Call for papers

International Conference
LEgality and PArticipation
Trends, Challenges, and Perspectives
16-17 June 2022

The conference deploys in two days.

Round tables and debates with leading international scholars (link to the program) will alternate with parallel panel sessions.
Panel sessions are open, and interested scholars are welcome to submit paper proposals.
Paper proposals are to be sent by email to the Chair of the respective panel (see below).

General information

Paper proposals must be sent to the Chairs of each panel and must include:

  • Title and abstract (up to 500 words)
  • Name, institution, email adress of the author/s

DEADLINES

  • deadline for sending the abstract: 31 March 2022
  • paper selection: by 15 April 2022 (the results will be communicated to proponents in any case)
  • deadline for sending the papers (to panel chairs – and discussant if foreseen): 6 June 2022

CONTACTS

  • To contact the organizing committee: convegno.lepa@unipg.it
  • Contact the Panel Chairs to send the papers (see below for emails)

Section 1 CRISIS OF DEMOCRACY 

1.2 Democracy and rhetoric of the crisis

Chair: Fausto Proietti – fausto.proietti@unipg.it

Call. The panel intends to investigate, mainly from a historical perspective and from the history of political ideas, the relevance that the theme of ‘crisis’ has assumed in the discourse on representative democracy since the mid-nineteenth century. The focus of the papers will be both the critical reconstruction of specific ideological rhetorics centered on the perceived irreversible ‘crisis of democracy’ (coinciding with political regimes such as the French Second Republic, the Weimar Republic, the European Union in recent years, etc.), and the thought of authors who, in various chronological and geographical contexts, have focused on the ‘crisis of democracy’ proposing it as a key to reading their contemporaneity.

Keywords: Democracy, Representation, Crisis, Ideology, Rhetoric

1.4 Democracy at the time of the pandemic

Chair: Silvia Bolgherini – silvia.bolgherini@unipg.it

Call. This panel welcomes contributions on how democracy can and should be defended and maintained during and after crises such as the pandemic. And after social, economic, institutional, and political transformations triggered by them, such as internal dissent within democracies and the relationship between rule of law, individual freedom, and collective obligations; the capacity (internal and in cooperation) of democratic states to manage emergencies; changed international relations (economic, social); the role of experts and technical figures in societies and governments.

Keywords: pandemic, democracy, rights, authority, emergency management

Section 2 CHALLENGES TO LEGALITY

2.1 Algorithms between legality and participationazione

Chair: Benedetto Ponti – benedetto.ponti@unipg.it

Call. The datarization of elements of reality and the application of computation as a mechanism for profiling, mapping, analyzing, evaluating, selecting, and predicting/inferring constitute a challenge to the classical categories of legality. Insofar as legality is predetermination, the added (cognitive) value of machine learning – which consists in the ability to extract and expose unexpected, unforeseen, and therefore unanticipated knowledge – stands in ontological terms as a “gap” with the traditional way of aligning knowledge and legal regulation. Can traditionally-understood legality withstand this challenge? What do we risk “losing” (guarantee, democratic control, judicial review, etc.) in the crisis of legality caused by the advent of algorithmic knowledge/regulation? Can “participation” be an answer/an antidote to this challenge?

Keywords: Algorithms, big data, unexpected knowledge, legality, machine learning, privacy, freedom, democratic control

Section 3 SOCIAL TURBULENCE

3.1 Cleavages and divides: What is changing in parties and voters?

Chairs: Marco Damiani – marco.damiani@unipg.it; Giovanni Barbieri – giovanni.barbieri@unipg.it
Discussant: Silvia Bolgherini


Call. The panel will focus on territorial cleavage, understood in a broad sense as the division between different geographical contexts, between isolated areas and urbanized territories, and between real places and virtual spaces. In particular, it will focus on the link between some fundamental aspects of contemporary politics – political dissatisfaction, the emergence and success of new forms of political parties, the innovative use of digital technologies, the different forms of political participation, the emergence of new forms and types of leadership – and the territor(ies).


Keywords: cleavages, territory, participation, center/periphery, digital, parties

3.4 Populism, celebrity and new forms of participation

Chairs: Marco Mazzoni – marco.mazzoni@unipg.it; Rita Marchetti – rita.marchetti@unipg.it

Discussant: Donatella Campus  

Call.  The panel aims at investigating the relationship between celebrity, leadership, and populism capable of giving rise to new forms of participation (the phenomenon of political fandom). The panel will gather proposals from different disciplinary perspectives and with original methodological approaches.

Keywords: leadership, populism, celebrity, fandom, participation

Section 4 NEW INEQUALITIES

4.1 Migration processes and inequalities

Chair: Fiorella Giacalone – fiorella.giacalone@unipg.it; Luca Pieroni – luca.pieroni@unipg.it

Call. Social, religious, economic inequalities are the great challenges of European societies (West and East), in a pandemic phase that has not yet been overcome. It is evident how much the pandemic and the economic crisis have sharpened the differences between migrants and natives, between men and women, how the conflicts within the urban fabric have increased. There is a need for an interdisciplinary (anthropological, economic, social) discussion on the problems of integration of old and new citizens, on the increase of discrimination against asylum seekers and economic migrants, and on the difficulties of labor policies to respond effectively to changes.

Keywords: non-discrimination, migrants, labor policies

4.2 The other Europe: the Danubian-Balkan world between democratic crises and social inequalities in the 21st century

Chair: Dario Biocca – dario.biocca@unipg.it Francesco Randazzo – francesco.randazzo@unipg.it

Call. The legacy of a past marked by dictatorial policies in the Danubian-Balkan countries has greatly affected the relations of these societies with the democratic values of Western Europe and negatively affects the process of EU enlargement. These are slow processes that need not only time, but also personalities capable of supporting them with courage, as well as choices sometimes not in line with the mechanisms of political and social corruption – which have derived from the strengthening of the local underworld exploiting the weaknesses of the first freely elected parliamentary regimes.

Keywords: Eastern Europe, Danubian Europe, Balkan, democracy, European Union, modernization 

4.3 The Role of Morality in Social Judgment: Individual, Interpersonal, Organizational and Cultural Factors

Chair: Maria Giuseppina Pacilli – maria.pacilli@unipg.it

Call. Research in social psychology has shown the crucial role of moral evaluations in social judgment and the regulation of individual behavior, intra- and intergroup behavior. The interest of this panel is to promote a reflection on the relevance of morality in the daily life of individuals by focusing on individual and interpersonal aspects (e.g., formation and updating of others’ impressions), on the regulation of intragroup dynamics (e.g., denunciation of misconduct occurring in one’s organization) and on intergroup relations (e.g., processes of moralization, moral distance, and discrimination).

Keywords: morality, impression formation, group processes, intergroup processes, moralization, moral distance