Citizens within Subjects:
Political Rights and Participation in Historical and Contemporary Perspective
2003 - 2004
Overview
A series of conferences, workshops and fellowships funded by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation to be organised and hosted by the Centre for Early Modern Studies, University of Aberdeen, during the academic year 2003-2004
The project ’Citizens within Subjects’ will consist of four one-day conferences, a series of fortnightly workshops, and three research fellowships, all devoted to addressing contemporary political issues from an early modern perspective. Its purpose is to break down disciplinary and chronological barriers that have dogged modernist thought and to reveal continuities and discontinuities, similarities and differences, between two epochs of profound flux: one which saw the genesis of the ’nation-state’, the other that is witnessing its unravelling. This goal will be pursued through a forum in which scholars of and practitioners in the perceived crises of political participation affecting modern western democracies can engage with the most recent analyses of early modern, non-democratic political cultures. The object will be to gain a more historicized perspective on crucial contemporary questions than that afforded by paradigms derived from the post-Enlightenment era, and thereby to inform the work of academics and policy-makers alike. A full account of the project is available below under the following headings.
I. INTELLECTUAL AGENDA
- The topic: early modern perspectives on post-modern political culture
- Comparative frameworks: chronological, methodological, geographical
II. THE SEMINAR SERIES
- Format: conferences, workshops, and electronic discussions
- Schedule of Colloquia:
I: Participation and Governance - 28-29 November 2003
II: Discourse and the public sphere - 17 January 2004
III: Identity and allegiance - 13 March 2004
IV: Rights, resistance and conflict - 15 May 2004 - Schedule of Workshops:
I: Civic and Political Consciousness - 6 December 2003
II: Networks - 18 February 2004
III: Law and Custom - 14 April 2004
III. ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURES