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Dear all,
I would like to draw your attention to our panel titled "Power, desire and social contract: power's aftermath in the contemporary world.
Please see the details below and submit your proposal via this link: http://www.nomadit.co.uk/asa/asa2014/panels.php5?PanelID=2782
Best wishes,
the convenors
Galina Oustinova-Stjepanovic (University of Edinburgh)
Maya Mayblin (University of Edinburgh)
Summary
What is it like to be someone who once had, who actively desires, or currently has power over others? Inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau's belief in the supremacy of 'The General Will', the panel aims to illuminate the actual experiences of having power and being at the apex of a collective tide.
Long Abstract
Inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau's belief in the supremacy of 'The General Will', this panel will explore what is it like to be responsible for the carrying out of the 'The General Will'? Anthropologists have done much over the years to elaborate the perspective of the subaltern - those 'under' the power of others. Anthropologists have also been adept at revealing the various limits of 'The General Will'. But what does it feel like to have power from highest vantage point? How is power defined from within, and how do power holders handle their own interests in relation to competing forces from without? This panel seeks to delve into experiences of power, aspirations to dominate political ground, symbolic capital, or simply, to have influence over others. It invites reflections on power holders past and present, including on the declining fortunes of previously important organizations, concepts, or even famous individuals. We welcome contextualized and historicized studies of governmental, political, kinship, intellectual, artistic or religious leaders, and of famous and influential (or once-famous or influential) figures in any part of the world. The key assumption of the panel is that anthropology has not sufficiently engaged with the phenomenological consequences of power among the powerful, nor has it properly explored the fragile and unpredictable qualities of power in decline. The panel invites submissions from all branches of anthropology, including anthropology of religion, history, politics, art, science and so on.
Propose a paper
________________________________________
From: The Anthropology-Matters forum mailing list [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of david henig [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 08 December 2013 22:36
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: CfP ASA 2014 - Perfection: histories, technologies, cosmologies
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* http://www.anthropologymatters.com *
* A postgraduate project comprising online journal, *
* online discussions, teaching and research resources *
* and international contacts directory. *
******************************************************
CALL FOR PAPERS, ASA 2014, EDINBURGH
*Perfection: histories, technologies, cosmologies*
*http://www.nomadit.co.uk/asa/asa2014/panels.php5?PanelID=2706*<http://www.nomadit.co.uk/asa/asa2014/panels.php5?PanelID=2706>
*Convenors*
Melissa Demian (University of Kent)
David Henig (University of Kent)
*Summary*
This panel draws upon Enlightenment ideas of a human history tending toward
perfection through the virtuous action of individual persons and
intervention into social institutions. We ask how these ideas continue to
affect anthropological work on institutionalised agendas for human
perfectibility.
*Long Abstract*
This panel takes its inspiration from the socio-history of Adam Ferguson,
and more specifically the notion that human nature is not only social in
its originary form, but tending toward perfectibility through the
cultivation of virtuous action. We find echoes of this idea in many of the
ideas alive in the global ecumene today: for example, that societies are
improvable through the development of educational, religious, medical and
legal modes of action. In turn, by asking what perfection is we want to
invigorate another inspirational moment of Ferguson's work, namely
anthropology's ambition to address questions about the condition(s) of
humanity. Indeed, the notion of perfection strongly resonates with
longstanding questions about relations between society and individual,
freedom and obligation, and the legitimation of action more generally.
We invite paper-givers to ask, how are such notions informed by a
particular concept of history as having an inherent tendency toward
improvement and ultimately perfection? If this will happen 'anyway', why do
states, NGOs, religious and other institutions so earnestly try to
intervene, and what forms do these interventions take? We also invite
consideration that interventions made through purely 'physical' means, such
as public health and media initiatives, also have at their core the idea
that society is improvable by cultivating enlightened self-interest, and
vice versa.
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