Interdisciplinary Perspetives on European Solidarity
International Conference
24-25 June 2019
UWE's City Campus at Arnolfini (Bristol, UK).
24-25 June 2019
UWE's City Campus at Arnolfini (Bristol, UK).
SUCCESS!
We thoroughly enjoyed both the research panels and the public engagement event of 'Interdisciplinary Perspective on European Solidarity'. Lots of food for thought and calls to action. Many thanks to all the participants! See below a few pictures.
- The Organisers
The medium of integration of civic solidarity within and across national borders [...] is a necessary condition for joint political will-formation and hence for both the communicative generation of democratic power and the legitimation of the exercise of political authority.
Jürgen Habermas
Conference Programme
MONDAY, 24 JUNE
UWE's City Campus at Arnolfini (room 3AF013)
UWE's City Campus at Arnolfini (room 3AF013)
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09:00-09:30
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Registration and Welcome Address
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Noelle Quenivet & Francesco Tava
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9:30-11:00
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Keynote Lecture
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Andrea Sangiovanni (EUI/King's College)
Why is Freedom of Movement in the EU Worth Preserving? Chair: Darian Meacham (Maastricht University) |
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11:00-11:30
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Coffee Break
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11:30-13:30
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Panel A: Triggering Solidarity
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Karolin-Sophie Stüber (HFPH Munich)
Understanding Solidarity as “Thinking without a Banister”. Revisiting Hannah Arendt’s Thoughts Egle Dagilyte (Anglia Ruskin University) European Solidarity beyond Law: Posted Workers as a Case Study Ann-Kathrin Reinl (GESIS Cologne) What Triggers Transnational Solidarity? Chair: Noelle Quenivet (UWE Bristol) |
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13:30-15:00
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Lunch Break
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15:00-17:00
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Panel B: Actors and Social Objects
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Alessandro Volpe (UniSR Milan)
Habermas’ Account of Solidarity for Europe: A Critical Reading Carlo Burelli (University of Eastern Piedmont) Legitimacy through Solidarity in the European Landscape Alexander Heindl (HFPH Munich) Solidaristic Practices as a Form of Democratic Empowerment Chair: Christian Dadomo (UWE Bristol) |
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17:00-18:30
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Reception and Networking
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18:30-20:30
at Watershed |
Agora Europe: 'Solidarity and Europe' | 27th instalment of the itinerant symposium conceived by Caterina Di Fazio with Nadia Urbinati and Etienne Balibar. Speakers: Egle Dagilyte, Forward Maisokwadzo, Darian Meacham, Abdi Mohamed, Ciaran Mundy, Noelle Quenivet, Andrea Sangiovanni, Frank Vandenbroucke. Chair: Francesco Tava.
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TUESDAY, 25 JUNE
UWE's City Campus at Arnolfini (room 3AF013)
UWE's City Campus at Arnolfini (room 3AF013)
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09:00-10:30
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Research Pilot: Solidarity, Bioethics, and RRI
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Darian Meacham (University of Maastricht)
Bringing Solidarity into Responsible Innovation Peter West-Oram (BSMS) Technological Development and the Changing Boundaries of Solidarity Groups Chair: Robert Gianni (SciencePo Paris) |
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10:30-10:45
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Coffee Break
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10:45-12:45
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Panel C: Contested Definitions and Practices
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Andreas Busen (University of Hamburg)
(European) Solidarity: A Realist View Marie Wachinger (FU Berlin) EU Solidarity Based on What Relation? Eva Fleischmann (LMU Munich) Solidarity Practices: Contrasting Cases Concerning the Voluntary Work with Refugees Chair: Artjoms Ivlevs (UWE Bristol) |
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12:45-13:45
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Lunch Break
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13:45-15:45
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Panel D: Redistribution and Cooperation
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Vassilis P. Tzevelekos (University of Liverpool) &
Dimitrios Kagiaros (University of Exeter) Judge-Imposed Standards of Solidarity vis-à-vis Vulnerable (Groups of) Individuals: A Critique of the Approach of the ECtHR’s Grand Chamber Frank Vandenbrouke (University of Amsterdam) Solidarity in the European Monetary Union: What the People Think and What we Ought to Think Chair: Suwita Hani Randhawa (UWE Bristol) |
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15:45-16:00
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Coffee Break
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16:00-17:30
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Panel E: (Un-)Solidarities
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Dagmar Wilhelm (UWE Bristol)
Transnational Solidarity as Negative Solidarity Harriet Gray (University of Liverpool) Understanding the Solidarities of the Common European Asylum System: Diverse, Incoherent and Political Yasha Maccanico (University of Bristol) The European Agenda on Migration: Make-Believe Solidarity to Undermine both Solidarity and Rights in Pursuit of Strategic Policy Goals Chair: Francesco Tava (UWE Bristol) |
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17:30-19:00
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Workshop (Roundtable and Discussions following Panel E)
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Public EngagementThe conference will host the 26th instalment of Agora Europe: a permanent and itinerant symposium that aims at discussing the future of Europe and the potential of each country to reshape the European political space. More info here. Everybody is welcome.
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Research PilotA Research Pilot on solidarity, bioethics, and RRI will be held on 25 June. The Pilot is sponsored by NewHoRRIzon and will involve researchers from various disciplines discussing the idea of solidarity against the backdrop of responsible innovation.
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Call for Abstracts
20th-century European history can be understood as a progressive crisis and transformation of core institutions and ideas (such as democracy, the nation state, civil society) that continue shaping the framework of contemporary political life. The defining experiences of European transformation – World Wars, the Cold War, the collapse of Communist regimes, post-1989 – placed a theoretical and practical strain on well-established institutional and conceptual structures. Through-out these transformations, the search for new, or renewed, institutions and ideas defined the course of Europe, as an idea as well as a reality.
