EASA LAW NET workshop: Concepts, paradigms and slogans - From human rights to human dignity and sustainability

Concepts, paradigms and slogans – From human rights to human dignity and sustainability. EASA LAW NET workshop on the key concepts of anthropology of law and governance

Convenors: Reetta Toivanen, Miia Halme-Tuomisaari, Jane Cowan

At the University of Helsinki, Siltavuorenpenger 1A, 2nd floor, meeting room 229

Friday 24 May 2019

The aim of this workshop is to bring together anthropologists working in the anthropology of governance, rights and law to discuss, generate and, where appropriate, define/redefine key concepts, paradigms and familiar slogans that frame practices and performances of governance. Extractivism, environmental sustainability, transnationalism, power and security are among the key concepts that will be discussed.  ‘Sustainability’ constitutes one exemplary case of a discourse that in recent years has become increasingly central within global governance, prompting the question: what is entailed in the apparent shift from human rights toward human dignity and sustainability? What changes can be identified, where do they come from, and what do they express? More generally, what and who are such new or subtly shifting paradigms serving?  The workshop offers an opportunity to consider ethnographically grounded explorations on the meanings and consequences of concepts, paradigms and slogans as they endure or alter.

The event is open to the public and free of charge but registration by Wednesday 22 May 2019 via this link: https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/98251/lomake.html is compulsory. Due to limited availability of seats, early registration is recommended to ensure your participation. The venue is accessible.

The event is organized by The Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives  (EuroStorie), Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (HCAS), Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS) and the network Anthropology of Law, Rights and Governance (LAW NET) of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA).

You can find the abstracts here:

 

Programme

9.00 Opening Reetta Toivanen, Jane Cowan, Miia Halme-Tuomisaari

9.15-10.15 Panel I Extractivism

Bertram Turner (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology): Conceptualizing rights in the governance of extractive infrastructures

Taras Fedirko (University of Cambridge): “Extractives’ transparency” and the parochial origins of global abstractions

10.15-11.15 Panel II Environmental Sustainability

Panu Itkonen (University of Lapland): Sami peoples’ fishing rights and environmental sustainability

Reetta Toivanen (University of Helsinki): Sustainability – what anthropology could contribute the debates?

11.15-11.30 Coffee

11.30-12.30 Panel III Transnationalism

Rosemarie Bernard (Waseda University): The Allure of Transnationalism for Legal Anthropology: A Critique of Anthropology's Engagement with the Discourse of Transnational Law

Anna Salmivaara (University of Helsinki): Right to create rights: Depolitization, private governance and the struggles of Cambodian garment workers

12.30-13.30 Lunch Unicafe Olivia (at your own expense), Siltavuorenpenger 5

13.30-14.30 Panel IV Power in anthropological terms

Jeremy Gould (University of Helsinki): Postcolonial constitution-making between Decision and Demos

Samuel Shapiro (Université Laval): For an Analytical Distinction Between Sovereignty and Independence: Scenes from the Parliament of Quebec

14.30-15.00 Coffee

15.00-16.00 Panel V Security

Kiri Santer (University of Bern): Mobilising ‘ownership’ in contentious reforms: the issue of responsibility in Tunisia’s Security Sector Reform

Laura Huttunen (Tampere University): Disappearing migrants, hesitant conceptualizations and emerging politics

16.00 Endnotes - Jane Cowan

16.15-16.30 Reflection about the day and what to do next? - Miia Halme-Tuomisaari

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Call for proposals

The aim of this workshop is to bring together anthropologists working in the anthropology of governance, rights and law to discuss, generate and, where appropriate, define/redefine key concepts, paradigms and familiar slogans that frame practices and performances of governance. We invite individual and panel proposals that investigate—ethnographically, theoretically, ethically— the terms of debate and action in specific contexts of governance at local, national and international level, as well as how they shift or are contested. ‘Sustainability’ constitutes one exemplary case of a discourse that in recent years has become increasingly central within global governance, prompting the question: what is entailed in the apparent shift from human rights toward human dignity and sustainability? What changes can be identified, where do they come from, and what do they express? More generally, what and who are such new or subtly shifting paradigms serving?  The workshop offers an opportunity to consider ethnographically grounded explorations on the meanings and consequences of concepts, paradigms and slogans as they endure or alter.

Please send your proposal of ca 200 words for presentation by the extended deadline 22nd March to reetta.toivanen@helsinki.fi. We are thinking of a publication on the topic.

Please plan to arrive on the 23rd of May for the pre-seminar dinner. On Friday we plan to work from 9.00 to 16.30.

Organized together with the European Association for Social Anthropology, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies and the Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives, University of Helsinki