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 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.