The network Politics and Power of Resilience (POWERS 2023-2024) aims at developing multidisciplinary critical discussions on resilience and its power effects in the Nordic context. The project is funded by The Joint Committee for Nordic research councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS) and its exploratory workshop program.
The POWERS network is happy to announce the call for papers for its second international workshop Resilience, Transitions and Neoliberal dynamics. The workshop will be held at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 11 – 12 June 2024 and it is hosted by the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, Greenlandic and Arctic Studies Section.
The aim of the workshop is to initiate a scholarly discussion on the interlinkages between resilience, transitions and neoliberal rationalities. While rapid global changes have prompted the political and scientific use of the word ‘resilience’, they have equally raised the call for transitions – ranging from transitions away from fossil fuels, green transition to moves towards democratic governance. It appears that resilience is useful for transitions as it is linked with resourcefulness and responsiveness. In political parlance, resilience is narrated as an answer to situations that require adaptation and accommodation to changing environmental, economic and social conditions. Accordingly, the idea(l) of building ‘autonomous’ and ‘responsible’ consumers and citizens is strong. This echoes the neoliberal rationality that hinges on a market logic and expects the constant enhancement of economic, social and political potential of individuals and communities. By building on such observations, we ask: How do resilience and transitions intertwine in contemporary societies and global orders? What kind of capacities are invoked in this setting? How can we understand the workings of neoliberalism in the contemporary global situation that calls for transitions and/or resilience? What is the economic and political value of resilience for societies in transition? The workshop invites papers that in one way or another examine resilience, transitions and/or neoliberalism. Theoretical, empirical or methodological papers reflecting these topics are welcome.