Category: Output

Publication: “A Postcolonial Schmitt? Ontology, ethnography, and “more-than-liberal” democracy”

by Pascal Schmid, posted in Political Society, Publications

In the shadow of debates about illiberalism stands – as éminence grise – Carl Schmitt. Schmitt’s ontology of the political as antagonism not only inspires illiberal thinkers, but equally informs radical democratic theory as it does postcolonial studies of democracy in South Asia. In this paper, Benedikt Korf and Stephan Hochleithner propose the term “more-than-liberal” democracy to turn attention to political practices and tactics that do not fit into sanitized conceptions of “liberal” democracy, nor are they necessarily illiberal in the sense of anti-democratic. Studying these practices requires what Clive Barnett calls an “ethnographically emergent” theory, which he juxtaposes against an “ontological style of theorizing”. Barnett’s juxtaposition, while helpful, is also problematic, however. The authors illustrate this by looking at Partha Chatterjee’s “ethnographically emergent” conceptualization of political society as expression of “more-than-liberal” practices in India’s democracy. Paradoxically, in describing political society as a “thuggish” terrain, Chatterjee’s work speaks to Schmitt’s ontology of antagonism (taken up by Chantal Mouffe for radical democratic theory). Similarly, anthropologists saw an affinity between their ethnography of local politics in South Asia and Schmitt’s conception of antagonism. Here, the authors argue that ontology and ethnography are blurring: This affinity does not necessarily confirm Schmitt’s “ontology” of the political, however. It may rather be the outcome of pragmatic tactics of voters to make themselves visible in the space of democratic politics.

Korf, Benedikt, und Stephan Hochleithner. „A Postcolonial Schmitt? Ontology, Ethnography, and ‘More-Than-Liberal’ Democracy.“ Political Geography (2026). https://doi.org.

Publication: “Against failed states: the constitutional consequences of fiscal earmarking, underspending and remobilisation”

by Pascal Schmid, posted in Publications, Unspent Funds

Drawing on the case of cesses in Indian tax history and practice, Deval Desai takes underspending not only as symptomatic of flaws in state administration, but also as constitutive of state forms. In his article, he argues that the underspending of earmarked funds, and their consequent pooling and remobilisation, produce a bifurcated state through its revenue arrangements.

Desai, Deval. “Against Failed States: The Constitutional Consequences of Fiscal Earmarking, Underspending and Remobilisation.” Legal Studies, 2026, 1–19.

Publication: “African Studies, or How to Make the Canon Apocryphal”

by Pascal Schmid, posted in Publications, Retribalisation

In his essay in the edited volume ” Knowing – Unknowing. African Studies at the Crossroads”, project PI Elísio Macamo rewrites parts of Kant’s “What is Enlightment?” as a starting point to explore African studies’ contribution to a critical reflection on methodology in the social sciences.

Macamo, Elísio. “African Studies, or How to Make the Canon Apocryphal.” In Knowing – Unknowing. African Studies at the Crossroads, edited by Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Katharina Schramm, 4:31–45. Africa Multiple. Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2024.

International conference at the University of Basel (12-13 Sept 2024): “Reversing the Gaze: Concepts without borders”

by Pascal Schmid, posted in Conference, Events, Output

On 12 and 13 September, 45 international scholars met at the University of Basel to explore approaches of ‘reversing the gaze’ and reflect on the use of concepts across borders in the social sciences. In six panel session, participants shared and discussed approaches to using social scientific concept across historical and regional contexts. In the keynote session, Shalini Randeria (Central European University) addressed perspectives and challenges of postcolonial knowledge production in the past, present and future. Finally, the concluding roundtable session with Rose Marie Beck (Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences), Patricio Langa (Eduardo Mondlane University/University of Essen) and Peter DeSouza (formerly Centre for the Study of Developing Societies CSDS, New Delhi) provided an opportunity to discuss epistemological, methodological and political implications of ‘reversing the gaze’ and to explore new perspectives for knowledge production with a global or trans-regional outlook.

Conference programme

Background

The use of concepts deemed ‘Eurocentric’ in analyzing the global South is heavily criticized within the context of postcolonial and decolonial debates. Such critiques are concerned with the entanglement of the concepts and their colonial context – whether a moral concern with the possibility that colonial worldviews are ineradicably present in the forms and substance of these concepts; an empirical concern with the complicity of these concepts in colonial projects of rule, violence, and extraction; or a concern that colonial structures (e.g. racial hierarchies; geographies of center and periphery) are replicated in conceptual structures in ways that limit their validity or utility. Furthermore, critics lament the traditional geography of theory, whereby the West gazes towards the Rest, and in doing so imagines the universality of the former and particularity of the latter.

