Call for Participants: Immanent Authority and the Making of Community
A one-day symposium at the Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Bristol, Friday July 29th, 2011
Confirmed participants:
J-D Dewsbury (University of Bristol)
Ian James (Cambridge University)
Carol Munn-Giddings (Anglia Ruskin University)
Kate Nash (Goldsmiths College)
Tom Osborne (University of Bristol)
The Authority Research Network
The Authority Research Network would like to invite you to participate in a one-day symposium exploring how community creation might be understood in terms of the presence and performance of authority. ARN is committed to genuinely collaborative creative working, and to this end the symposium will be small, convivial and centred upon conversation.
‘Authority’ is a neglected concept in current discussion of community, yet is central to classic political sociology and anthropology of community. Writers such as Max Weber and Hannah Arendt conceptualise authority as a specific form of power pertaining to transformative processes rather than the restrictive effects of oppression. Authority can only exist in the context of community, and the exercise of authoritative power enhances people’s sense of the reality of community and connectedness. Where authority is lacking, community groups are fragile, insecure and incapacitated.
Whilst authority has been associated with ‘top down’, ‘traditionalist-authoritarian’ or ‘bureaucratic’ productions of community in recent debate, this symposium will draw attention to immanent, ‘bottom-up’ forms of authority. It will explore the role of knowledge, aesthetics and performativity in the development of self-reliant, empowered community.
Participants will be invited to contribute to discussions in workshops and roundtables. Places are limited. If you would like to participate please send a paragraph outlining your interest in the topic to [log in to unmask] by 12pm Thursday 19th May 2011. The event, generously funded by the AHRC and hosted by the Institute for Advanced Studies, is free of charge, and lunch and dinner will be provided. If you cannot make it to the symposium but would be like to be kept informed of future Authority Research Network events, then please email us and ask to be added to the mailing list.
The Authority Research Network
Aecio Amaral, UFPB (Brazil)
Claire Blencowe, Newcastle University
Julian Brigstocke, Newcastle University
Leila Dawney, University of Exeter
Samuel Kirwan, Bristol University
Naomi Millner, Bristol University
Tehseen Noorani, Bristol University
www.authorityresearch.net
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