CfP: Workshop on culture and emotions in politics and IR

UPTAKE Consortium Workshop
The ontological status of culture and emotions in politics and IR
Tartu, Estonia, 21–22 April 2017

 Call for papers

Organisers: Tom Casier, Maria Mälksoo (University of Kent) and Viacheslav Morozov (University of Tartu)

Emotions and culture have always been present in the study of politics and IR, but their presence has mostly been implicit: either as the silent ‘other’ of rationality – the big ‘R’ of mainstream International Relations, or the black box where anything left unexplained by other concepts gets shuffled in as ‘ideational extra’. ‘Culture’ as a generic category has fared better as a central notion (next to ‘norms’ and ‘identity’) in constructivist IR as well as in a variety of approaches in comparative politics, from classical works to contemporary research on strategic and organisational cultures, cooperation and conflict and the like.  Nevertheless, we feel there has been not enough reflection on how both emotions and culture relate to other fundamental categories of social theory, such as structure, norm, identity, discourse and power.

This UPTAKE workshop brings into focus three core themes that the conceptually innovative and empirically rich scholarship on emotions and culture in politics and IR have highlighted as particularly challenging: (1) the individual-collective nexus of political emotions, (2) the agency-structure problem as applied to the study of emotions and culture, and (3) the methodology of researching emotions and culture in politics and IR. For additional information regarding the concept of the workshop, see the full Call for Papers.

The workshop will take place at the University of Tartu on 21–22 April 2017. Paper abstracts (no more than 300 words) are due by 1 March by e-mail (viacheslav.morozov@ut.ee). Limited financial support is available from the UPTAKE consortium, but participants are encouraged to secure their own funding to cover travel and accommodation expenses. Workshop agenda will include the discussion of possible joint publication.