** NEW **
JERP 5.3.1
Workshop
Risk and Responsibility
Theoretical and Normative Issues of Environmental
Governance
Florence, 18-19 April 2008
* Call for papers *
(clich here for details)
*DRAFT PROGRAMME*
GARNET-JERP 5.2.1, Final Conference
The Europeans
The European Union in Search of Political Identity and Legitimacy
Florence, 25 and 26 May 2007
** PROGRAMME **
Call for papers
This international conference is the concluding event in the activities pursued for the past two years by a research network (Jointly Executed Research Project 5.2.1) of twenty institutes all across Europe within GARNET, a EU Network of Excellence under the Sixth Framework Programme. Coordinators of JERP 5.2.1 are Furio Cerutti (executive coordinator, U. of Florence), Andrew Gamble (Cambridge University) and Mario Telò (ULB) who along with Richard Bellamy (University College, London) and Sonia Lucarelli (Florence Forum \U.of Bologna at Forlì) will serve as Scientific Committee for the Conference.
We have been studying political identity and legitimacy in the European Union because these elements are relevant to its contribution to regional and global governance. But the Union has so far failed in its attempt to become a full-fledged polity, the French and Dutch referenda on the Constitutional Treaty and other developments have signalled the absence of a strong feeling of belonging together among citizens and elites, and the still insufficient credibility of the European institutions. Internal and even more international factors however keep and will keep the polity question in Europe alive. What a political identity of the Europeans, as different from the social and cultural one, may mean, how a substantial legitimacy of the EU institutions can be made credible across the continent, and which processes must be fostered if the present democratic deficit(s) is (or are) to be addressed – these are the main problems underlying our project.
We think of grouping the accepted papers around three main foci:
1. Theoretical and methodological issues: how to redefine the notions of political identity and legitimacy in a theoretically sharper way than in common usage, and how to make them productive in empirical research and the reshaping of tools such as surveys and opinion polls. Beyond political philosophy (taken not only in a narrowly normative sense) and political science and sociology, what can other disciplines such as historical sociology, psychology, geography, or legal and linguistic studies contribute?
2. A study of EU policies, with special relevance to the foreign policy in its several aspects, as expressions and\or generators of political identity and legitimacy. This does not simply mean policy analysis, but should include working out the cultural and moral background of the policy at issue and check its real influence in the identity-formation of the Europeans by means of content analysis rather than just quoting from Eurobarometer.
3. A look at how history, memories and symbols are being re-elaborated in the identity-formation of the Europeans and in the cultural processes which may nourish a stable feeling of legitimacy of the European institutions (studies based on multi-country and multilingual literature are particularly welcome).
The Scientific Committee will obviously take into careful consideration any proposal that goes beyond this thematic grid.
Interested scholars are encouraged to take a look at how the GARNET research unit 5.2.1 has worked so far, particularly in what concerns the redefinition and sharpening of the fundamental notions and the sources for the external image of the Union. Please find below a link to these research materials
While the thrust of the contributions is expected to come from the GARNET community, paper proposals from colleagues outside it are welcome. Full funding is possible only for paper givers from JERP 5.2.1, while we are trying to receive additional funding as to cover at least partly the costs of other paper givers. Priority will be given to colleagues from Eastern Europe and developing countries.
Prospective paper givers are invited to send a title and an abstract between 2000 and 3000 characters by 1 December 2006. Please send it to:
Professor Furio Cerutti
Dip. di Filosofia, Università di Firenze
via Bolognese 52
50139 FIRENZE
Tel. 055 4622407, fax 055 475640
Email address: polphil@unifi.it
* * *
Research materials for the conference The Europeans
to be held in Florence on 25 and 26 May 2007
1. Furio Cerutti, Why legitimacy and political identity are connected to each other, especially in the case of the European Union, with an addendum on legitimacy\legitimation; a paper presented at the ECPR Joint Session of Workshops, Nicosia, April 2006.
2. Sonia Lucarelli, Identity, legitimacy and foreign policy: some theoretical reflections and the transatlantic rift as a case study.
3.The external image of the European Union. A preliminary survey on the existing sources, an outline by Sonia Lucarelli, project director.
Garnet
