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CALL FOR PAPERS

"Political Implications of 'Social Phobia', 'Asperger Syndrome' and
'Antisocial Personality Disorder'"

Fourth Annual International Symposium of the Sussex Centre for the
Individual and Society (SCIS), at the Latin American Council of Social
Sciences (CLACSO), Buenos Aires, Argentina, 20-22 July 2009

Clinical terms like "Social Phobia", "Asperger Syndrome" and
"Antisocial Personality Disorder" are used to describe a category or
categories of people that do not fit the stereotype of man as a social
being. Medical science has been instrumental in casting them as an
anomaly that does not need to jeopardize our all-encompassing social
and political assumptions and theories. Is it justifiable, though, to
relegate such cases to medicine and psychology rather than adjust our
social and political theories and policies to account for them? Social
and political thinkers and politicians alike are prone to overlook or
ignore the significance of a segment of the population that, by
definition, tends not to publicly voice its concerns and not to
organize into political pressure groups. This Symposium wishes to
study the (anti)social reality and political implications that may be
hidden by the clinical terms. Questions to be addressed include (but
are not limited to): How fundamental are the differences between those
categorized to suffer from "Social Phobia", "Asperger Syndrome" or
"Antisocial Personality Disorder" and other human beings? What to make
of observations and phenomena associated with "Social Phobia",
"Asperger Syndrome" and "Antisocial Personality Disorder" that
contradict or may challenge theories and practice of democratic
equality and egalitarianism as much as the tenets of socialism and
communitarianism? Why have so many politicians, and particularly
authoritarian rulers, been diagnosed, in retrospect, with forms of
"Asperger Syndrome" or "Antisocial Personality Disorder"? What would a
 political order look like that takes "Social Phobia", "Asperger
Syndrome" and "Antisocial Personality Disorder" seriously as a
constituent element of political organization? Has it rightly been
proposed that people diagnosed with "Asperger Syndrome" may constitute
the next step in the evolution of humankind (see Gary Westfahl: "Homo
aspergerus: Evolution Stumbles Forward":
http://www.locusmag.com/2006/Features/Westfahl_HomoAspergerus.html)?
What do "Social Phobia", "Asperger Syndrome" and "Antisocial
Personality Disorder" mean for theories of deliberative democracy and
Habermasian communication theories? Who makes the (as we know from
Foucault, not unpolitical) decision what is in order and what is
disorderly, what is the norm and what a deviation from it, what is a
clinical condition or just a lack of empathy and sociability? Are
people suffering from "Social Phobia", "Asperger Syndrome" and
"Antisocial Personality Disorder" being criminalized? It has been
estimated that 40-75 percent of prison populations have one or the
other kind of such "disorders" - does society deal with such people by
imprisoning them? Do laws and legal systems need to be reformed to
take into account (anti)social reality? Some scholars argue that
"Asperger Syndrome" and "Antisocial Personality Disorder" are opposite
extremes, or are they different expressions of the same? Paper
proposals, from any disciplinary background, are invited on all
aspects of the political implications of "Social Phobia", "Asperger
Syndrome" and "Antisocial Personality Disorder".

SCIS Symposia are small interdisciplinary workshop-style events with
15-20 participants. Each paper is allocated about an hour for
presentation and dicussion. Previous SCIS Symposia took place in
Brighton (UK), Pisa (Italy) and Paris (France), with high-level
keynote speakers from Harvard, Duke, and King's College London.

Depending on the quality of papers, we hope that an edited volume will
result from the Symposium. Papers given at the Symposium will
automatically be considered for inclusion in such a volume. (Paper
proposals on the topic submitted by authors unable to attend the
Symposium are also welcome and will be considered for inclusion in the
volume on a case by case basis.)

Please note that we cannot provide funding to participants. We will be
glad though to issue letters of invitation on request to assist
participants with applications to their usual sources of funding.
Argentina is a comparatively cheap destination, although flights are
long-range from Europe and North America alike and may be expensive.
If you have to bear (part of) the cost yourself, you may want to
consider spending your vacations in South America. The Symposium will
take place during Southern winter and temperatures will be agreeable.
From Buenos Aires, you can easily travel in Argentina or onward, for
example to Chile, Uruguay or Brazil.

Political scientists may be interested to know that a week earlier,
from 12-16 July 2009, the triennial World Congress of the
International Political Science Association (IPSA) will take place in
Santiago de Chile. The theme of the congress is "Global Discontent?
Dilemmas of Change". You can easily go first to Santiago and come then
to Buenos Aires.
http://www.ipsa.org/site/content/view/110/69/

Please send proposals for papers to be given at the 2009 SCIS
Symposium in Buenos Aires and to be considered for inclusion in an
edited volume to:
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by 31 October 2008. (Earlier submission is highly encouraged and
decisions about acceptance will be made as soon as proposals come in.)
Thank you.

Erich Kofmel
Managing Director
Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS)
www.scis-calibrate.org