In bookstores now: "Anti-Democratic Thought"
Edited by Erich Kofmel,
published by Imprint Academic, ISBN 9781845401245
250 pp., pbk., £11.96
(approx. $25.00 / €20.00)
Browse and buy the book on Google Book Search:
http://books.google.com/ADT
Out 1 August 2009: "Anti-Liberalism and Political
Theology"
Edited by Erich Kofmel,
published by Imprint Academic, ISBN 9781845401573
250 pp., pbk., £11.96
(approx. $25.00 / €20.00)
Pre-order your copy: www.amazon.com/anti-liberalism-political-theology-erich-kofmel/
The
Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS) is working at the same
rigorous
intellectual
level as the world's foremost universities and research centres. Differently
from these,
SCIS
is however not bound to prevailing paradigms of social and political discourse.
SCIS will shift
paradigms.
SCIS
is independent of the University of Sussex, but the founding members of SCIS
and many
of
our Research Associates were and are doctoral candidates and young researchers
at that
University.
Since 2009, SCIS is based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Our
distinguished International Advisory Board and Senior Research Associates have
been known
to include
world-renowned senior scholars and full professors from universities such as
Harvard,
Berkeley, UCLA,
British Columbia, Essex, Northwestern, and Chicago, representing a wide array
of academic
disciplines.
Our
excellence in research has been acknowledged by invitations to speak at
institutions as
austere
and diverse as the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the London School of
Economics,
Sciences
Po/The Institute for Political Studies in Paris, the Russian Academy of
Sciences in
Moscow,
the European University Institute in Florence, the European Science Foundation,
the
European
Consortium for Political Research, and the American Political Science
Association.
We
aim to create a worldwide inter- and transdisciplinary network of highly
original researchers,
particularly
in the social sciences and humanities, as well as artists – a network of people
who feel
that
the current higher education system stifles their abilities and potential.
While
our focus is on "the individual and society" we believe that a vast
variety of daring and
unusual
research projects can be carried out under this heading (there are no
restrictions) and
that
the personality and way of thinking of the individual researcher are what is
all important.
23 July
2008: Erich Kofmel (SCIS) participates as Invited Speaker in the opening
Plenary
Round Table: "Global Values" of the Second Global International
Studies
Conference
of the World International Studies Committee (WISC),
at the
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Press
release: Erich Kofmel promoted to research professorship
26 February 2010
In accordance with Swiss legislation and the laws of the
Republic and Canton of Geneva, Erich
Kofmel has been promoted to the position of Research
Professor of Political Theory at the Sussex
Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS), with effect
from 1 March 2010. Professor Kofmel
will remain Managing Director of SCIS, the research
centre's Board of Directors announced today.
Founded in 2006 at the University of Sussex, England, SCIS has been an
international association
under Swiss law, based in Geneva, since 2009.
SCIS is not an accredited higher education institution in Switzerland and does
not regularly
undertake teaching and the professorship awarded to Erich
Kofmel, while a signifier of academic
excellence, is a research professorship not a university
professorship. As an inter- and
transdisciplinary research centre, SCIS is formally
independent of university structures.
Professor Kofmel (35) is the world's leading expert on anti-democratic thought
and practice.
He studied for a doctoral degree in social and political
thought at the University of Sussex and
Sciences Po Paris and holds Master's degrees in Public
and Development Management and
Roman Catholic Theology as well as a Postgraduate
Certificate in Comparative and Cross-
Cultural Research Methods. Prior to taking up an academic
career, he worked in project and
general management in the private, public, and
non-governmental sectors in Europe and Africa.
A native of Switzerland, he lived for prolonged periods
in Senegal, South Africa, England, and
France.
Professor Kofmel is the editor of two contributed volumes, Anti-Liberalism and Political Theology
and Anti-Democratic
Thought (Imprint Academic, 2008), and the author of two academic
blogs,
the Anti-Democracy
Agenda (www.anti-democracy.com) and the Political Theology Agenda
(www.political-theology.com). An edited volume on alternatives to
democracy in development
policy and a monograph, Me Against Mediocrity, are in
preparation.
He is available for consultancy mandates particularly in the fields of
anti-democratic thought and
practice, political theologies, and the interaction of
the individual and society.
SCIS continues to invite applications from suitably qualified candidates
worldwide to join the centre
as Research Associates or Senior Research Associates or
to do internships. We are eager to work
with people (in person or through electronic
communication channels) who will produce original
research at the cutting edge of the study of "the
individual and society" in any discipline or area of
study.
Website: www.scis-calibrate.org
Contact: e.kofmel@scis-calibrate.org
Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society
1200 Geneva
Switzerland
"Anti-Democracy Agenda" now online
2 January 2010
Conferences, Books, Articles, Trends: The "Anti-Democracy
Agenda" is run by the Sussex Centre
for the Individual and Society (SCIS) in order to serve
as a focal point and the premier resource
on the net for the study of anti-democratic thought and
practice as well as old and new alternatives
to democracy. It wishes to facilitate the exchange on
anti-democratic thought and practice across
boundaries, be they disciplinary, ideological, national,
cultural, generational, philosophical, religious
(or non-religious), etc. By disseminating information on
research, publications, and events, it hopes
to increase awareness of the various traditions and
current trends, and raise the academic and
public profile of anti-democratic thought and practice
worldwide.
www.anti-democracy.com
The term "Agenda" indicates the rationale of both our blogs, the "Political
Theology Agenda" (since
January 2009) and the "Anti-Democracy Agenda"
(since January 2010): originating from Latin, it
means that "which ought to be done", a working
programme – doing, acting, making. A list of
matters to be worked on, to be taken up, to be
contributed to. Notably, a schedule of events and
readings, and a research agenda around which to coalesce.
