Second Berlin Winter School for Young Scholars The Laws and Politics of (In)Security and Social Cohesion – An Interdisciplinary Conversation Berlin, 1–3 December 2021
June 09
Second Berlin Winter School for Young Scholars
The Laws and Politics of (In)Security and Social Cohesion –
An Interdisciplinary Conversation
Berlin, 1–3 December 2021
The Centre Marc Bloch, the Integrative Research Institute Law & Society, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies of the University of Oxford are welcoming applications for the second socio-legal Winter School for young scholars to be held in Berlin from 1 to 3 December 2021.
About the Winter School
The Winter School The Laws and Politics of (In)Security and Social Cohesion – An Interdisciplinary Conversation seeks to engage in a debate about how (in)security has been constituted through law, history, social sciences, as well as natural sciences. We address the laws and politics of (in)security particularly in the areas of “terrorism”, pandemics, and environmental change and propose to rethink the entanglement and interaction between these crisis phenomena, and especially their effects on social inequalities and social cohesion.
The laws and politics of (in)security are understood not only as a framework for or a result of political and economic crises but also as a set of social practices that actively shape forms of inclusion and exclusion in society. As part of this, we ask how risk assessment, prognosis and uncertainty shape our understanding of dealing with (in)security: How do legal, political or social narratives around (in)security promote social cohesion, and to what extent might they instead endanger social cohesion? How do security laws, policies and practices find their way into the lives of people? What or who is considered a risk or threat to society? How do the laws and politics of (in)security confirm or constrain, stabilize or destabilize the public realm, its actors, actions, narratives and images? Do these laws and politics operate in different ways at different scales (national, regional, international)? And who are the actors that influence and determine these sets of security laws and politics of (in)security? The focus on (in)security and social cohesion is one that explicitly enquires about social hierarchies in the (re)distribution of power in society: who benefits, who loses, who is harmed?
The Winter School invites researchers to think through contextual, historical, and geographic conjunctions in debates on security. We seek to reinvestigate the role of disciplines such as law, political science, criminology, forensic psychology, health sciences, and environmental sciences in shaping normative regulations. We want to study who the law and routinized security practices address or fail to address when they insert empirical knowledge, and how empirical knowledge overrides normative considerations and routinized practices. We are interested in understanding the inherent limits of empirical knowledge in normative decision-making in times of (in)security.
By bringing together different academic perspectives on the implicit and explicit relationships of the laws and practices of (in)security, the Winter School aims to shed light on a range of issues that remain under-researched within the respective disciplines in order to foster a dialogue on different methodological and theoretical approaches of socio-legal research. By shifting perspectives and leaving the comfort zone of their own academic fields, participants will engage in interdisciplinary approaches and will unlock the interdisciplinary potential of their work within the thematic realm of the laws and practices of (in)security.
The Winter School provides a space to discuss the participants’ projects with fellow PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and renowned scholars of socio-legal research from different academic traditions. Participants will be asked to submit a five-page paper about the research project prior to the Winter School, which will serve as a basis for in-depth peer-to-peer sessions in which participants will present their research and receive feedback from both fellow participants und senior researchers.Moreover, thematic, methodological and strategic academic topics are covered by workshops and panel discussions on socio-legal research and writing and publishing in an international context. A core feature of the programme will be the practical session on the analysis of legal texts, conducted by interdisciplinary teams from the organizing institutions.
The keynotes will be delivered by Prof. Dr. Didier Bigo (Professor of International Political Sociology at King’s College London and at Sciences Po, Paris) and Prof. Dr. Gabriele Metzler (Professor for the History of Western Europe and Transatlantic Relations at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin).
Applications
PhD students from political, social and legal sciences as well as the humanities working theoretically and/or empirically or from the standpoint of legal doctrine on socio-legal questions on (in)security are invited to apply. We especially welcome applications dealing with the laws and politics of (in)security in the areas of “terrorism”, pandemics, and environmental change.
The application deadline is 1 September 2021. Please submit your application by email to: winterschool21@cmb.hu-berlin.de. Participants will be selected and informed by 1 October 2021. Please note that there will be a small quota of participants who are selected directly by the organizing institutions. All participants are asked to submit a five-page paper about the research project by 1 November 2021.
The Winter School 2021 is planned as a live event to be held in Berlin. Should this be impossible due to the pandemic situation, the Winter School will be held online. The final decision will be made by mid-October 2021. The event will be conducted in English.
Your application should include
- Letter of motivation (max. 1 page)
- Brief synopsis of your project (max. 1 page)
- CV, including a publication list if applicable (max. 2 pages)
Costs and Fees
There are no application fees. If the Winter School takes place as a live event in Berlin (see below), travel expenses will be refunded within the limits of our budget, and accommodation for attendees not located in Berlin will be provided within the limits of our budget.
Contacts:
Centre Marc Bloch, Franco-German Centre for Social Science Research: Dr. Mathias Delori (mathias.delori@cmb.hu-berlin.de) and Dr. Judith Nora Hardt (judith.hardt@cmb.hu-berlin.de)
Integrative Research Institute Law & Society, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin: Valentin Feneberg (valentin.feneberg@rewi.hu-berlin.de)
Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford: Dr. Bettina Lange (bettina.lange@csls.ox.ac.uk)
