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Contested Democracy


"Contested Democracy":

Contestation and Participation in the English-speaking World

International conference

 20-22 September 2012

Démocratie « en conteste » :

Contestation et participation dans les pays du Monde anglophone

colloque international

20-22 septembre 2012


  Institut du Monde Anglophone

Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3
5 rue de l'École de Médecine
75006 Paris, France

Centre for Research on the English-speaking World (CREW - EA 4399)


KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
ORATEURS PRINCIPAUX

Professor Gary GERSTLE

Political Sciences and Political History - Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, US

Dr Jennifer LEES-MARSHMENT

Senior lecturer in Political Sciences - University of Auckland, NZ

Dr Cristiana OLCESE

Research Fellow - University of Southampton, UK

 

To download programme in pdf file click here [PDF - 412 Ko]


 
The conference is dedicated to the memory of Professor Naomi Wulf who very sadly passed away in April.
She was a driving force behind the conception and organisation of this conference and she is very much missed.

Conference timetable

Thursday 20 September 2012

12.30-1.30pm - Registration

1.30-2.00pm - Welcome address and opening remarks

2.00-3.00pm - Keynote 1 - Gary Gerstle

3.00-4.30pm - Session 1

4.30-5.00pm - Tea / Coffee break

5.00-6.30pm - Session 2        


Friday 21 September 2012

9.00-10.30am - Session 3

10.30-11.00am - Tea / Coffee break

11.00-12.00pm - Keynote 2 - Cristiana Olcese

 12.00-2.00pm - Lunch

2.00-3.30pm - Session 4

3.30-4.00pm - Tea / Coffee break

4.00-5.30pm - Session 5


Saturday 22 September 2012

9.30-11.00am - Session 6

11.00-11.30am - Tea / Coffee break

11.30-12.30pm - Keynote 3 - Jennifer Lees-Marshment

 12.30-1.00pm Closing remarks - Divina Frau-Meigs

1.00pm - End of Conference

***

Conference papers will be given in English and will last 20 minutes (except for keynote talks) followed by questions

***


Programme

Grand amphithéâtre

1.30-2.00pm - Welcome address and opening remarks

The conference will be opened by
Professor Marie-Christine Lemardeley
President of Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3


Reading by Johann Neem in homage to Professor Naomi Wulf




Grand amphithéâtre - Chair Johann Neem (Western Washington University)

2.00-3.00pm - Keynote 1 - Gary Gerstle

Democracy and Money in America, 1840-1940

(to read abstract click here [PDF - 490 Ko])
 

Gary Gerstle


SESSION 1 - Thursday 20 September 2012 - 3.00-4.30pm

A. Early Democracy: Multiple meanings, conflicting practices

Petit amphi - Chair Myriam Boussahba-Bravard  (Université Paris Diderot)

- Peter Gurney - The Democratic Idiom: languages of democracy in Britain, 1830-1848 (to read abstract click here [PDF - 426 Ko])                                                   

- Mark Philp - Between Word and Deed: languages of democracy/practices of participation: England from 1789-1850 (to read abstract click here [PDF - 341 Ko])

B. Twists & Turns of Democracy

Grand amphi - Chair Johann Neem (Western Washington University)

- Andrew Robertson - Democracy: America's other peculiar institution (to read abstract click here [PDF - 502 Ko])

- Reeve Huston - Rethinking 1828: the emergence of competing democracies in the United States (to read abstract click here [PDF - 426 Ko])


SESSION 2 - Thursday 20 September 2012 - 5.00-6.30pm

C. Critical Perspectives on Free Market Democracy

Grand amphi  - Chair Martine Azuelos (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle)

- Scott Fitzgerald - Movements, Policy and Protest: challenging economic inequality in the US and the UK (to read abstract click here [PDF - 416 Ko])                                 

- Pierre Guerlain - Democracy Inc.. in the US (to read abstract click here [PDF - 531 Ko])