In doing so, these critiques raise doubts about the assumption that concepts can be analytically fruitful beyond their context of origin and the normative assumptions on which they are based. The project “Reversing the Gaze: Towards Post-Comparative Area Studies” takes as its core issue whether concepts are inextricably tied to their context and the circumstances of their origins. It does so by deploying concepts used to describe identifiable social and institutional phenomena, typically used to account for phenomena in non-European settings, to study similar empirical phenomena in Europe. The conference “Reversing the Gaze. Concepts without borders” brought together project members and interested scholars to explore theoretical and empirical questions related to applying socio-scientific concepts across regional and historical contexts.

Gallery

Conference "Reversing the Gaze: Using Concepts Across Borders" (University of Basel, 12-13 September 2024)

Publication: “Recasting Welfare Politics in India at the Time of COVID-19”

by niamhoneilll, posted in Output, Publications, Unspent Funds

Project member Christine Lutringer‘s recent book chapter explores state-society relations and subnational responses to the COVID-19 crisis in India. By examining the intersection of governance and welfare, Lutringer reveals the shifts and tensions in state-society relations that have been induced by the pandemic. The chapter argues that not only the policy response of the central government in Delhi but also the narratives and discourses of the pandemic intrinsically relate to the ways in which “welfare” has been constructed in India.

“Recasting Welfare Politics in India at the Time of COVID-19” by Christine Lutringer (2023) is published in Milanetti, Giorgio, Miranda, Marina and Morbiducci, Marina (eds.) The COVID-19 Pandemic in Asia and Africa. Societal Implications, Narratives on Media, Political Issues. Volume II – Society and Institutions. The book is published by Sapienza Università Editrice and is available as Open Access.

Conference at the University of Basel

Call for papers: “Reversing the Gaze: Using Concepts Across Borders”

by Pascal Schmid, posted in Conference, Events, Output, Project

The use of concepts deemed ‘Eurocentric’ in analyzing the global South is heavily criticized within the context of postcolonial and decolonial debates. Such critiques are concerned with the entanglement of the concepts and their colonial context – whether a moral concern with the possibility that colonial worldviews are ineradicably present in the forms and substance of these concepts; an empirical concern with the complicity of these concepts in colonial projects of rule, violence, and extraction; or a concern that colonial structures (e.g. racial hierarchies; geographies of center and periphery) are replicated in conceptual structures in ways that limit their validity or utility. Furthermore, critics lament the traditional geography of theory, whereby the West gazes towards the Rest, and in doing so imagines the universality of the former and particularity of the latter.

In doing so, these critiques raise doubts about the assumption that concepts can be analytically fruitful beyond their context of origin and the normative assumptions on which they are based. The project “Reversing the Gaze: Towards Post-Comparative Area Studies” takes as its core issue whether concepts are inextricably tied to their context and the circumstances of their origins. It does so by deploying concepts used to describe identifiable social and institutional phenomena, typically used to account for phenomena in non-European settings, to study similar empirical phenomena in Europe. Case studies apply the concepts “re-tribalization”, “political society” and “the cunning state” to study, respectively, citizenship in Switzerland, populism in Austria and social welfare spending in Italy.

This conference brings together reflections on the use of concepts across borders in social sciences. The conference has two aims. The first aim is to share and discuss the results of our three case studies, and to examine other cases of applying socio-scientific concepts across regional or historical contexts. The second aim is to explore the epistemological and methodological implications of turning the gaze traditionally directed at the Rest towards the West. The discussions of the case studies will present key substantive findings from the studies, providing some concrete material for reflecting on epistemological and philosophical questions about concepts, and hopefully these questions will inform interpretations of the results of the case studies.

Furthermore, we wish to bring this work into conversation with other research that explores theoretical and/or empirical questions related to:

  1. The functions and performativity of social-scientific concepts of specific social and institutional phenomena, i.e. whether they produce descriptions, or whether the deployment of concepts itself produces the objects which concepts describe.
  2. Conceptual change in such concepts, i.e. whether (and how) concept use, scope and meaning change fundamentally according to where, why and by whom they are deployed.
  3. Theoretical and political aspects of the use of such concepts across borders, i.e. whether the use of some concepts can be inappropriate for the study of particular contexts due to some properties of the concepts and/or studied contexts.

To this end, we welcome contributions addressing these questions and related others from any discipline and research field.

Submitting a proposal

Paper proposals should include a title and a description (in English, maximum 2000 characters) as well as name, e-mail address and institutional affiliation/function of the author(s).

