, is both a theoretical and an empirical challenge. Have those changes been pointing toward profoundly different and increasingly disorienting futures? Or are they “merely” following the same patterns and revealing the same persistently contradictory, underlying principles of modern societies that have been in sway for at least two centuries, albeit in conspicuously so in recent years -- which should be no less disconcerting?
Digital capital has accumulated far beyond the point of spectacle, with the entwinement of simulation and simulacra bringing humanity to the brink of singularity: the Frankensteinian moment when the prospect of artificial intelligence rising is bound to obliterate the very notion – far-fetched as it was from the start – that humanity does or should have the capacity to “control” itself, the planet, or the future of both. The global war on terror/ism funded the development of new forms of weaponry, engendered new strategies and modalities of warfare, and produced new populations of displaced refugees – thus revealing the regressive systems of social relations that continue to underpin “modernity” and how it is prone to overwriting legitimate self-assessment with wished-for self-delusions. Around the planet, economic inequalities, political polarization and violence, and unwillingness to work with or consider others have escalated, in many ways conceived and pursued with intent and by design, by the beneficiaries and those prone to take advantage of existing social structures (including at the expense of most others). Conducting assaults upon vulnerable populations (LGBTQ, the poor, racial and religious minorities, migrants, etc.) has become normalized and often is seen as unremarkable. Meanwhile, the global population passed the 8 billion mark, increasing the scale of traumatic displacement from floods, fires, and storms due to the climate crisis and diminishing the prospects for both rational solutions to proliferating problems and approaches to meeting predictable crises on a planetary scale.
At a time when facing facts directly -- without relying on convenient, cherished, or newly emerging ideologies -- is becoming even more important than it has been in the past, a growing percentage of decision-makers and national populations around the globe are positioning themselves openly against enlightened perspectives on tasks and responsibilities, and are working forcefully to subvert efforts and the ability of others to acknowledge and then to confront constructively the importance of such tasks and responsibilities, including those tasks and responsibilities themselves. Increasingly, efforts at subversion employ the means of democratic participation and representation and the rule of law to thwart the ability of governments – rudimentary as it has been to begin with – to divide and then implement rational solutions to imminent challenges. Increasingly, those efforts are targeting not just the idea of society and the social, but corresponding realities in the form of societal communities, what Durkheim referred to as the collective conscience, as well as social order and stability, seemingly to prepare circumstances in which social destabilization will serve as the precursor to martial law, totalitarian rule, or fascist control. Such "states of exception" predictably would present opportunities for privileged elites to exploit the totality of society for their purposes.
In social theory, this nexus between insecurity and the eclipse of enlightenment as purposefully engineered "post/anti-social" social constructs has been theorized for decades, e.g., in terms of the administered world, corporate control, and post-democracy. More recently, debates about neo-imperialism, the new Cold War, eco-fascism, and racial capitalism, among other issues and phenomena, have illuminated how a nascent regime of post/anti-humanism and "post/anti-life" has been taking hold -- as regime that increasingly is being perceived as “natural” and par for the course by growing segments of any given population. At the same time, even formerly critical approaches and traditions to studying and diagnosing this miserable condition are prone to subscribing and accommodating the latter, in recent contributions to critical theory, as well as in proliferating social movements that increasingly are focused on the specific and ever more finely tuned concerns of ever smaller constituencies and demographics.
In this larger societal and planetary context, this conference will provide a forum for social theorists in the social sciences and humanities working on a broad spectrum of concerns and from the foundations in many different approaches, for the purpose of pooling intellectual, normative, and scholarly resources, innovations, and contributions to disentangle the links between individual experiences and structural and hyper-structural constellations and configurations.
NOTE: ISTC conferences traditionally have been open to the broad range of topics and themes under the aegis of social theory, and this tradition will continue this year. However, we strongly encourage abstracts (or proposed sessions) to directly address the theme of the conference, or at the very least explicate how they are related to the theme.
Digital capital has accumulated far beyond the point of spectacle, with the entwinement of simulation and simulacra bringing humanity to the brink of singularity: the Frankensteinian moment when the prospect of artificial intelligence rising is bound to obliterate the very notion – far-fetched as it was from the start – that humanity does or should have the capacity to “control” itself, the planet, or the future of both. The global war on terror/ism funded the development of new forms of weaponry, engendered new strategies and modalities of warfare, and produced new populations of displaced refugees – thus revealing the regressive systems of social relations that continue to underpin “modernity” and how it is prone to overwriting legitimate self-assessment with wished-for self-delusions. Around the planet, economic inequalities, political polarization and violence, and unwillingness to work with or consider others have escalated, in many ways conceived and pursued with intent and by design, by the beneficiaries and those prone to take advantage of existing social structures (including at the expense of most others). Conducting assaults upon vulnerable populations (LGBTQ, the poor, racial and religious minorities, migrants, etc.) has become normalized and often is seen as unremarkable. Meanwhile, the global population passed the 8 billion mark, increasing the scale of traumatic displacement from floods, fires, and storms due to the climate crisis and diminishing the prospects for both rational solutions to proliferating problems and approaches to meeting predictable crises on a planetary scale.