- Jean-Baptiste Velut - Contested Plutocracy: reformist and radical forms of social advocacy in America (to read abstract click here [PDF - 419 Ko])

D. Activists across Borders

Petit amphi - Chair Laura Hobson-Faure (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle)

- Yohanna Alimi - Weaving a Transatlantic Feminist Network: the impact of the French revolution of 1848 on the American contest for women's rights (to read abstract click here [PDF - 346 Ko])

- Daniel Prosterman - Global Democratic Visions: electoral reform activism in the early twentieth century (to read abstract click here [PDF - 348 Ko])

- Jim Cohen - Defending the Rights of Undocumented Immigrants and Contesting the Boundaries of National Citizenship in the US (to read abstract click here [PDF - 416 Ko])

SESSION 3 - Friday 21 September 2012 - 9.00-10.30am

E. Who Governs?/Who Participates?

Grand amphi - Chair Pauline Schnapper (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle)

- David Fée - Planning for Housing in the UK: the contradictions of democracy (to read abstract click here [PDF - 256 Ko])

- Houari Mired - Democratic renewal in the English regions since 1994. Why is governance (still) contested? (to read abstract click here [PDF - 355 Ko])

- Coralie Raffenne - Multi-level Governance, Managerial Ideology and the Myth of Citizen Participation in the EU (to read abstract click here [PDF - 334 Ko])

F. Democracy at Work

Petit amphi - Chair Evelyne Payen-Variéras (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle)

- Christine Zumello - Crafted Democracy in the USA? 'Vote, invest  and express yourself' (ro read absract click here [PDF - 419 Ko])  

- Sheena Raja - A Faux-public Sphere: marketing online conversation economies for citizen consumers (to read abstract click here [PDF - 424 Ko])

- Jean-Christian Vinel - The Right-to-Work: the American Right and the struggle against industrial democracy, 1941-1958


Grand amphithéâtre - Chair Sarah Pickard (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle)

11.00-12.00pm - Keynote 2 - Cristiana Olcese

Contesting the Cuts through Social Media: key tasks in between mobilizations 



Cristiana Olcese

SESSION 4 - Friday 21 September 2012 - 2.00-3.30pm

G. Alternative Spaces of Public Expression

Grand amphi - Chair Divina Frau-Meigs (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle)

- Guillaume Marche - Local Democracy and Contested Public Space: San Francisco and the politics of graffiti (to read abstract click here [PDF - 335 Ko])  

- Emmanuelle Avril - Social Networks and Democracy in the English-speaking world: counterculture or mainstream? (to read abstract click here [PDF - 417 Ko])

- Andrew Perrin - Letters to the Editor: demographic and cultural contours of a mediated public sphere (to read abstract click here [PDF - 326 Ko])

H. Vested Interest Democracy

Petit amphi - Chair Romain Garbaye (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle)

- Daniel Carpenter - Anxieties of Soliciting Empire: transformations of the petition across languages and peoples in the Saint Lawrence Valley and the Gulf of Maine, 1740-1840 (to read abstract click here [PDF - 426 Ko])

- Romain Huret - No Representation without Taxation! Businessmen against federal taxation from the Progressive Era to the New Deal (to read abstract click here [PDF - 430 Ko])

- Marie-Claire Considère-Charon - Identifying a Democratic Deficit in Ireland:  focus on institutional and constitutional issues

SESSION 5 - Friday 21 September 2012 - 4.00-5.30pm

I. Productive Protest

Grand amphi - Chair Hélène Le Dantec-Lowry (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle)

- Sandrine Tolazzi - Channeling Indigenous Contestation of Uranium Mining in Australia: legislation, negotiation, co-optation (to read abstract click here [PDF - 342 Ko])

- Pauline Peretz - Common Cause: a democratic organization of distrust vis-à-vis the State in post civil-rights America (to read abstract click here [PDF - 420 Ko])  

- Sarah Pickard - Productive Protest? The contested higher education reforms in England, 2010-2012 (to read abstract click here [PDF - 264 Ko]) 

