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 the University.

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, and 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.

 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 (right at the entrance of Falmer campus) that we got to rent from the University. The University of Sussex is situated in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Media coverage on SCIS includes:

The Guardian: http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/story/0,,1861193,00.html

The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/who-needs-state-funding-anyway-415813.html

Times Higher Education: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=204947

BBC: Research students 'go it alone', 30 August 2006 (also in Chinese)

Intute: http://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 conceptualisations. 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 prioritises certain theoretical bases –  i.e. that the individual can only be conceptualised 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 problematises 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 summarised as the individual in society: ideological collectivisms, modes of social and political organisation, 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 "normalisation" 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, reconceptualise and reorientate the world and structures that impinge potential and achievement rather than facilitate or encourage 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.

We enjoy 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 "normalisation" 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 has been registered as a Company Limited by Guarantee and Not Having a Share Capital (that is, not for profit) under the Companies Act 1985. SCIS is registered in England and Wales under the Company No. 5850511. No shares have been given out and no dividends will be paid to members. Any profits, or other income, are to be spent in promoting the company's objects. The liability of members is limited.

The Managing Director and company secretary is Erich Kofmel.

 History

March 2006: Foundation of the Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS)

19 June 2006: Incorporation as a Company Limited by Guarantee

21-23 July 2006: Inaugural International Symposium

11 August 2006: SCIS' website, www.scis-calibrate.org, goes live

9 November 2006: Incorporation of SCIS Technology Ltd

22 December 2006: Alex Higgins resigns from SCIS for personal reasons

4 August 2007: Erich Kofmel moves temporarily to Paris, France

 Members

Current and past members of SCIS include:

Erich Kofmel                                     Erich Kofmel  

The founding Managing Director of SCIS is Erich Kofmel, Master of Management in Public and Development Management, with specialisation in Governance and Public Policy (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg), and 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) and is a part-time European Doctorate candidate in Social and Political Thought at the University of Sussex and Sciences Po/The Institute for Political Studies (IEP) in Paris. 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 has been Coordinator of the "Career Development" workgroup of the European council of doctoral candidates and young researchers (Eurodoc) since 2007.

http://www.eurodoc.net

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.

 Senior Research Associate

Prof Joseph V. Femia

Professor of Political Theory at the University of Liverpool. He is a leading expert on anti-democratic thought and also interested in Marxism and Italian political philosophy.

 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.

Dr Dylan Evans

One of our more than twenty Research Associates. Former Senior Lecturer in Intelligent Autonomous Systems, with an MA in Psychoanalytic Studies and a PhD in Philosophy. He left university in 2007 to run his own project, the "Utopia Experiment", in Scotland.

 Interns / work experience

SCIS offers unpaid internships or work experience (full-time or part-time) to students at the University of Sussex, in Paris and elsewhere. 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 organisation; general office work; and so on.

Ernesto Laclau       Michael J. Watts       Francis Schüssler Fiorenza       Prof John Friedmann       Iris Marion Young       Prof Joseph V. Femia       Prof Alexander García Düttmann       Prof Joseph V. Femia

 International Advisory Board

Current and past members of SCIS' distinguished International Advisory Board include:

Prof Ernesto Laclau

World-renowned Professor of Political Theory at the University of Essex, also linked to Northwestern University.

Prof Michael J. Watts

Chancellor’s Professor of Geography and Development Studies and Director of the Institute of International Studies at Berkeley. His many interests (mainly interdisciplinary) include political economy and political ecology, rural development, and social and cultural theory.

Prof Francis Schüssler Fiorenza

Stillman Professor of Roman-Catholic Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School. He has published widely on systematic theology, with a particularly interest in political theology.

Prof John Friedmann

One of the world's foremost urban planners. Honorary Professor at the University of British Columbia and Professor Emeritus at UCLA.

Prof Iris Marion Young (1949-2006)

Late Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. A member of our Board for only a few weeks when she passed away in 2006, she will be remembered for her writings on justice, democratic theory (particularly democracy and difference, democracy and inclusion), feminist social theory, political philosophy, international affairs, and public policy.

 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 currently work 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?

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://www.political-theology.org

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, vocationalisation and commodification of higher education.

 Publications

We wish SCIS' name and remit to be well known and to be recognised 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 the invitation to serve as referee for the renowned journal "Political Studies".

SCIS solicites book proposals for a possible SCIS series to be published by Imprint Academic.

Call for book proposals

Erich Kofmel's publications for SCIS include:

Books

(Editor) "Anti-Democratic Thought", Exeter and Charlottesville: Imprint Academic, forthcoming (December 2008)

http://www.imprint.co.uk/books/9781845401245.html

(Editor) "Anti-Liberalism and Political Theology", Exeter and Charlottesville: Imprint Academic, forthcoming (summer 2009)

Chapters

"Re-Introducing Anti-Democratic Thought", in Kofmel, E. (Ed.), "Anti-Democratic Thought", Exeter and Charlottesville: Imprint Academic, forthcoming (December 2008)

"Fighting Capitalism and Democracy", in Kofmel, E. (Ed.), "Anti-Democratic Thought", Exeter and Charlottesville: Imprint Academic, forthcoming (December 2008)

"The Age of Political Theology", in Kofmel, E. (Ed.), "Anti-Liberalism and Political Theology", Exeter and Charlottesville: Imprint Academic, forthcoming (summer 2009)