At a time when facing facts directly -- without relying on convenient, cherished, or newly emerging ideologies -- is becoming even more important than it has been in the past, a growing percentage of decision-makers and national populations around the globe are positioning themselves openly against enlightened perspectives on tasks and responsibilities, and are working forcefully to subvert efforts and the ability of others to acknowledge and then to confront constructively the importance of such tasks and responsibilities, including those tasks and responsibilities themselves. Increasingly, efforts at subversion employ the means of democratic participation and representation and the rule of law to thwart the ability of governments – rudimentary as it has been to begin with – to divide and then implement rational solutions to imminent challenges. Increasingly, those efforts are targeting not just the idea of society and the social, but corresponding realities in the form of societal communities, what Durkheim referred to as the collective conscience, as well as social order and stability, seemingly to prepare circumstances in which social destabilization will serve as the precursor to martial law, totalitarian rule, or fascist control. Such "states of exception" predictably would present opportunities for privileged elites to exploit the totality of society for their purposes.
In social theory, this nexus between insecurity and the eclipse of enlightenment as purposefully engineered "post/anti-social" social constructs has been theorized for decades, e.g., in terms of the administered world, corporate control, and post-democracy. More recently, debates about neo-imperialism, the new Cold War, eco-fascism, and racial capitalism, among other issues and phenomena, have illuminated how a nascent regime of post/anti-humanism and "post/anti-life" has been taking hold -- as regime that increasingly is being perceived as “natural” and par for the course by growing segments of any given population. At the same time, even formerly critical approaches and traditions to studying and diagnosing this miserable condition are prone to subscribing and accommodating the latter, in recent contributions to critical theory, as well as in proliferating social movements that increasingly are focused on the specific and ever more finely tuned concerns of ever smaller constituencies and demographics.
In this larger societal and planetary context, this conference will provide a forum for social theorists in the social sciences and humanities working on a broad spectrum of concerns and from the foundations in many different approaches, for the purpose of pooling intellectual, normative, and scholarly resources, innovations, and contributions to disentangle the links between individual experiences and structural and hyper-structural constellations and configurations.
NOTE: ISTC conferences traditionally have been open to the broad range of topics and themes under the aegis of social theory, and this tradition will continue this year. However, we strongly encourage abstracts (or proposed sessions) to directly address the theme of the conference, or at the very least explicate how they are related to the theme.
Possible Session Topics Include:
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Keynotes/Presentations and Sessions:
(will be updated continuously)
Author-Meets-Critics:
Mad Hazard: A Life in Social Theory, by Stephen Turner
Critics: Matteo Bortolini, Alvaro Mocillo, William Outhwaite, and Ilaria Riccioni
Habermas "Legitimation Crisis": 50 Years Later
Presenters: Roderick Condon, Harry F. Dahms, William Outhwaite, Stephen Turner
The Impact of Images in Everyday Life:
Visual-Technological Society and the Question of Freedom
Ilaria Riccioni
Liminality, States of Exception, and the Problem of Enlightenment
Arpad Szakolczai
Artificial Intelligence, Planetary Sociology, Insecurity, and Social Theory
Harry F. Dahms
(will be updated continuously)
Author-Meets-Critics:
Mad Hazard: A Life in Social Theory, by Stephen Turner
Critics: Matteo Bortolini, Alvaro Mocillo, William Outhwaite, and Ilaria Riccioni
Habermas "Legitimation Crisis": 50 Years Later
Presenters: Roderick Condon, Harry F. Dahms, William Outhwaite, Stephen Turner
The Impact of Images in Everyday Life:
Visual-Technological Society and the Question of Freedom
Ilaria Riccioni
Liminality, States of Exception, and the Problem of Enlightenment
Arpad Szakolczai
Artificial Intelligence, Planetary Sociology, Insecurity, and Social Theory
Harry F. Dahms
Extended Deadline for submitting abstracts: August 31, 2023
Please send abstracts (approximately 250 words), session proposals, or papers (including abstract), to
istc2023@socialtheory.org*
Registration:
opening date: August 31, 2023
closing date: September 26, 2023
Registration Fee:
50 euro
REGISTRATION LINK
HOTEL INFORMATION
Click here
* Unless you intend to submit an abstract, etc., soon,
please send an informal note of intent to the same address or to the organizers.
Please send abstracts (approximately 250 words), session proposals, or papers (including abstract), to
istc2023@socialtheory.org*
Registration:
opening date: August 31, 2023
closing date: September 26, 2023
Registration Fee:
50 euro
REGISTRATION LINK
HOTEL INFORMATION
Click here
* Unless you intend to submit an abstract, etc., soon,
please send an informal note of intent to the same address or to the organizers.
Organizers:
Ilaria Riccioni, Free University of Bolzano: ilaria.Riccioni@unibz.it (Host)
Harry F. Dahms, University of Tennessee - Knoxville: hdahms@utk.edu
Daniel Krier, Iowa State University, Ames: krier@iastate.edu
Ilaria Riccioni, Free University of Bolzano: ilaria.Riccioni@unibz.it (Host)
Harry F. Dahms, University of Tennessee - Knoxville: hdahms@utk.edu
Daniel Krier, Iowa State University, Ames: krier@iastate.edu
Location:
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
Faculty of Education – Campus Brixen - Bressanone
Viale Ratisbona 16 – Regensburger Allee 16
I-39042 Bressanone – Brixen (BZ)
Italy
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
Faculty of Education – Campus Brixen - Bressanone
Viale Ratisbona 16 – Regensburger Allee 16
I-39042 Bressanone – Brixen (BZ)
Italy
Hotel Information