J. Leaders & Citizens

Petit amphi - Chair Fabrice Bensimon (Université Paris Sorbonne)

- Joanna Innes - Democracy and Demagoguery in the British Isles, 1700-1850 (to read abstract click here [PDF - 345 Ko])

- Daniel Foliard - The Lion of Nineveh: Henry Layard, radicalism and the reflections of fallen Empires (to read abstract click here [PDF - 258 Ko])

- Paul Blokker - A Comparative Engagement with Dissent and Constitutionalism (to read abstract click here [PDF - 255 Ko])  


SESSION 6 - Saturday 22 September 2012 - 9.30-11.00am

K. Representative vs Direct Democracy

Grand amphi - Chair Nathalie Caron (Université Paris Est Créteil Val de Marne - UPEC)

- Geoffrey Pleyers -  Contesting or Complementing Representative Democracy? Experiments and tensions in the alter-globalization and indignados/occupiers movements (to read abstract click here [PDF - 337 Ko])                               

- Jacques-Henri Coste - The Contested Terrains of Digital Democracy, Open Source Innovation, and Intellectual Property in the US:  the PIPA and SOPA case (to read abstract click here [PDF - 424 Ko])

- Isabelle Sinic-Bouhaouala - Conservatism and Direct Democracy in California: questioning the legacy of progressivism (to read abstract click here [PDF - 506 Ko])


L. Creative Destruction?

Petit amphi - Chair Christine Zumello (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle)

- Gary Anderson, Geoff Bright, Gillian Whiteley - `What Rough Beast...? Monstrous practices of dissent and the ends of conviviality (to read abstract click here [PDF - 515 Ko])

- Christos Efstathiou - The Ideological Roots of the Battle of Cable Street (to read abstract click here [PDF - 330 Ko])

- Valérie Peyronel - The 1998 Agreement and its Consequences: contested democracy in post-conflict Northern Ireland

 

Grand amphithéâtre - Chair Emmanuelle Avril (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle)

11.30-12.30pm - Keynote 3 - Jennifer Lees-Marshment

Partners not Protesters? Managing contests to traditional democracy through expanded public input into political decision making

(to read abstract click here [PDF - 445 Ko])



Jennifer Lees-Marshment

***
Grand amphithéâtre

 12.30-1.00pm - Closing remarks

Divina Frau-Meigs, directrice CREW EA 4399
&
Emmanuelle Avril

1.00pm - end of conference
 

Conference papers will be given in English and will last 20 minutes (except for keynote talks) followed by questions

to download programme in a pdf file click here [PDF - 412 Ko]
 


Speakers / Intervenants

Yohanna Alimi, PhD student, Teaching Fellow, American Studies, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, (CREW - EA 4399), France  

Dr Gary Anderson, Lecturer in Contemporary Performance, Free University of Liverpool / Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home, UK

Professor Emmanuelle Avril, British Studies, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, (CREW - EA 4399), France 

Dr Paul Blokker, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Sociology, University of Trento, Italy

Geoff Bright, Research Associate, Education and Social Research Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

Professor Daniel Carpenter, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, USA

Claire Ceruti, PhD student, University of Johannesburg, associated with the South African Research Chair in Social Change, SA

Professor Jim Cohen, American Studies, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, (CREW - EA 4399), France

Professor Emeritus, Marie-Claire Considère-Charon, British and Irish Studies, Université de Franche-Comté, France

Dr Jacques-Henri Coste, Associate Professor, American Studies, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, (CREW - EA 4399), France

Christos Efstathiou, PhD student, Department of History, Classics & Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London, UK

Dr David Fée, Senior Lecturer, British Studies, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, (CREW - EA 4399), France  

Dr Scott T. Fitzgerald, Associate Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA

Dr Daniel Foliard, Lecturer in British Studies, Université Paris Ouest  La Défense, France

Professor Gary Gerstle, Political Sciences and Political History, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, USA

