Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS)

Anti-Democratic Thought  Anti-Liberalism and Political Theology

 

 

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.

 

 

39 Tenant Lain from garden

 

 

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.

 

 

39 Tenant Lain from bus stop

 

 

 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.

 

 

Brighton lights

 

 

 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                                                                               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).

 

www.erichkofmel.com

 

Alexander W. Higgins                                                                                  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.

 

 

Alex' drawing

 

 

 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?

 

www.anti-democracy.com

 

 

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.

 

 

MF 41

 

 

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.

 

www.political-theology.com

 

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.

 

 

Erich Kofmel and Alexander W. Higgins in the garden

 

 

 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

 

 

Calestous Juma 

 

 

 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.

 

 

Workshop participants at lunch

 

 

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

 

 

Workshop participants inside

 

 

 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.

 

 

Workshop speakers

 

 

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.

 

 

Inaugural Symposium participants

 

 

 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).

 

 

Smoking

 

 

 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

 

 

SCIS logo variation

 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

 

 

SCIS logo cube

 

 

Managing Director: Professor Erich Kofmel

 

Postal address:

Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society

1200 Geneva

Switzerland

 

e.kofmel@scis-calibrate.org

 

 

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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                                                                                                                                                                           Matasiwa desiGn