These Agendas give visibility to novel areas of research, provide a focal point
to informal networks
of scholars (both at universities and independent) and
people all around the world and from various
backgrounds that may not know each other now and maybe
never get to know one another. They
provide resources, all in one place, for the benefit of
those who come newly to the field or are just
curious. They are an invitation to participate.
The time has come to give that kind of focus to the research agenda on
anti-democratic thought
and practice.
About
SCIS
It
is surprising that a concept used as frequently as "the individual and
society" should not have
led
to as many research institutes and programmes at universities all over the
world. In fact, there
appears
to be no research centre at any university in the world that applies itself to
looking at the
individual
and society in breadth and depth and from a variety of angles.
In
creating a research centre dedicated to "the individual and society"
we filled this academic gap.
However,
as we also wish to retain our individuality as researchers, the research centre
is entirely
independent
of the University of Sussex and its administrative structures.
SCIS
is working interdisciplinary within the social sciences, humanities, and arts
as well as related
disciplines
in natural and life sciences and technology (such as Social Psychology,
Cognitive
Science,
and Artificial Intelligence). We aim to work more interdisciplinary than is
common (or
commonly
possible) at universities. In the process, we will overcome linguistic,
disciplinary,
sectoral,
conceptual, ideological, and cultural boundaries and transcend even
interdisciplinarity.
We
wish to apply different perspectives, various angles, and the methodological
apparatuses of
many
disciplines to a more thorough study of the interaction of the individual and
society than has
ever
been attempted.
SCIS
was set up in 2006 in an historic cottage (39 Tenant Lain, right at the
entrance of Falmer
campus)
that we got to rent from the University. The University of Sussex, at Brighton,
England,
is
situated in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, soon to be the South Downs
National Park.
Since
2009, SCIS is incorporated as an international association under Swiss law and
based in
Geneva.
Media
coverage on SCIS includes:
-
The Guardian: http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/story/0,,1861193,00.html
-
The Independent:
www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/who-needs-state-funding-anyway-415813.html
-
Times Higher Education:
www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=204947
-
BBC: Research students 'go it alone', 30 August 2006 (also in
Chinese)
- Intute: www.intute.ac.uk/socialsciences/cgi-bin/fullrecord.pl?handle=20060906-121423
The
individual and society
The
terms "individual" and "society" have given rise to many
definitions and conceptualizations.
Manifold are the proposed interconnections and causal relationships between the two.
Most
relevant courses taught in degree programmes at universities and colleges focus
on "the
individual
in
society" and concern themselves with issues such as nationalism and fascism.
Speaking
of "the individual and society" does not
narrow down possibilities as much. The
individual
in
society makes a number of assumptions and prioritizes certain theoretical bases
–
i.e.
that the individual can only be conceptualized as an integral part of society
and the product of
historical
and social conditioning by way of beliefs, customs, and attitudes –, whereas and
provides
greater scope for change and moving to a different world view and praxis. Using
and
does
not deny a social context but it problematizes the priority given to either the
individual or
society.
It rejects in equal measure the other extreme which claims that society does
not exist and
only
individuals should be studied ("methodological
individualism"). That both society and the
individual
can find manifold definitions requires suitable research into how they might be
separate
rather
than the unthinking assumptions that the use of in
brings.
Questions
to be addressed by us include the very nature of what qualifies as a
"society", and what
distinguishes
society from other categories such as "community", the
"state", a "nation", or a
"tribe";
then, what may be summarized as the individual in society: ideological collectivisms, modes
of
social and political organization, mechanisms of power and coercion, and
psychological and
evolutionary
studies into the perceived "herd" mentality of human beings;
furthermore,
individualism
in its various manifestations, such as classic liberalism, anarchist
individualism, the
professed
mass individualism of consumerist society, and evidence of "great",
or superior,
individuals;
collectivisms of all kind (such as religion, economy, labour, communitarianism,
and
collectivist
anarchism); the formation or pre-existence of individual and collective
identity and
identities;
education and the individual, education and society (a preferred way of
aligning the
individual
with society's demands and needs, but also aiding the acquisition of critical
faculties);
deviant
behaviour (for example, "crime", medical deviations from the
"norm", "outsiders");
resistance
and modes of resistance; utopia and dystopia; the individual and society in
social and
economic
development, and comparative and cross-cultural research into these and related
concepts.
Independence
SCIS
is positively elitist and meritocratic. We wish to re-create the academic ethos
that got lost in
today's
mass universities.
We
know where our strengths lie and we do not wish to waste our time doing
anything but what
we
do best. We resist the process of Foucauldian "normalization" and
induction into a discourse
that
we believe to be largely irrelevant. We refuse to waste our potential and we
know that we can
do
our best work now and in the years lying immediately ahead of us. Being able to
spend our
time
productively researching and writing is the most important reason why SCIS has
been set
up
as an independent centre dedicated purely to research and research-related
activities. SCIS
enables
its members and associates to circumvent the intellectual pretentiousness of
today's
higher
education system and work on research projects that due to ideological and/or
other
restrictions
could not easily be undertaken in a university.
SCIS
provides an intellectual space where men and women who identify with our
objectives can
meet
and interact and find relief in the company of others with a similar mindset.
We want to break
free,
comprehend, reconceptualize, and reorientate the world and structures that
impinge potential
and
achievement rather than facilitating or encouraging it. Individuals involved in
SCIS will preserve
and
develop challenging and in fact threatening ideas. We will create the thoughts
of the future.
Against
a world that refuses to make value judgements, we will propose political,
social and
educational
alternatives that hold up the values of freedom, tolerance, and charity without
leading
to
mediocrity.
