[Cadaad] DNS7 - DiscourseNet Winter School No7 in Valencia

[DiscourseNet Association]

  #DiscourseNet
WINTER SCHOOL No 7

CAPITALISM IN GLOBAL CRISIS
Economic Transformations,
New Authoritarianism,
and Resistance

https://discourseanalysis.net/en/DNS7

13. – 15. 01. 2021 Valencia, Spain


The DiscourseNet Winter School brings together advanced MA as well as PhD
students *(BA students with an own research project are also welcome) who
want to pursue research on Capitalism in Global Crisis revolving around
economic transformations, new authoritarianism, and resistance with respect
to Discourse Studies and to discuss the methodological and theoretical
challenges of their thesis projects or first ideas.

In the last decades, the economies in different countries and regions as
well as the global economic power relations have changed. Three
characteristics are significant: first, the US economic hegemony, expressed
by a dominant position in almost all traditional leading industries,
becomes step by step replaced by a tri-pole structure consisting by
a rising Asian field of economic innovation (with China as regional
superpower), a declining North American pole and a consolidating European
pole (with Germany as regional hegemon) torn between the aspiring East and
former West. Second, rising economic inequalities can be observed in all
capitalist economies, including China, Russia and East/Central Europe, with
the formation of a small wealthy elite on the top of economic hierarchy,
shrinking middle classes splitting up between the top and bottom,
and a widening array of lower classes more and more excluded from social
recognition, welfare, consumption and other forms of social participation.
Wealthy and innovative areas on the one hand, and declining regions
disconnected from global innovations on the other hand reflect these
cleavages geographically. And, finally, a forth technological revolution
(catchwords: Industry 4.0, digitalisation, 5G, green economy) is
currently changing global value chains, working relations and the general
distribution of labour and value. These tendencies of the global economy
have huge impacts on political
discourses, social identities, life styles, social conflicts and the
formation of new milieus.

Among diverse social, cultural and political reactions to these global
transformations new forms of authoritarianism seem to be of significant
analytical importance.

New authoritarianism can take different forms. The narrative that the
(Western) world inscribes itself within a history of progress, of political
and social advances and that this process is irreversible are no longer
convincing. New forms of nationalism, nativism, racism, anti-semitism,
anti-feminism, chauvinism, anti-social, religious extremism, ethnocentrism
and ideological responses to economic crises are threatening
human emancipation. New forms of authoritarian governance arise on a
plurality of social backgrounds and in a variety of forms, from
nationalism, to populism and from right-wing extremism towards ideologies
of economic impositions. These anti-emancipatory
tendencies are not limited to specific social movements or politics.
Therefore, they require an analysis of a diversity of social phenomenon,
like power constellations, discourses, historic memory, economic
conditions, processes of subjectivation, etc. In contrast to extremism, the
approach on authoritarianism does not analyze its objects from the margins
of society; and unlike populism, authoritarianism does not require
an approach on hegemony. However, there are also forms of extremist or
populist authoritarianism. Yet, the role of new authoritarianism for and
within ongoing global transformations of the economy seems to be
oscillating between a consolidation of existing power relations and a
nationalist form of resistance against certain neoliberal policies.

Despite the rise of authoritarian tendencies, there is a notable amount of
social
movements resisting them: the feminist movement, LGBTQ movement,
ecological movements, minority group movements, worker movements, refugee
movements, anti- racist, anti-nationalist, anti-fascist, anti-capitalist
movements, and also more authoritarian resistance. Many of these movements
explicitly argue against silencing of experiences of various social groups,
and do the work revealing structures of power, imagining alternatives and
proposing solutions to power imbalances, exclusion, symbolic and physical
violence. In this ideological work, new subjectivities are formed and
existing ones redefined, new ways of expressing agency are created.
Development of the digital communication infrastructure has been especially
important in these processes, as online spaces have been pivotal for
coordination of social action, assisting in formation of global social
movements. Critical discourse studies have been especially
active in critiquing the less-democratic discourses, while the analysis of
resistant
discourses and clashes between different kinds of discourses, as well as
conditions that allow them to arise and develop, are also of significance.
We welcome papers exploring these and other possible dimensions of
resistant discourses.

Possible topics include:
· Race, class and gender in global capitalism
· Material resistance and counter discourses
· Forms of authoritarianism and its relation to neoliberalism in crisis
· Intersectionality, identity politics and new subjectivities
· Global political economy and economic discourses
· (Post)colonial capitalism in new global constellations
· Anti-Fascism, socialism and left-wing authoritarianism
· Old and new exclusions: migration, borders and ecologic crisis
· Ideologies and post-truth in times of technological revolutions
· Digital transformation & forms of culture and sociality in late
capitalism

The aim of the Winter School is to bring young and established discourse
researchers together to address practical challenges in discourse research.
The event will provide a collaborative exchange and hands-on research
experience in a rather informal workshop setting. Introductory workshops on
the following fields of inquiry will be given by more experienced scholars
from the Universities of Giessen, Moscow, Warwick and Valencia, together
with guests from other international universities: Discourse;
New Authoritarianism; Resistance.

Our keynote speaker Ngai-Ling Sum from the Lancaster University will
provide a
lecture on
“The Cultural Political Economy of Hope/Fear:
Ordoliberal Authoritarianism and the Case of China”


Participants from the disciplines and fields of sociology, political
sciences, literary and cultural studies, media and communication,
education, geography, philosophy, linguistics and related areas in the
social sciences and humanities are all invited.
Applicants are expected to send in proposals which include an abstract with
one’s project (no more than 250 words) as well as an academic CV. The
abstract will consist of a title and a description of the proposed research
project or presentation.
Proposals should be sent in by the 30th of September 2020. We will inform
you on 15th of October if you are accepted or not.
In case of acceptance, each participant will be asked to send in a 10-page
version of the research project by December 31st 2020. These longer texts
should delineate the research object, lay out the research questions,
situate the project in the field, and reflect on the preferred methods.
These versions will be circulated among the participants prior to the event
and will be used by the commentators. Each participant will get
two comments on their paper by two experts. During the Winter School, the
students will not present their entire papers but elaborate on specific
points, practical problems and
methodological challenges of their projects. If they wish, the participants
can stay the weekend after and join in the social activities with the
organisers in the Valencia region.

The DiscourseNet Winter School is free of charge. In case of equal quality
of the
application, DiscourseNet members will be considered first. If you want to
join
DiscourseNet, please write a message to
membership at discourseanalysis.net including your
name, email address and professional status (e.g. PhD student,
professor, independent researcher). There are places for up to 25
participants. The working language is English.
The Winter School is organised by members of the DIPE (Discourse, Ideology,
and Political Economy) research group within DiscourseNet. DiscourseNet is
an
interdisciplinary and international association of discourse researchers
existing since 2007.
To apply for the Winter School and for any inquiries or questions, please
contact:

DNWinterSchoolValencia at gmail.com

Organisation

Johannes Beetz, University of Warwick (UK) | Benno Herzog, University of
Valencia (Spain) | Jens Maesse, University of Giessen (Germany) | Ksenia
Semykina, Higher School of Economics, Moscow (Russia) | Jan Krasni Tyumen
State University (Russia)
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