Among those indispensable ideas belonging to the project of Europe is the concept of solidarity. Solidarity is not only the theoretical lynch-pin within the constellation of contemporary political concepts. It is equally central for political movements and the public discourse of European institutions. Recent events (Brexit, revived xenophobia, the immigration crisis), however, have further amplified the profound challenge in theoretically stabilising the concept of solidarity as well as in mobilising political and social movements in the name of solidarity. Despite various attempts by European institutions to foster solidarity, both legally (as stated in the “Solidarity Clause” of the Lisbon Treaty) and practically (with initiatives such as the European Solidarity Corps), a deficit of solidarity is becoming more and more apparent whenever Europe is faced with humanitarian and political crises which require an appeal to concrete solidarity.
Given the increasing lack of mutual trust and apparent breakdown of solidarity across the European political spectrum, one might ask whether solidarity, understood as a moral, political, legal, and economic principle, is still imaginable within European borders. No political or religious principle of identity seems today to be capable of generating such a trust; no institution appears to foster the kind of solidarity required for such trust.
Over the past decade, numerous scholars from a variety of disciplines that encompass moral and political philosophy and theory (Scholz 2008; Sangiovanni 2013; Wilde 2013; De Witte 2015; Kolers 2016; Grimmel and Mi Giang 2017), legal studies (Wolfrum and Kojima 2010; Biondi, Dagilytė, Küçük 2018), science and technology studies (Sharon 2016; Liboiron 2016; Hendrickx and Van Hoyweghen 2018), bioethics and health policy (Prainsack and Buyx 2017; Eckenwiler 2018; Jennings 2018), and migration studies and economics (Agustín and Bak Jorgensen 2018; Della Porta 2018) engaged the problem of solidarity and attempted a substantial redefinition of the meaning and practical implementation of solidarity in today’s reality. Whilst the majority of these analyses addressed the general idea of solidarity, some of them have Europe as their main research scope although they are not limited to it.
Despite the abundance of bibliographic sources on this topic, there is a substantial lack of interdisciplinary investigations of solidarity, a gap this conference aims to fill. Which moral obligations and political agenda can foster the establishment of European solidarity? Does a ‘right to solidarity’ exist, and which legal validity and legitimate application could this right have? What is the meaning and impact of solidarity on EU people? We welcome abstracts that address the concept of solidarity using resources drawn from this multidisciplinary seam of investigations and analyses. Contributions that will fall within the following research clusters will be particularly welcome.
Please submit abstracts (max: 500 words) before 30th March 2019. Decisions of accepted papers will be communicated by 8th April. Abstracts as well as queries can be submitted to Francesco.Tava@uwe.ac.uk and Noelle.Quenivet@uwe.ac.uk
Among those indispensable ideas belonging to the project of Europe is the concept of solidarity. Solidarity is not only the theoretical lynch-pin within the constellation of contemporary political concepts. It is equally central for political movements and the public discourse of European institutions. Recent events (Brexit, revived xenophobia, the immigration crisis), however, have further amplified the profound challenge in theoretically stabilising the concept of solidarity as well as in mobilising political and social movements in the name of solidarity. Despite various attempts by European institutions to foster solidarity, both legally (as stated in the “Solidarity Clause” of the Lisbon Treaty) and practically (with initiatives such as the European Solidarity Corps), a deficit of solidarity is becoming more and more apparent whenever Europe is faced with humanitarian and political crises which require an appeal to concrete solidarity.
Given the increasing lack of mutual trust and apparent breakdown of solidarity across the European political spectrum, one might ask whether solidarity, understood as a moral, political, legal, and economic principle, is still imaginable within European borders. No political or religious principle of identity seems today to be capable of generating such a trust; no institution appears to foster the kind of solidarity required for such trust.
Over the past decade, numerous scholars from a variety of disciplines that encompass moral and political philosophy and theory (Scholz 2008; Sangiovanni 2013; Wilde 2013; De Witte 2015; Kolers 2016; Grimmel and Mi Giang 2017), legal studies (Wolfrum and Kojima 2010; Biondi, Dagilytė, Küçük 2018), science and technology studies (Sharon 2016; Liboiron 2016; Hendrickx and Van Hoyweghen 2018), bioethics and health policy (Prainsack and Buyx 2017; Eckenwiler 2018; Jennings 2018), and migration studies and economics (Agustín and Bak Jorgensen 2018; Della Porta 2018) engaged the problem of solidarity and attempted a substantial redefinition of the meaning and practical implementation of solidarity in today’s reality. Whilst the majority of these analyses addressed the general idea of solidarity, some of them have Europe as their main research scope although they are not limited to it.
Despite the abundance of bibliographic sources on this topic, there is a substantial lack of interdisciplinary investigations of solidarity, a gap this conference aims to fill. Which moral obligations and political agenda can foster the establishment of European solidarity? Does a ‘right to solidarity’ exist, and which legal validity and legitimate application could this right have? What is the meaning and impact of solidarity on EU people? We welcome abstracts that address the concept of solidarity using resources drawn from this multidisciplinary seam of investigations and analyses. Contributions that will fall within the following research clusters will be particularly welcome.
- Migration & Transnationalism
- Vulnerability & Resilience
- Citizenship & the Public Sphere
- Social Justice & Development
- Technology & Responsible Innovation
- Identities & Social Representations
- Agency and Policy
- Legality and Legitimacy
Please submit abstracts (max: 500 words) before 30th March 2019. Decisions of accepted papers will be communicated by 8th April. Abstracts as well as queries can be submitted to Francesco.Tava@uwe.ac.uk and Noelle.Quenivet@uwe.ac.uk