SCIS
will alter the application of knowledge. Against its prevailing application in
pursuit of certain
narrow
goals, such as increases in the accumulation of capital and possessions and the
stability
and
fixity of systems of consumption and labour, we will set flux, the application
of knowledge for
diverse
ends, and a change of language, attitudes, and actions. We do wish SCIS to have
an
impact
in the world.
From
the outset, we enjoyed the ambiguity of being, at the same time, independent of
the
University
of Sussex and on campus, of being research students but also student leaders
and
researchers
of our own making.
We
believe that the higher education system, in different ways and at different
levels, on the one
hand
obstructs but on the other hand aids individuals who resist
"normalization" and being told
what
to do. It can still be turned into a powerful tool that assists the development
of truly critical
and
creative thought. While weak individuals are being absorbed by the system,
strong
individualists
will fight against it – and win.
Legal
form
SCIS was first registered, in 2006, as a Company Limited by
Guarantee and Not Having a Share
Capital (that is, not for profit) in England and Wales (Company
No. 5850511). No shares were
given out and no dividends paid to members.
From its inception, SCIS was independent of the University of
Sussex and included research
associates from other universities in the UK and worldwide as
well as non-affiliated scholars. By
2009, SCIS had become ever more international and academics from
all five continents had
participated in SCIS-organized events that took place on three
continents. To support the further
internationalization of our research and activities, the Sussex
Centre for the Individual and Society
decided therefore to change its legal personality to that of an international
association under Swiss
law.
The association has been incorporated under the same name and
takes over all rights and duties
of the former company, which was dissolved. SCIS is now based in
Geneva, Switzerland. All
SCIS activities will be continued by the association (blogs, events,
publications, mailing lists, etc.).
SCIS remains a non-profit organization. Any profits, or other
income, are to be spent in promoting
the association's objects. The liability of members is limited.
The association's President and
Managing Director is Professor Erich Kofmel.
History
31
March 2006: Foundation of the Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society
(SCIS)
21-23
July 2006: Inaugural International Symposium at the University of Sussex
22
December 2006: Alex Higgins resigns from SCIS for personal reasons
23
July 2008: Erich Kofmel Invited Speaker at triennial Global International
Studies Conference
1
December 2008: "Anti-Democratic Thought", ed. Erich Kofmel, published
by Imprint Academic
27
January 2009: Launch of a first academic blog, the "Political Theology
Agenda"
16
February 2009: SCIS incorporated as an international association under Swiss
law
2
January 2010: Launch of a second academic blog, the "Anti-Democracy
Agenda"
1
March 2010: Erich Kofmel promoted to the position of Research Professor of
Political Theory
Members
Current
and past members of SCIS include:
Professor Erich
Kofmel 
The
founding Managing Director of SCIS is Erich Kofmel. Promoted to the position of
Research
Professor
of Political Theory in 2010, he studied for a doctoral degree in social and
political
thought
at the University of Sussex and Sciences Po Paris. In addition to a Master of
Management
in
Public and Development Management, with specialization in Governance and Public
Policy
(University
of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg), and a Master of Philosophy in Theology (St
Augustine
College of South Africa), he holds a Commercial Certificate of Ability
(Switzerland) and
a
Postgraduate Certificate in Comparative and Cross-Cultural Research Methods
(University of
Sussex).
He served, among other things, as Chairman of the Postgraduate Association of
the
University
of Sussex (PGA) and a member of the University's Research Degrees and
Professional
Doctorates Committee and as Coordinator of the "Career Development" workgroup
of the European council of doctoral
candidates and young researchers (Eurodoc).
Alexander W. Higgins
Also
a founding member of SCIS was Alexander W. Higgins. He held the position of
Researcher
in
SCIS and served as a Director. At the end of 2006, he decided to leave
university and SCIS for
personal
reasons. Without Alex Higgins, SCIS would not exist. He worked tirelessly to
make it a
success.
You will always be welcome back! HAPPY WEDNESDAY, dear Alex.
Research
Associates
The
founders and members of SCIS will do whatever it takes to identify the kind of
person we are
keen
to work with – people, all over the world, who will produce original research
at the cutting
edge
of the study of "the individual and society" in any discipline.
For
example: Dr Dylan Evans, one of our more than twenty Research
Associates since 2006 and
a former Senior Lecturer in Intelligent Autonomous Systems,
with an MA in Psychoanalytic
Studies and a PhD in Philosophy, left university in 2007 and
was affiliated to SCIS while running
his own project, the "Utopia Experiment", in
Scotland.
Senior
Research Associates since 2006 included Professor Joseph V. Femia (Political
Theory,
Liverpool)
and Professor Alexander García Düttmann (Philosophy and Visual Cultures,
Goldsmiths).
Interns
/ work experience
SCIS offers unpaid internships or work experience (full-time or
part-time) to students anywhere.
More than a dozen students (undergraduates, postgraduates, and
recent graduates) as well as
young professionals have made use of this exciting opportunity.
Here's what you could be doing:
assistance with research projects and publications; assistance
with fundraising; event
organization; general office work; and so on.
International
Advisory Board
Following
the successful establishment of SCIS as an independent, internationally
recognizable
academic
research centre with an agenda very much of our own making, the International
Advisory
Board
is to be phased out as current members retire.
Current
and past members of SCIS' distinguished International Advisory Board include
Professor
Ernesto
Laclau (Political Theory, Essex and Northwestern), Professor Francis Schüssler
Fiorenza
(Roman-Catholic
Theology, Harvard), Professor Michael J. Watts (Geography, Development
Studies,
and International Studies, Berkeley), Professor John Friedmann (Urban Planning,
British
Columbia,
UCLA), and Professor Iris Marion Young (1949-2006; Political Science, Chicago).
We
would like to thank all members of the International Advisory Board – past and
present – for
their
valuable input, although all opinions and decisions, research and aspirations
of SCIS remain
solely
our own.