"Comparative Political Theology", in Kofmel, E. (Ed.), "Anti-Liberalism and Political Theology", Exeter and Charlottesville: Imprint Academic, forthcoming (summer 2009)

Bylined encyclopedia entries

"Development, Economic", core article at 3,000 words, in Kurian, G. T. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Political Science, Washington, DC: CQ Press, published with the assistance of the American Political Science Association (APSA), forthcoming (2009)

"Religion and Politics", core article at 3,000 words, in Kurian, G. T. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Political Science, Washington, DC: CQ Press, forthcoming (2009)

"Political Theology", long interpretive essay at 1,000 words, in Kurian, G. T. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Political Science, Washington, DC: CQ Press, forthcoming (2009)

"Jihad", long interpretive essay at 1,000 words, in Kurian, G. T. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Political Science, Washington, DC: CQ Press, forthcoming (2009)

"Anti-Democratic Thought", long interpretive essay at 1,000 words, in Kurian, G. T. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Political Science, Washington, DC: CQ Press, forthcoming (2009)

"Capitalism and Democracy", long interpretive essay at 1,000 words, in Kurian, G. T. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Political Science, Washington, DC: CQ Press, forthcoming (2009)

"Individual and Society", long interpretive essay at 1,000 words, in Kurian, G. T. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Political Science, Washington, DC: CQ Press, forthcoming (2009)

"Leadership", long interpretive essay at 1,000 words, in Kurian, G. T. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Political Science, Washington, DC: CQ Press, forthcoming (2009)

"Statecraft", long interpretive essay at 1,000 words, in Kurian, G. T. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Political Science, Washington, DC: CQ Press, forthcoming (2009)

"Science Policy", long interpretive essay at 1,000 words, in Kurian, G. T. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Political Science, Washington, DC: CQ Press, forthcoming (2009)

"Higher Education Policy", long interpretive essay at 1,000 words, in Kurian, G. T. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Political Science, Washington, DC: CQ Press, forthcoming (2009)

"Anti- and Alter-Globalization Movements", long interpretive essay at 1,000 words, in Kurian, G. T. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Political Science, Washington, DC: CQ Press, forthcoming (2009)

"African Political Economy", long interpretive essay at 1,000 words, in Kurian, G. T. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Political Science, Washington, DC: CQ Press, forthcoming (2009)

"African Political Thought", long interpretive essay at 1,000 words, in Kurian, G. T. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Political Science, Washington, DC: CQ Press, forthcoming (2009)

"Decisionism", breakout article at 500 words, in Kurian, G. T. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Political Science, Washington, DC: CQ Press, forthcoming (2009)

"Caesarism", breakout article at 500 words, in Kurian, G. T. (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Political Science, Washington, DC: CQ Press, forthcoming (2009)

Articles

"Cross-Dimensional Mobility in European Doctoral Careers", in research*eu: the magazine of the European Research Area, published in four languages by the European Commission, Directorate-General for Research, and read by one million people, forthcoming (no. 56, 2008)

"European Doctoral Careers: Global, Transsectoral, Interdisciplinary", in International Journal of Graduate Education, forthcoming (2008)

  

 Events

Academic conferences, seminars and workshops organised by SCIS are the most 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 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. Keynote speakers: Prof Calestous Juma (Professor of the 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 organise 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 Prof Ernesto Laclau (Political Theory, Essex and Northwestern), Prof Ben Fine (Economics, SOAS), Prof Simon Blackburn (Philosophy, Cambridge), Prof Joseph V. Femia (Political Theory, Liverpool), Prof 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 Prof 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 Prof Graham Ward (Contextual Theology and Ethics, University of Manchester) and Prof 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: Prof Kenneth Surin (Professor of Literature and Professor of Religion and Critical Theory at Duke University) and Prof Jürgen Manemann (Professor of 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.

 Upcoming events

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.

23-24 July 2008: Panels "Comparative Political Theology I" and "Comparative Political Theology II", 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, MA/USA.

Short course announcement

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.

Call for papers

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.

Call for papers

19 November 2008: Workshop "The Valorisation of the Doctorate" of the European council of doctoral candidates and young researchers (Eurodoc), in Rennes, France.

20-22 July 2009: Fourth Annual International Symposium of SCIS "Political Implications of 'Social Phobia', 'Asperger Syndrome' and 'Antisocial Personality Disorder'", in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Early September 2009: Workshop "Political Theology and Failure of Democratization", at the Sixth Annual Conference "Workshops in Political Theory", Manchester Metropolitan University, England.

10-12 September 2009: Section "Anti-Democratic Thought and Practice", at the Fifth General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), University of Potsdam, Germany. For the second time running SCIS has been awarded a section at the most important political science event in Europe. This time we will have at least six panels.

Call for panels

 Chairing of events organised by others

Erich Kofmel

28-31 August 2008: Panel "Political Liberalism in Christian and Muslim Thought", at the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA), Boston, MA/USA, by invitation, part of the "Religion and Politics" Division.

     

 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.

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.

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.

22 September 2006: "The Politico-Theological Analysis of Radical Islam", Fourth Graduate Conference in Social and Political Thought, University of Sussex.

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.

http://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://www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/generalconference/pisa/papers/PP1174.pdf

17 September 2007: &qu