Conference: Austerity and Its Social and Political Consequences
Editors: Prof. Dr. Roland Sturm, Dr. Tim Griebel, Dr. Thorsten Winkelmann
Deadline for abstract submissions: 15 September 2016
Decision on abstracts: 30 September 2015
Submission final papers: 15 January 2017
A number of books and articles have been written about the retrenchment of the welfare state caused by austerity policies. There is also a well-informed literature on the role of the EU in the Euro crisis and Germany’s preferences for policies to balance budgets and to reduce public debt. Colleagues have investigated the rise of right-wing, left-wing and populist parties as a consequence of austerity policies. In a special issue of the Zeitschrift für Politik, that will also be published as a peer-reviewed edited volume, we want to shed new light on the redefinition of politics and social relations caused by austerity policies with the help of a multidimensional and pluralistic approach.
The Publication(s) will map different dimensions and “varieties of austerity” within the European Union. It does so by looking at the discursive, social, institutional and material logics of austerity at the polity, politics and the policy level and the broader social relations within particular member states and on the EU level. Not only the phenomenon of austerity is multi-dimensional, but also its normative evaluation and the analytical foci and strategies to deal with it. We therefore follow a pluralistic understanding of science that does not privilege one form of knowledge over the other. Rather we want to sensitize the reader to the effect of different ontological, epistemological and methodological standpoints. Which aspect or kind of austerity we see, depends on the (meta-)theoretical lenses that we look through.
While some contributions might evaluate the phenomenon and the effects of austerity based on the logic of the current European or global political economy, some authors might be critical of this system as such. In addition, some papers might try to combine different dimensions of austerity, others might either focus on one dimension or transcend them altogether. And while some contributions might want to explain some aspect of the phenomenon of austerity in a scientific manner, we also welcome sceptical views of this endeavour that request to question knowledge claims themselves. We are looking for theoretical reflections as well as empirical studies that use quantitative or qualitative methodological tools to analyse austerity.
In particular, we are searching for:
– theoretical or philosophical reflections about the nature of austerity and its consequences for democracy, society and the state;
– empirical case studies or comparative analyses about the relationship between austerity and topics like discourses, party politics, party systems, populism and extremism;
– empirical case studies or comparative analyses about austerity measures in different policies areas;
– innovative methodological tools to grasp austerity.
This call is open for innovative contributions on the subject of austerity from multiple disciplines. We are very much looking forward to your abstracts!
Please submit your abstract by e-mail to tim.griebel@fau.de (max. 500 words)