Research
Research in SCIS is guided by our conviction that both "the
individual" and "society" should be
studied from a social, political, and theoretical angle first of
all, and that even empirical research
must be based on sound theoretical considerations.
Other than that, research in SCIS – be it part of our core
research programme or carried out
individually by our Research Associates – follows three main
lines of inquiry:
1.
Study of the individual
2.
Study of collectivisms
3.
Comparative and
cross-cultural studies
Research Associates of SCIS have been working on projects to do
with "the
individual and
society" in disciplines as diverse as Philosophy, Cognitive Science, Social
Psychology,
Informatics, American Studies, Media and Film, Intellectual
History, English Literature, Migration
Research, Politics, Education, International Relations, and
Development Studies.
Research
programme
The
core research programme of SCIS centres around four broad, though interrelated
areas:
1.
Anti-egalitarian and anti-democratic
thought and practice
2.
New political forms and theory emerging
in the 21st century
3.
The anti-liberal project of political
theologies
4.
Development studies and failure of
democratization
This
core research programme can and will be extended in line with available funds.
Here we
present
an initial programme only. Most individual research projects will go across
areas of
interest.
In
an
historical and cross-cultural perspective, the fact cannot be denied that most
democracies
failed. Many formerly
democratic countries do not have a democratic government now. Many
countries have never
known democracy. Only western democracies for a short while – maybe to
be dated from the fall
of Soviet communism to the rise of radical Islam – believed themselves
invincible. It does
therefore seem expedient to think about political alternatives once more and to
study threats to
democracy from within and without as well as common modes of failure of
democracy across times
and cultures. Will people’s disillusion with democratic practices (such as
the impact money has on
campaigning), mass politics, and the equal inconsequence of
everyone’s vote
ultimately terminate democracy? Oswald Spengler, in The Decline of the West,
said: "As then
sceptre and crown, so now peoples' rights are paraded for the multitude, and
all
the more punctiliously
the less they really signify".
Anti-democratic thinking
is one of the most important factors impinging on the success or failure
of social and economic
development efforts in developing countries. Terms like "good
governance" and
"political development" are often used, in the development discourse,
synonymously with
"democracy" and "democratization". At the same time, modes
of anti-
democratic thought are
seldom studied seriously in either Development Studies or Political
Science and
International Relations.
Still, all known
political alternatives may have discredited themselves. The competing political
systems of the
twentieth century lost their struggle for world domination. This raises the
question
whether
anti-egalitarian thought whose time had not come in the nineteenth and
twentieth
centuries will provide
the basis for a post-postmodern political theory? And will the technological
innovations of recent
decades, and those to come, make possible political forms that never
existed (nor could be
imagined) in history – or will we have to fall back, post democracy, into the
abyss of authoritarian
despotism, as envisaged by Plato and Aristotle?
In
2010, SCIS started the "Anti-Democracy Agenda" blog in order to serve
as a focal
point
and the premier resource on the net for the study of anti-democratic thought
and
practice as well as old and new alternatives to democracy. By facilitating the
exchange
across all boundaries, it hopes to raise their academic and public profile.
Spengler
argued that democracy and capitalism are inextricably linked and that democracy
will
come
to an end sooner rather than later (as did any earlier attempt at democracy).
He said that
money
would finally lose its value, its meaning, and politics would reclaim its
rightful place. That is
the
challenge of our time: reclaiming politics. Creating a post-postmodern world in
which values
and
morals will once more have attained meaning. In our society this may mean to
create real
values
for the first time.
Post
1989 and,
with increased urgency, post 2001, political theology has come to reappraise
the
value of Christianity
for a politico-theological project that could at once sustain or replace
discredited Marxism,
challenge liberalism for political hegemony, and hold its own opposite radical
Islam. Numerous
publications on political theology have appeared in the past few years or are
in
preparation. Many
contributors to this new debate seem particularly drawn to Carl Schmitt’s
straight-forward
"friend/enemy" distinction.
"Comparative
Political Theology" – a concept Erich Kofmel introduced at the General
Conference
of the European
Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) in September 2007 – proposes to gain
valuable insights into
the theoretical foundations of the interplay between religion and politics by
comparing political
theologies to each other across religious and cultural boundaries. As a result
of comparative study of
radical Islam and Christian political and liberation theologies, we came
to suggest that the
single most important factor underlying all political theologies is
anti-liberalism.
The particular
expression of anti-liberalism is of course always contextualized. Political
theology’s being
anti-liberal means that it is at least potentially anti-democratic too.
Surprisingly, radical
Islam shares many of the concerns of Christian political theologies, such as
an opposition to
"neo-colonialism" and, more recently, "neo-liberalism" and
"globalization".
Radical Islam claims
that in Islam theology cannot be separated from or replaced by politics and
is hostile to the spread
of liberal western values such as secularization, capitalism, and
democracy. Although
radical Islam need not be violent, militants use arguments of radical Islam
to justify acts of
terrorism.
http://political-theology.org/mailman/listinfo/praxis_political-theology.org
The "Political
Theology Agenda" blog and the mailing list (listserv) are run by SCIS
in
order to enhance dialogue between the various traditions of political theology
and
raise awareness
of each other and alternative approaches. Since 2007, they serve
to disseminate
information on research, publications, and events worldwide.
Developmental
research will enable us to further study the inherent linkage between democracy
and
capitalism and its consequences for understanding the failure of democracies in
not-yet-
capitalist
societies as well as for politics of resistance. Engagement in Development
Studies will
also
allow us to find inroads into countries that do not have a western liberal democratic
tradition
and
may therefore offer us the opportunity to try new social and political ideas in
practice.
Furthermore,
we have an ongoing concern with changes to science policy and the
massification,
vocationalization,
and commodification of higher education.
