The Group for Social Engagement Studies will participate in a one day event hosted by the Centre for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz: The Crisis of Democracy, on 29 May 2017

Agenda:

WORKSHOP

The Crisis of Democracy and Social Engagement in Southeast Europe

Place: Resowi, SR 15.15 (part C, 1st floor)

time: 12-15h

Introduction by:

Florian Bieber, Director of the Centre for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz
Petar Bojanić, Director of the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade

 

OPEN FORUM

Crisis of Western democracies and its repercussions on Southeast Europe: can we consolidate democracy from below?

Place: Resowi, SR 15.34 (part D, 3rd floor)
time: 17-19h

Moderation: Florian Beiber, Centre for Southeast European Studies Graz

Panelists:

Jelena Vasiljević, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory Belgrade
Gregor Moder, Center for Advanced Studies Southeast Europe Rijeka
Damir Kapidžić, Faculty of Political Sciencies Sarajevo
Vedran Džihić, Austrian Institute for International Affairs Vienna – CAS SEE

Crisis of democracy spreads both in societies with long traditions of liberal democracy (embedded democracies) and in those in which a functional democracy has only existed for a short while. The ongoing socioeconomic transformation threatens the democratic order in a number of ways: the growing socioeconomic inequality decreases electoral participation, disempowers and delegitimizes democratic institutions and threatens to gradually transform both the established and the young democratic states into mere electoral oligarchies or illiberal democracies (defective democracies). This event will provide space for elaborating on social engagement as a collective political action that asserts a strong intrinsic connection between the intensification of democracy (in particular its deliberative aspects) and the growth of a society’s capacity to solve its most fundamental problems (lack of social justice, economic crisis, etc).

The main objective of this workshop is to analyse the possibilities and constraints of different contemporary forms of public social engagement which seek to challenge the spreading trends of abandoning the imperative of democratic procedures and weak institutions. The workshop will introduce the idea of Social Engagement Studies, in their pursuit for new ideas and potential partners in advancing this prospective field. The event’s objective is also to establish friendly academic collaboration and to enable critical recourse to specific forms of social engagement challenging democracy in contemporary world.

Organizers: The Centre for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz; Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade; Center for Ethics, Law and Applied Philosophy, Belgrade; Center for Advanced Studies for Southeast Europe, University of Rijeka; Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Sarajevo.