CFP: 6th Global Conference: Ethics, Evil and the State

Sunday 6th May – Tuesday 8th May 2012

Prague, Czech Republic

Call for Papers:

Ethics, evil and the state is an interdisciplinary project that seeks to interrogate issues surrounding the relationship between the state, the concept of evil and alternative ways of thinking about the state, including challenging the very idea of its existence. The idea of the state is continuously open to question and challenge: what alternatives might be put into practice? What is the relationship of the idea of the state and that of government? Perhaps the idea of linking the concept of evil with the state is problematic, yet the capacity for power to corrupt and the promotion of sovereign self-interest over that of a community is frequently encountered in many forms of government. Does it make sense to speak of the state as a force for evil? Are there better ways of conceiving of social organisation beyond statist conceptions of politics, considering the possibility of its abolition, or a move to regionalisation and localisation? Perspectives are sought from those engaged in any field relevant to the study of political science communication, journalism, critical media, policy, history, legal studies, philosophy, theology, cultural theory, media studies, sociology, peace studies, government, law/legal studies, justice, psychology and other areas. Contributions are also encouraged that look to alternative and experimental ideas concerning the state, in the form of short abstracts for presentations or proposals for action-workshop sessions.

Papers, reports, work-in-progress and workshops are invited on issues relating, but not restricted to the following themes:

- Is the state a necessary construction?
- Is the state necessarily evil? Is the state a power for good?
- The legitimisation of authority.
- The state and elitism.
- The state and policing.
- Is federalism the answer to the dissolution of the nation-state?
- Anarchism as a viable solution.
- Legitimate and illegitimate protest.
- Rioting, looting and banking
- The state and oppression
- Alternative forms of government.
- The ‘Arab Spring’
- Real communities.
- The state and violence.

Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th November 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 9th March 2012.

300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.

E-mails should be entitled: Ethical Living Abstract Submission.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year.

All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs

Niall Scott
International School for Communities Rights and Inclusions,
Philosophy Section
University of Central Lancashire
Preston, United Kingdom

Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire,
United Kingdom

The conference is part of the At the Interface programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s).

For further details of the project, please click here.

For further details of the conference, please click here.

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.