Publications
We
wish SCIS' name and remit to be well known and to be recognized for the
quality, originality,
importance, and impact of our published research.
As
an independent research centre, SCIS supports researchers who do not wish to
publish in
peer-reviewed
journals as the need to be acceptable to one's peers may lead to mediocre
efforts,
results,
or presentation of findings and theories. At the same time, Erich Kofmel has
accepted
invitations
to serve as referee for the renowned journals "Political Studies", "Philosophical
Frontiers", "International
Political Science Review", and "European Journal of Development
Research".
Erich
Kofmel's
publications for SCIS include:
Books
1.
(Editor) "Anti-Democratic Thought", Exeter and
Charlottesville: Imprint Academic (2008)
http://books.google.com/books?printsec=frontcover&id=KkMdJtaaeOYC
This
book marks the start of a daring new debate and re-introduces
anti-democratic
thought and practice to the academic discourse and into the syllabus.
It
wishes to offer a serious discussion of anti-democratic thought, rather than an
apology
of democracy. The book outlines a positive agenda for the future.
2.
(Editor) "Anti-Liberalism and Political Theology",
Exeter and Charlottesville: Imprint Academic,
forthcoming (1 August 2009)
www.amazon.com/anti-liberalism-political-theology-erich-kofmel/
3.
(Monograph)
"Me Against Mediocrity", in preparation
4.
(Editor) "The Anti-Democratic Turn in Development
Policy", in preparation
Papers
-
"Re-Introducing
Anti-Democratic Thought", in Kofmel, E. (Ed.), "Anti-Democratic
Thought",
Exeter and Charlottesville: Imprint
Academic (2008), pp. 1-16
http://books.google.com/books?printsec=frontcover&id=KkMdJtaaeOYC#PPA1,M1
-
"Fighting
Capitalism and Democracy", in Kofmel, E. (Ed.), "Anti-Democratic
Thought", Exeter
and Charlottesville: Imprint Academic
(2008), pp. 187-239
http://books.google.com/books?printsec=frontcover&id=KkMdJtaaeOYC#PPA187,M1
-
"Comparative
Political Theology", in Kofmel, E. (Ed.), "Anti-Liberalism and
Political Theology",
Exeter and Charlottesville: Imprint
Academic, forthcoming (1 August 2009)
www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/generalconference/pisa/papers/PP1206.pdf
-
"Decisionism
and Development", in Kofmel, E. (Ed.), "The Anti-Democratic Turn in
Development Policy", book
manuscript in preparation
-
"Homosexuality
and Islam and Democracy in Senegal", in Kofmel, E. (Ed.),
"The Anti-
Democratic Turn in Development
Policy", book manuscript in preparation
Events
Academic
conferences, seminars, and workshops organized by SCIS are important means for
us
to
set and advance our own research and policy agenda. They allow large numbers of
doctoral
candidates
and young researchers as well as more senior academics and people outside of
academia,
and from all over the world, to participate in SCIS' activities and interests and to
explore
jointly topics that are not studied elsewhere.
Papers
thus initiated by us and presented at SCIS events have subsequently been
published by
the
authors either as part of volumes edited by ourselves, or in a number of other
ways: namely,
in
print or open-access journals, as working or policy papers, and in contributed
volumes edited
by
others.
SCIS-organized
events since 2006 include:
21-23
July 2006: Inaugural International Symposium of SCIS "The Individual and
Society in the
21st
Century", at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the University
of Sussex,
England.
Keynote speakers: Professor Calestous Juma (Practice of International Development
at
Harvard's
Kennedy School of Government) and Sharif Horthy (President of the Guerrand-
Hermès
Foundation for Peace).
"It's
an area that is not really very well studied ...
I
couldn't think of a serious body of theory around which
you
could organize an analytical framework on this." –
Calestous
Juma, on the individual and society
2006-2007:
Biweekly SCIS Graduate Seminars, at the University of Sussex. Speakers included
Professor
Ernesto Laclau (Political Theory, Essex and Northwestern), Professor Ben Fine
(Economics,
SOAS), Professor Simon Blackburn (Philosophy, Cambridge), Professor Joseph V.
Femia
(Political Theory, Liverpool), Professor Alexander García Düttmann (Philosophy
and Visual
Cultures,
Goldsmiths), Rick Poynor (writer and design critic, London) and Jami Chandio
(political
consultant
and journalist, Pakistan), among others. Screening of the films "The Ister" and "The
Fountainhead".
14
June 2007: Workshop "European
Doctoral Careers: Global, Transsectoral, Interdisciplinary" of
the European council of doctoral
candidates and young researchers (Eurodoc), Institute of
Development Studies (IDS) at the
University of Sussex. Speakers included Professor Chris Park
(Senior Associate, UK Higher Education
Academy) and Dr Janet Metcalfe (Director, UK GRAD).
3-4
September 2007: Workshop "Anti-Democratic
Thought", at the Fourth Annual Conference
"Workshops in Political
Theory", Manchester Metropolitan University, England. Participants came
from as far as Israel, the United
States, and Lesotho (Southern Africa).
6
September 2007: Section "Political
Theology as Political Theory", at the Fourth General
Conference of the European Consortium
for Political Research (ECPR), University of Pisa, Italy.
Participants in this highly
prestigious event came from four continents (including Australia), among
them Professor Graham Ward (Contextual
Theology and Ethics, University of Manchester) and
Professor David Ricci (Political
Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem).
7-8 September 2007: Second Annual
International Symposium of SCIS "The Resurgence of
Political Theology", held in a
former convent, the Hotel Santa Croce in Fossabanda, Pisa, Italy.