Professor Pierre Guerlain, American Studies, Université Paris Ouest  La Défense, (CREA - EA370), France

Dr Peter Gurney, Senior  Lecturer, Department of History, University of Essex, UK

Dr Romain Huret, Associate Professor, American Studies, University of Lyon 2 / Institut  Universitaire de France, (Cena, IUF), France

Dr Reeve Huston, Associate Professor, Department of History, Duke University, USA

Joanna Innes, MA, Fellow and Tutor  in Modern History, Somerville College, University of Oxford, UK

Dr Jennifer Lees-Marshment, Senior lecturer in Political Sciences, University of Auckland, NZ

Dr Guillaume Marche, Associate Professor, American Studies, Université Paris-Est Créteil, (IMAGER - EA 3958), France  

Dr Houari Mired, Teaching Fellow, British Studies, Université Paris Est Créteil, France

Dr Cristiana Olcese, Research Fellow, University of Southampton, UK

Dr Pauline Peretz, Assistant Professor, History, Université de Nantes, Researcher, Centre d'études nord-américaines  (Cena / EHESS), France

Dr Andrew J. Perrin, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA

Professor Valérie Peyronel, British and Irish Studies, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, (CREW - EA 4399), France  

Dr Mark Philp, Fellow and Tutor in Politics, Oriel College, University of Oxford, UK

Dr Sarah Pickard, Senior Lecturer, British Studies, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, (CREW - EA 4399), France

Dr Geoffrey Pleyers, Research Associate, Sociology, FNRS and UCL, (CADIS-EHESS), Belgium

Dr Daniel O. Prosterman, Assistant Professor, History, Salem College, USA

Dr Coralie Raffenne, Senior Lecturer, British Studies Université d'Orléans, France

Sheena Raja, PhD student, Media Studies, Rutgers University, USA, Intern, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, USA.

Professor Andrew W. Robertson, Deputy Executive Officer, History Ph.D. Program, The CUNY Graduate Center , USA

Dr Isabelle Sinic-Bouhaouala, American Studies, Researcher, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, (CREW - EA 4399), France  

Dr Sandrine Tolazzi, Associate Professor, Anglophone Studies, Université Stendhal-Grenoble 3, (CEMRA - EA 3016), France

Dr Jean-Baptiste Velut, Associate Professor, American Studies, Université Paris Est Marne La Vallée, (IMAGER - EA 3958), France

Dr Jean-Christian Vinel, Associate Professor, American Studies, Université Paris Diderot, France

Dr Gillian Whiteley, Senior Lecturer in Critical and Historical Studies, Loughborough University, UK

Dr Christine Zumello, Professor, American Studies, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, (CREW - EA 4399), France



Professor Emmanuelle Avril

Emmanuelle Avril

 Conference organisers / Comité d'organisation

Yohanna Alimi (Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREW - OPA), Emmanuelle Avril (Sorbonne-Nouvelle, CREW - Axe 1), Yann Béliard (Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREW -  Axe 3), Jacques-Henri Coste (Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREW - CERVEPAS), Divina Frau-Meigs (Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREW - Axe 2), Romain Garbaye (Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREW - Axe 3), Hélène Le Dantec-Lowry (Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREW - CRAN), Anne-Claire Lévy (Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREW - OPA), Valérie Peyronel (Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREW - CERVEPAS), Sarah Pickard (Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREW - CREC), Naomi Wulf (Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREW - OPA).

 

Scientific Committee / Comité scientifique

Emmanuelle Avril (Sorbonne-Nouvelle, CREW - Axe 1), Paul Bagguley (Leeds University, UK), Yann Béliard (Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREW - Axe 3), Jacques-Henri Coste (Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREW - CERVEPAS), Divina Frau-Meigs (Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREW - Axe 2), Romain Garbaye (Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREW - Axe 3), Hélène Le Dantec-Lowry (Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREW - CRAN), Johann Neem (Western Washington University, USA), Valérie Peyronel (Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREW - CERVEPAS), Sarah Pickard (Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREW - CREC), Andrew Robertson (Graduate Center, CUNY, USA), Naomi Wulf (Sorbonne Nouvelle, CREW - OPA).

