-----Original Message-----
From: CSSGJ [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: 05 April 2007 11:37
To: Tormey Simon
Subject: CSSGJ Seminar Series Giorel Curran 23 April


Dear All,

I would like to invite you for the talk 'Democratising Democracy: Views
from the Jungles and the Margins' (see abstract below) by Giorel Curran
(Griffith University, Queensland Australia) which will take place on
Monday the 23rd of April from 5.00-6.30pm in the Delta Suite, University
Staff Club. 

Abstract:
Radical politics today pivots around the globalisation and democracy
'problem'. Most in the radical politics community view globalisation
suspiciously, especially a neo-liberal form that undermines justice and
hollows democracy. But globalisation brings radical politics
opportunities as well as costs - opportunities that include but also go
well beyond the network capacities afforded by globalisation's
technologies. In its destabilisation of some of the core political
underpinnings of a liberal democratic capitalism - particularly the idea
of the nation state and the constitution of legitimate political
communities - globalisation helps expose what have always been shaky
political foundations. These exposures offer radical politics conceptual
spaces in which to ply their case for different understandings of the
political and the democratic. In this way globalisation itself begins to
unpick the conceptual threads that kept the fabric of liberal democracy
stitched together. What globalisation does for radical politics is
re-admit contestation of prevailing notions of the political and the
possible. These include the core notions of political community,
representation, autonomy, sovereignty and justice. In posing the
'problem' of democracy, globalisation thus offers radicals the
opportunity to reconceptualise and 'democratise' it. There is of course
no single conceptual view on this, as reflected in the conflicting views
on globalisation and democracy within radical politics itself. This
paper reflects on how some radical groups - from the Zapatistas in the
Chiapian jungles to the assembled 'marginalised' in the World Social
Forum - conceive their political communities, their 'representation' and
their 'democratisation' in the face of neo-liberal globalisation.  


The lecture is part of the 'Open Seminar Series' organised by the Centre
for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ). Everybody is
welcome, join us for drinks afterwards!

I hope to see you all there,

Simon Tormey 
Director, Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice 
Professor, School of Politics and International Relations 
Law and Social Sciences Building 
University of Nottingham, 
Nottingham NG7 2RD 
UK 
tel +44 (0)115 951 4871 
fax +44 (0)115 951 4859 
Co-editor (and Reviews Editor), Contemporary Political Theory 
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/cpt/ 
homepage/resources/articles: 
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/simon.tormey 

-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous
content by the NorMAN MailScanner Service and is believed
to be clean.

The NorMAN MailScanner Service is operated by Information
Systems and Services, Newcastle University.