Keynote speakers: Professor Kenneth
Surin (Professor of Literature and Professor of Religion
and Critical Theory at Duke
University) and Professor Jürgen Manemann (Christian
Weltanschauung, Religious and Cultural
Theory at the University of Erfurt, Germany).
"Thanks
indeed for organising such a splendid symposium. This was one of the most
enjoyable
meetings I've had for a decade at least. Your congenial method of chairing
helped
us a lot, and somehow we found a way to listen to each other. Grazie!" –
Ken
Surin, in an e-mail after the event
3 April 2008: Workshop
"Massification of Higher Education and Research Excellence in
Europe",
at the Eight Annual Conference of the
European council of doctoral candidates and young
researchers (Eurodoc), University of
Fribourg, Switzerland. Speakers included Dr Katrien Maes
(Office Director and Policy Officer,
League of European Research Universities).
23 May 2008: Section "Political
Decisionism and Statecraft in Africa", at the Eleventh Conference
of Africanists "Africa's
Development: Possibilities and Constraints" of the Academic Council on
Problems of Africa and the Institute
for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
Moscow.
9-11 July 2008: Third Annual
International Symposium of SCIS "Anti-Liberalism and Political
Theology", at Sciences Po/The
Institute for Political Studies (IEP) in Paris, France. Keynote
speakers: Professor Raymond Plant
(Lord Plant of Highfield; Member of the British House of
Lords and Professor of Jurisprudence
and Political Philosophy, King's College London) and
Professor Michele Nicoletti (Political
Philosophy, University of Trento, Italy).
23 July 2008: Panel "Comparative
Political Theology", at the Second Global International Studies
Conference of the World International
Studies Committee (WISC), University of Ljubljana,
Slovenia.
27 August 2008: Short Course "Democracy
and Its Critics: Re-Introducing Anti-Democratic
Thought
into the Syllabus", at the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Political
Science
Association
(APSA), Sheraton Boston Hotel, Boston, USA. Course participants arrived from
the
United
States, Europe, Australia, and Asia.
28
August 2008 (co-organized with the APSA "Religion
and Politics" Division): Panel "Political
Liberalism in Christian and Muslim
Thought", at the 104th Annual Meeting of the American
Political Science Association (APSA),
Boston, USA.
10-12 September 2008: Workshop "Spengler
Revisited: The Decline of the West, 2000-2200", at
the
Fifth Annual Conference "Workshops in Political Theory", Manchester
Metropolitan University,
England.
Participants, from North America, Europe, and Turkey, included Professor
Ricardo
Duchesne
(Sociology, University of New Brunswick, Canada) and Professor Thierry Leterre
(Political
Science, University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin, France).
8 November 2008: Panel "Anti-Democratic
Development", at the Annual Conference
"Development's
Invisible Hands" of the Development Studies Association (DSA), Church
House,
London,
England. With participants from the United States, Europe, and Bangladesh, one
of whom
won
the prize awarded by the European Journal of Development Research (EJDR) to the
best
conference
paper.
19
November 2008: Workshop "Valorisation of Doctoral Education and the
Doctorate" of the
European
council of doctoral candidates and young researchers (Eurodoc), at the
Institute of
Research
in Computer Science and Random Systems (IRISA) in Rennes, France. Speakers
included
Dr Massimo Serpieri (European Commission, Directorate-General for Research) and
Dr
Thomas
Jørgensen (European University Association, Council for Doctoral Education).
16
February 2009: Founding Meeting of the Sussex Centre for the Individual and
Society (SCIS)
as
an international association under Swiss law, at the Swiss National Library,
Bern.
7-9 September 2009: Fourth Annual
International Symposium of SCIS "Democracy's Linkage to
Capitalism", in Geneva,
Switzerland.
Forthcoming events
To be announced
Papers,
talks, and presentations
Dissemination of our research findings
and policy recommendations happens by way of
publication, but just as importantly
through academic papers and talks given and presentations
made at conferences, seminars, and
workshops all over the world:
Alexander
W. Higgins
12
May 2006: "Modalities
of the Mind and the Horizon of the Individual", Seventh
Essex Graduate
Conference
in Political Theory "The Many and the One", University of Essex,
England.
3
July 2006: "Education
in the UK: Purpose and Performance", Third Vittachi
International
Conference
"Rethinking Educational Change", Al Akhawayn University, Ifrane,
Morocco.
22
July 2006: "The
Original Impetus", Inaugural International Symposium of
SCIS "The Individual
and
Society in the 21st Century", University of Sussex, England.
22
September 2006: "An
Outline for the Application of a 'New' Paradigm – Gehlen/Luhmann/
Arendt and Production
Techniques", Fourth Graduate Conference in Social and Political Thought,
University of Sussex, England.
Erich Kofmel
12
May 2006: "Fight
Against the System", Seventh Essex Graduate Conference in
Political
Theory
"The Many and the One", University of Essex, England.
10
June 2006: "The
Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society",
Ordinary General Meeting of
the
National Postgraduate Committee of the United Kingdom (NPC), University of
Birmingham,
England.
23
July 2006: "Creators
and Secondhanders", Inaugural International Symposium of
SCIS "The
Individual
and Society in the 21st Century", University of Sussex, England.
22
September 2006: "The
Politico-Theological Analysis of Radical Islam", Fourth Graduate
Conference in Social and Political
Thought, University of Sussex, England.
4
September 2007: "Anti-Democratic
Thought of the Future", Fourth
Annual Conference
"Workshops in Political
Theory", Manchester Metropolitan University, England.
