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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: [log in to unmask] -- Levente Salat Associate Professor Department of Political Sciences Faculty of Political, Administration and Communication Sciences Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania SLAVONIC-EE-POSTGRAD, a list for postgraduate students in Slavonic and East European Studies in the UK and elsewhere, is a project of BASEES, the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (www.basees.org.uk). For subscription information, please see www.basees.org.uk/postgrads.htm . To unsubscribe, see instructions at www.jiscmail.ac.uk .