Proposals must be submitted via the Evasys submission form.

Timeline & practical information
  • Call for papers: 15.12.2023
  • Deadline for paper submissions: 15.03.2024
  • Notice of acceptance: 15.04.2024
  • Conference: 12-13.09.2024

Detailed program, venue and fees to be announced

Submit your proposal via the Evasys submission form

Best Paper Prize (runner up) for Deval Desai

by niamhoneilll, posted in Output, Project, Publications, Unspent Funds

The Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) awarded RtG project member Deval Desai the Best Paper Prize (runner up) for his paper ‘Theorising the anti-fiscal state: evidence from India’ at their Annual Conference 2023. The SLS is the principal representative body for legal academics in the UK whose aim is the advancement of legal education and scholarship in the UK and Ireland.

Desai’s paper ties in with the project research on government underspending undertaken by his work package.

Read more on the website of the Edinburgh Law School.

Other recent publications by Desai include ‘Law and the political stakes of global crises: Lessons from development practice for a coronavirus world’, published by Law and Policy and available as Open Access. This article explores the relationship between law and crisis, in particularly the lessons the Global North can learn from experiences in the Global South, where such thinking is framed in terms of ‘development’.

Publication: “Expert Ignorance”

by niamhoneilll, posted in Output, Publications, Unspent Funds

This recent book by project member Deval Desai explores the concept of ‘expert ignorance’, whereby ideas about the ‘rule of law’ remain undefined and are indeed kept underdetermined by structures of expertise. This, in turn, regulates their ability to travel beyond their context, for example, in their application in the Global South. Desai’s interdisciplinary approach spans legal theory, development practice, global economic governance and sociology to demonstrate “the enduring power of proclaiming what one does not know.”

Expert Ignorance is published by Cambridge University Press as part of the Cambridge Studies in Transnational Law series, and is available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Workshop: ‘Decolonising Political Theologies’ in Conversation with James Sidaway (Zurich, 26 May 2023)

by niamhoneilll, posted in Events, Output, Political Society, Workshops

Convened by Benedikt Korf, Department of Geography, University of Zurich, with James Sidaway, Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

Date: 26 May 2023, 09:00am – 12:00pm
Venue: Collegium Helveticum, Rudolf Wolfs Saal, Schmelzbergstrasse 25, 8092 Zürich

Contact:
Benedikt Korf: benedikt.korf@geo.uzh.ch 

This half-day seminar will discuss James Sidaway’s forthcoming paper ‘Beyond the decolonial: Critical Muslim geographies’ and bring it in conversation with political theologies from elsewhere – beyond ‘Muslim geographies’ and beyond ‘Europe’ in a post- and/or de-colonial spirit.

James Sidaway is Professor of Political Geography at the National University of Singapore (NUS). His input will be followed by contributions from three discussants, and a lightning session.

Please register your interest with Benedikt Korf at: benedikt.korf@geo.uzh.ch 

Download programme

Research Colloquium, Spring Semester 2023: “Beyond Area Studies”

by niamhoneilll, posted in Colloquium

In this semester, the colloquium will focus on current debates in and critics of Area Studies and the various attempts to save them (e.g. new area studies, global area studies). We will discuss theoretical and methodological implications of using socio-scientific concepts across regional or historical contexts for our understanding of Area Studies and, in particular, the role of relationality with regards to both the scope of inquiry (as opposed to the object of inquiry) and the configuration of the region or area of study.

programme

Mon 06.03.2023, 12:30-14:00 CET
Introduction: Beyond Area Studies
Benedikt Korf (Department of Geography, University of Zurich)

Mon 20.03.2023, 12:30-14:00 CET
Area studies, geography and critical Muslim studies
James Derrick Sidaway (Department of Geography, National University of Singapore)

Mon 03.04.2023, 12:30-14:00 CET
The Globality of Higher Education Research as an Area Study
Patrício Langa (University of the Western Cape/Eduardo Mondlane University)

Mon 24.04.2023, 12:30-14:00 CET
Area studies and other containers
Aline Schläpfer (Department of Social Sciences, University of Basel)

Mon 22.05.2023, 12:30-14:00 CET
Review session

The colloquium takes place online via Zoom. If you are interested in participating, please use the registration form to register for one or several sessions.

Register

PhD candidates and advanced MA students can earn credits (1 ECTS credit point).

PhD candidates and students at the University of Basel can register for the course via MOnA (course no. 67655-01).

PhD candidates and students at other Swiss universities can register via the University of Basel Student Administration Office.