6 September 2007: "Comparative
Political Theology", Fourth General Conference of the
European Consortium for Political
Research (ECPR), University of Pisa, Italy.
www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/generalconference/pisa/papers/PP1206.pdf
8 September 2007: "Fighting Capitalism
and Democracy", Fourth General Conference of the
European Consortium for Political
Research (ECPR), University of Pisa, Italy.
http://books.google.com/books?printsec=frontcover&id=KkMdJtaaeOYC#PPA187,M1
17 September 2007:
"Cross-Dimensional Mobility in European Doctoral Careers", Research
Conference "Higher Education and
Social Change at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century"
of the European Science Foundation
(ESF), Vadstena Klosterhotell, Sweden.
www.erichkofmel.com/2009/02/cross-dimensional-mobility-in-european.html
27
February 2008: "Anti-Egalitarianism
in Plato, Nietzsche, Ibsen, Rand", Jerusalem Seminar in
the History of Political Thought, The
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
4
March 2008: "Comparative
Political Theology", Seminar of the Department of Political Studies,
Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan,
Israel.
14
March 2008: "Understanding
Public Religion: A Comparative Political Theology of Europe, the
Middle East and North Africa",
Ninth Mediterranean Research Meeting of the Robert Schuman
Centre for Advanced Studies, European
University Institute (EUI), Florence and Montecatini
Terme, Italy.
1
April 2008: "On
Confessional Political Theologies and Comparative Political Theology",
Annual
Conference "Theology and
Politics" of the Society for the Study of Theology (SST), St John's
College, Durham University, England.
5
April 2008: "Cross-Dimensional
Mobility in European Doctoral Careers", Eight Annual
Conference of the European council of
doctoral candidates and young researchers (Eurodoc),
University of Fribourg, Switzerland.
7 May 2008: "Comparative
Political Theology", Seminar of the Forum on Religion of the London
School of Economics and Political
Science (LSE), England.
23
May 2008: "African Decisionism", Eleventh Conference of Africanists
"Africa's Development:
Possibilities and
Constraints" of the Academic Council on Problems of Africa and the
Institute for
African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow.
9
July 2008: "On
Anti-Liberalism and Political Theology", Third Annual International
Symposium of
SCIS "Anti-Liberalism and
Political Theology", at Sciences Po/The Institute for Political Studies
(IEP) in Paris, France.
23
July 2008: "The Age
of Political Theology", Second Global International Studies Conference of
the World International Studies
Committee (WISC), University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
25
July 2008: "Re-Introducing
Anti-Democratic Thought", Second Global International Studies
Conference of the World International
Studies Committee (WISC), University of Ljubljana,
Slovenia.
http://books.google.com/books?printsec=frontcover&id=KkMdJtaaeOYC#PPA1,M1
8 November 2008: "Decisionism
and Development", Annual Conference "Development's Invisible
Hands"
of the Development Studies Association (DSA), Church House, London, England.
7 September 2009: "Fighting
Capitalism and Democracy", Fourth Annual International Symposium
of
SCIS "Democracy's Linkage to Capitalism", in Geneva, Switzerland.
Forthcoming papers, talks, and presentations
Erich Kofmel
To
be announced
Invited roundtable participation
Erich Kofmel
23 July 2008:
Opening Plenary Round Table: "Global Values", Second Global
International
Studies Conference
of the World International Studies Committee (WISC), University of Ljubljana,
Slovenia.
Teaching
Erich Kofmel
19-25
August 2007: Module "Research Management and Scientific Leadership:
Strategic,
Organizational
and Operational Perspectives", part of the training course of the
pan-Baltic project
"From
Great Expectations to Great Implementations" of the Estonian Academy of
Young
Scientists,
in partnership with the Association of Latvian Young Scientists and the
Lithuanian
Union
of Young Researchers, Tähetorni Hotell, Tallinn, Estonia.
Conference participation
Other conferences we participated in on behalf of SCIS:
Alexander W.
Higgins
2-4 June 2006: Cumberland Lodge Conference "Security and
Civil Liberties: Losses and Gains in
our Changing
Society", Windsor, England.
Alexander W. Higgins and Erich Kofmel
24
March 2006: Workshop "Unequal Development: The Globalisation of
Apartheid", Goldsmiths
College,
London, England, by invitation, part of the Economic and Social Research
Council
(ESRC)-funded
seminar series "Rethinking Economies".
3-5 August 2006: Annual Conference "Postgraduates
Under Threat: Under-Represented, Under-
Funded,
Under-Valued" of the National Postgraduate Committee of the United Kingdom
(NPC),
Aston University,
Birmingham, England.
Erich Kofmel
15-17 March 2007: Seventh Annual Conference of the European
council of doctoral candidates
and young researchers (Eurodoc), University of London,
England.
23-27 April 2007: Wilton Park Conference "Africa:
Business, Growth and Poverty Reduction",
Wiston House,
Steyning, England, by invitation, international policy conference in
cooperation with
the British
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Department for International Development
(DFID),
Business Action
for Africa, and Shell Foundation.
2 May 2007: High-level Policy Forum "Africa after
the Africa Commission: What Priorities for the
German G8?",
Law Society, London, England, by invitation, organized by the Department for
International
Development (DFID), Development Studies Association (DSA), Institute of
Development
Studies (IDS), and Overseas Development Institute (ODI).
9-10 May 2007: Workshop "University/Business
Collaboration in Doctoral Programmes", Siemens
AG, Munich,
Germany, by invitation, part of the "DOC-CAREERS" project of the
European
University
Association (EUA).
21-24 June 2007: European Meeting of University Professors "A New
Humanism for Europe:
The Role of
Universities" and Convention "Political Thought in Europe after 1989:
Between
Globalization and
New Humanism", Pontifical Lateran University and Free University "San
Pio V",
Rome, Italy,
organized by Consilium Conferentiarum Episcoporum Europae in cooperation with
Congregation for
Catholic Education, Pontifical Council for Culture, Commission of the Bishops'
Conferences of the
European Community, European Commission, Ministry of Universities and
Research, Ministry
of National Heritage and Cultural Activities, and Conference of Italian
University
Rectors.
