Subject: Call for ABSTRACTS “Autonomy arrangements in the world” – conference and compendium

 Call for ABSTRACTS

 “Autonomy arrangements in the world” – conference and compendium

 Deadline: February 28, 2012

 The Political Science Department of Babes-Bolyai University, 
 Cluj-Napoca, Romania (http://polito.ubbcluj.ro/polito/en/), in 
 cooperation with the European Center for Minority Issues, Flensburg, 
 Germany (http://www.ecmi.de/) and the Romanian Institute for Research on 
 National Minorities, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (http://www.ispmn.gov.ro/), 
 invites submission from different disciplinary backgrounds and diverse 
 methodological orientations, aiming to elaborate a compendium on the 
 various autonomy arrangements which are operational in the world to 
 date.

 Though the various forms of territorial, functional and legal pluralism 
 and sub-state governance are important institutional arrangements of 
 accommodating national, ethnic, linguistic or religious communities 
 across the world, the issue of autonomy remains highly controversial 
 both in the scholarly literature, and in the political debate between 
 dominant majorities and marginalized ethnocultural communities. In spite 
 of salient contributions made in past years which shed light on the 
 issue from the perspective of normative political philosophy, 
 international law, constitutional and institutional analysis and a 
 number of limited case-studies, no comprehensive collection of cases is 
 available which could facilitate a more research-based typology, 
 comparative analysis and informed assessment of the advantages and 
 shortages of the existing autonomy set-ups. Another limitation of the 
 existing literature is that most of the available in-depth case-studies 
 focus on a limited number of well-known, “starred” autonomy 
 arrangements, located mostly in the Western hemishpere.

 The aim of this initiative is to invite scholars and researchers to 
 engage in identifying, researching and describing in a standard format 
 as many autonomy arrangements operational in the different regions of 
 the world as possible, with special focus on the lesser-known cases.

 The preliminary results of the endeavor will be discussed in a 
 conference in Flensburg, Germany (most probably in September or October 
 2012), and the final version of the elaborated case-studies will be 
 published in a representative compendium at a prestigious international 
 publishing house in 2013.

 We are interested in any institutionalized, legal or customary 
 arrangements which come under at least one of the following headings:
 	shared or negotiated sovereignty
 	federalism (with relevance to the ethnic, national, linguistic or 
 religious divisions)
 	territorial autonomy
 	cultural autonomy
 	personal autonomy
 	functional autonomy
 	legislative power-sharing
 	executive power-sharing
 	devolution
 	cantonal arrangements (with relevance to the ethnic, national, 
 linguistic or religious divisions)
 	tribal, aboriginal or native self-governments
 	autonomy arrangements resulted from transitional justice
 	non-democratic or authoritarian autonomy arrangements.

 Each submitted abstract will have to address one single case, in a more 
 detailed abstract format of minimum 1000 and maximum 1500 words. A 
 biographic note of the author, including his/her institutional 
 affiliation and some of the most relevant research results should also 
 be provided.

 The received abstracts will be screened, and those found suitable will 
 be selected for the second phase of the project. If several proposals 
 referring to the same case will be submitted, the most comprehensive and 
 innovative approach will be chosen or, in justified case, joint research 
 efforts will be recommended.

 The final, expanded version of the analysis of each case, based on 
 which the compendium entries will be elaborated, should include:
 	the history behind the arrangement, with a particular emphasis on the 
 political context of the creation
 	ethno-demographic data
 	the current political context
 	the legal and institutional frameworks of the arrangement
 	assessment of advantages and shortages of the set-up
 	prospects for the future.

 The authors of the chosen abstracts will be announced latest by March 
 26, 2012, and will be invited to elaborate the compendium entry based on 
 a specified format. The selected authors will also be invited to 
 consider participation in the conference.

 Deadline for the compendium entries: November 30, 2012.

 Organizers :
 Levente Salat (Babes-Bolyai University)
 Tove Malloy (European Center for Minority Issues)
 István Horváth (Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities)

 Contact:
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-- 
 Levente Salat
 Associate Professor
 Department of Political Sciences
 Faculty of Political, Administration and Communication Sciences
 Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania

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