 

CREW gratefully acknowledges the generous support from

 

Le conseil scientifique de l'Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3
Le services des relations internationales de l'Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3



L'Institut Universitaire de France





"Contested Democracy"

The dissent and uprisings that spread through the Arab world during the Spring of 2011 occurred almost a quarter of a century after the fall of East European political regimes that saw the rise of "democracy" modelled on the Anglo-American representative system. This specific context which has come to characterize the past quarter of century calls for a renewed analysis of the models these political systems represent and of the processes that triggered them and led to their long-term establishment in the UK and the US. Since the 1990s, as a response to the story of the inevitable emergence of democracy in the aftermath of the Cold War, researchers on North American politics have provided an alternative reading of events: that of a "contested democracy".

The CREW Paris-based research group of the Sorbonne Nouvelle University has organized this international conference in order to reflect on the notion of  "contested democracy" and its role in understanding democracy as theory and practice. In inviting a critical evaluation of this now commonly used phrase, the conference wishes to open up a wide-range of approaches and discourses relating to democracy in the English-speaking world, from individual expression to collective action, from infra-political practices to more explicit forms of dissent, from within political organizations or large-scale social movements, and including local democracy and debates on community-building and social cohesion. This conference is aimed at specialists on the Anglo-American world (and beyond, on the English-speaking world) who are interested in these questions from either an historical or contemporary perspective. The purpose of this conference is to encourage comparative analysis on participation, contest and contestation, as well as on phenomena such as adaptation and self-appropriation which characterize the exchange and transfer of ideas that can be observed in the different national contexts of the English-speaking world.
 
When popularising the notion of "contested democracy", historians and political scientists have underlined how democratic progress and the resulting democratic structures of the UK and US were borne of fiercely fought battles. Democracy's establishment has been the result of a jerky evolution beset by setbacks and victories, rather than a smooth and incremental evolution towards a presumed endpoint. The emphasis has thus been laid on the pluralism of a liberal system where successive claims and demands from "the excluded" within civil society have highlighted their rights to be included and to participate.
 
Whilst this is the main meaning of the phrase "contested democracy", this conference seeks also to reflect more widely on how contestation has been expressed and continues to be articulated within a dominant political model. Beyond the classic expressions of contestation and dissent, such as demonstrations, revolutions and civil disobedience, there are many other forms emanating from the public realm and from civil society as a whole, which aim to reinvent the very notion of democracy. The area of study for the conference need not be limited to the traditional opposition between the street " and "the rulers", although the events of the "Arab Spring" clearly invite us to rethink this relationship. It would also be interesting to deal with attempts made by political regimes to pre-empt contester contestation via consultative mechanisms or local partnerships, as was the case for example in the UK during the New Labour governments. Furthermore, the realm of private contestation can include the business world and alternative participation made accessible by digital communication. By definition, the notion of "contested democracy" also invites us to consider participation and contestation in conjunction, and to envisage forms of counter democracy" (Pierre Rosanvallon), borne of defiance towards so-called democratic structures yet simultaneously bearing the risk of endangering the very existence of the political community. In this way, depending on the context and the usage, new technologies and the new structures with which they are associated can become either tools for contestation or instruments for social cohesion.
 
The conference aims at providing an overview and assessment of current research on new and innovative forms of participation in the English-speaking world, both in the contemporary period and in history, with an emphasis on alternative and critical approaches to power.

- local sphere, civil society
- political parties, social movements, associations
- communications, networks, new social media
- cultural diversity, identity politics and mobilisation
- governance, influence of public-private actors
- sources of social cohesion in pluralist democratic societies ...

To download programme in a pdf file click here [PDF - 412 Ko] 

mise à jour le 24 septembre 2012

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