22 June 2007: Meeting of the Rectors of European
Universities "The
Role of Universities within
the European
Higher Education and Research Areas", University of Rome "La
Sapienza", Italy, by
invitation.
23 June 2007: Meeting "Identity and Mission of the
Catholic Professor in Today's University",
Pontifical
Gregorian University, Rome, Italy, organized by the Spanish Bishops'
Conference.
5 December 2007: Fifth Annual AFD/EUDN Conference "Culture and
Development: Does Culture
Matter?" of
the French Development Agency and the European Development Research Network,
Maison de la
Chimie, Paris, France.
6-7 May 2008: Thirteenth Annual Strategic Conference
"The Future of La Francophonie" of the
Institute for International and Strategic Relations (IRIS),
Espace Reuilly, Paris, France, organized
in cooperation with the International Organization of La
Francophonie (OIF).
Cooperate with SCIS
In 2006/07, SCIS partnered with the World Policy Institute
at New School University, New York, in
the Institute's project to encourage better understanding
between the US, Europe, and the Middle
East. We provided theoretical and research input and
contributed to a framework of knowledge
informing practical initiatives in the fields of cultural
diplomacy and conflict resolution.
From our inception, we enjoyed a privileged relationship
with the University of Sussex'
Centre for
Critical Social Theory (CST), now the Centre for Social and
Political Thought (SPT).
Possible cooperation with academic units at universities and
research institutions in the UK and
worldwide is being explored constantly. Cooperation may
include any or all of the following: joint
research projects, events, publications, and funding
applications; research visits and visiting
appointments; mutual association of staff; membership of
very senior faculty on SCIS'
International Advisory Board; and so on.
We are also interested in possible cooperation with think
tanks, governmental and non-
governmental organizations, companies, etc. If you or your
organization are interested in
cooperating with SCIS please contact us.
Join SCIS
SCIS has an international focus and aims to involve more
doctoral candidates, young researchers,
and artists anywhere in the world, and working on any aspect
of "the individual and society", as
Research Associates. In exceptional cases, full membership
of the centre is possible (i.e.
Researcher or Senior Researcher). We also offer internships
and work experience (see above).
To facilitate communication, we run two mailing lists, the
SCIS list on JISCmail with almost fifty
subscribers, and a dedicated mailing list (listserv) for
political theology that contains the names of
more than a hundred people – many of whom have already
contributed to SCIS events and
activities in that area of research.
If you share our convictions and think you have what it
takes to contribute to SCIS, please get in
touch: e.kofmel@scis-calibrate.org
Fund SCIS
Our independence – while giving us the freedom to pursue
daring and unusual research projects
outside the prevailing academic discourse at universities –
means that we are not being funded by
a university or any research councils. We therefore have to
raise funding from private and
institutional donors.
We require a broader base of funders and significant
financial means to make the centre even
more dynamic and competitive at the global level.
We require funding to further strengthen SCIS, create
employment and scholarships for doctoral
candidates and young researchers, develop existing and new
research programmes and projects,
explore research areas and possible cooperations, organize
and attend events, publish and
otherwise disseminate research findings, and raise our
public profile.
Any contribution is welcome. Cheques should be made payable
to "Sussex Centre for the
Individual and Society". Please get in contact with us
for banking details, to request further
information or a full funding proposal, or to put us in
contact with potential funders (individuals,
companies, trusts, foundations, etc.): e.kofmel@scis-calibrate.org
SCIS is a non-profit organization. No dividends will be paid to members. Any profits, or other
income, are to be spent in promoting the association's
objects.
Any help with taking SCIS even further will be greatly appreciated.
Consultancy
In addition, and to generate income from year one, SCIS
provides business consultancy and
corporate training services around all aspects of the individual
and society, technologies that
impact or stand to impact on the individual and society, as
well as science and technology policy.
SCIS’ multi- and transdisciplinary approach to the study of "the
individual and society" includes
high-tech disciplines
such as (but not limited to) Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Genetics,
Ecotechnology, and
Informatics.
In 2006, we set up SCIS Technology Ltd (now dissolved) as a
commercial venture to attract
private research funding in these areas along the American
model and to create income and an
endowment for SCIS rather than rely on state funding. A
Senior Consultant instrumental in
setting up SCIS Tech was Professor John Higgins, Britain's first Professor of Biotechnology
(former Leverhulme Professor, Cranfield University) and a
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
and the International Institute of Biotechnology.
The members and associates of SCIS are also available to
carry out consultancy mandates for
governments, inter- and non-governmental organizations,
non-profit organizations, research
institutes, think tanks, and so on.
Particular areas of expertise include:
-
Anti-democratic
thinking
-
Failure
of democratization
-
The
anti-liberal project of political theologies
We cannot understand the
failure of democratization (for example in Iraq and
Zimbabwe) – and
increasingly of western democracy – without understanding modes
of anti-democratic
thinking and unless we understand political theology (in all
religions) as a major
source of anti-liberal (and thus inherently anti-parliamentarian,
anti-capitalist, and
anti-democratic) thought.
For all consultancy inquiries, please contact Professor Erich
Kofmel: e.kofmel@scis-calibrate.org
Managing Director: Professor
Erich Kofmel
Postal address:
Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society
1200 Geneva
Switzerland
SCIS
is an international association under Swiss law.
Founded
2006 at the University of Sussex.
International Advisory Board
(2006-2008):
Professor Ernesto Laclau
(Essex, Northwestern), Professor Francis Schüssler
Fiorenza (Harvard), Professor
John Friedmann (British Columbia, UCLA),
Professor Michael J. Watts
(Berkeley), †Professor Iris Marion Young (Chicago)
_____________________________________________________________________________
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