The First Global South International Studies Conference (November 29-30 & December 1, 2012)

Links to Information:
Paper Submissions
About Sciences Po
Menton
Registration
Travel Grants
Hotels
Chat
Conference Program

 New Companion Site

(http://fgsisc.com/)

Attention: 
Update (October 24): 
Message from Conference Chair Imad Mansour
I am very glad to deliver some excellent news: we are Streaming the Conference Live! Which means that the whole world would be able to watch you deliver the paper and send you questions; there is a dedicated team of Sciences Po – Menton students who will receive questions and transmit them to you. For now, please follow Conference developments on this website (http://fgsisc.com/) which is under construction. People can also follow us on Twitter.

Regarding the program, note that there are no simultaneous panels: all panels will be held in succession in a large, modern, and technology-equipped amphitheatre. This will maximize the benefits from your stay in that you will receive notes and feedback from everyone else present. This structure realizes our goal for the Conference to have an intimate setting conducive to sharing insights and ideas. As noted before, we will not provide printing options, so make sure to bring what you require with you. Also, prepare your presentation on a memory key.

Between panels are 15 minutes breaks where Sciences Po – Menton offers snacks in a spacious room with a large balcony overlooking the Mediterranean. Also, the lunch break is one hour; there are quite a few shops/eateries close by in town (ask us!). Please note that we cannot provide food refrigeration and heating.

If you want to benefit from the hotel deals we negotiated, contact the hotels directly (not through agents).

By next week, I will e-mail you with a final (edited) program, including more information about a dinner on Friday (I am finalizing a good deal), and other pertinent information.

Do not forget to send the papers – they will be available on the website later.

	Notice: Attention! (September 27)
	We now have a chat room where you can discuss logistics (for example, room sharing) and other matters pertaining to the GSCIS conference! The group is run by our Newsletter Editor Diana Cassells! Please go to the web address below for access.
Group address	Current web address: http://groups.google.com/group/GSCIS Current email address: GSCIS@googlegroups.com

_______________________________________________
Conference Program

International Studies
Association

Global South Caucus

First Global South
International Studies Conference

Menton – France
(November 29-30, and December 1 2012)

All events will take
place on the premises of the Sciences Po – Menton campus

Wednesday November 28

• Early
  registration – starts at 17:00
• Reception
  starts at 18:00

Thursday November 29

• Registration
  8:00
• Opening
  plenary 9:00 – 9:45
• Panels
  start at 10:00 – until 6:00

Friday November 30

• Panels
  start at 8:30 – until 18:00

Saturday December 1

• Panels
  start at 8:30 – until 18:00

______________________________________

Panels (for details, click on this link)

Panel 1: Post-Soviet Regions: Eurasian / Central Asian Similarities to the Global South 

Panel 2: Adapting Mainstream IR to the Global South

Panel 3: A Roundtable on Teaching Development Through Simulations in an Online Environment

Panel 4: Perspectives on the Role of Social Forces: Art, Culture, and Race

Panel 5: Regional Approaches to Methodology and Theory-building: Examples from Africa and Asia

Panel 6: Curricula, Scholarship, and Knowledge Production Experiences from Brazil, Sudan, and Iran

Panel 7: Global South Criticisms of, and Alternatives to, Mainstream IR

Panel 8: Inclusionary Governance and Democracy in Global Perspective

Panel 9: Unpacking the Constitutive Ideas in International Development

Panel 10: Researching the Global South: Opportunities, Promise, Challenges and Pitfalls

Panel 11: Security and Global South IR

Panel 12: Turkish Models for IR

Panel 13: Concerns for Social Justice

Panel 14: Security, State, and Regional Conflict in Africa

Panel 15: Comparative Assessments of South-South Development Initiatives

Panel 16: IR Theory and Economic Transformation

Panel 17: Comparative Analysis of Ideas and Scholarship in Global South States

Read or download details here (Pdf): Panels

_________________________________________________









Update September 25: Deadline Extended

Due to demand, we have pushed forward the date for receipt of proposals to October 1st. For those who have sent in proposals with our agreement or still want to, after September 9, here are the absolutely final deadlines:

October 1: last day for submitting proposals

October 10: all acceptances received

October 15: last day for registering or withdrawing

To All Participants

Please note that no refunds will be available after October 1st (for those who received acceptances by September 15th and must register by October 1st) or October 15 (for those permitted to make proposals after the original deadline). This is in keeping with ISA practices. 

Please also note that by registering, you assume the responsibility to attend barring any extraordinary occurrences. In that regard, please note that ISA practices regarding non-attendance apply to this conference as well. Please check the ISA conference website for details.

We look forward to seeing you and sharing experiences!

__________________________________________



Travel Grants
Update September 24

Depending on our budget, we may be able to subsidize selected costs for some who are registered and
participating actively in the conference. Interested parties must follow guidelines noted
on the ISA travel grant website
with respect to keeping track of expenses (in other words, save your receipts for presentation at the conference; any reimbursement will be made then.) However, our procedures beyond that differ. Please send an email to imad.mansour@sciences-po.org, cc'd to our treasurer Seifudein Adem, adems@binghamton.edu, with the following information:

.

1. Paper Title as originally sent to the organizers;

2. Brief bio (no more than a few lines please);

3) A brief statement indicating what, if any, funding you expect to receive from your institution as well as any particular reasons why you feel that you need supplementary funding. 

Funding criteria will include relevance of topic and geographical diversity, as well as need.

Your email should be sent by October 15th. Decisions will be communicated by November1st.  Please note that
our budget is very limited. ISA HQ does not subsidize local conferences so we need to find money in the caucus budget. Thus any assistance will be modest.
See ISA’s travel grant website for details about "tracking expenses."

___________________

Update August 28

GSCIS Menton Conference: UPDATE: Hotels etc.

Dear All:

Thank you to all who have sent in proposals for the Menton conference.
We will be in touch regarding acceptances soon. And for those who are
still thinking about it, do hurry up and send your proposals in.
This promises to be an exciting conference -- the small size alone will
allow us to get to know one another in a way that we cannot do at ISA
or APSA!

Please note the following:

Hotels, transport, and eating impose important budgetary constraints on conference attendance. Below, we
provide a brief and tentative set of recommendations on these three factors.

Hotels:

For a general overview of hotels, visit the official tourism site:

http://www.hotelmenton.fr/hotel-menton/

For some examples of hotel rates less than 50 Euros:

http://www.hotelmenton.fr/hotel-menton/+-moins-de-50-euros-+.html

The visitor can choose any price range and classification (from four stars to no classification). Keep in mind
that tourism is the main source of income for the town, so there are strong incentives to adhere to regulations. Bargains for better rates would come soon, after we have a more solid idea of numbers.

Attention! New!

The prices we negotiated for you are applicable when you book with the hotel directly NOT through special travel agents or other means. Offers are valid for bookings made ​​online, via phone or e-mail with the hotel - not via other merchant sites. The hotels are not responsible for managing and finalizing the transactions of other businesses.
 
Transport:

Trains and buses are frequent and generally not expensive. Actually, a whole section of the Riviera
is connected with an impressive network of public transport.

In-town bus rides are mostly for one Euro, and the same goes for intra-regional buses. For example, you can get from Menton to Nice, or any of the stops in between including Monte Carlo, for one euro (on the bus number 100).

Good deals can also be found for trains across the Riviera, as well as routes connecting it to further distances, say from Paris to Nice.

Food:

There are at least three large supermarkets (chains) with several branches across Menton, and many smaller
convenience stores. These amenities can help keep the budget – and health concerns – in check.

Also, it goes without saying that restaurants and sandwich places are plentiful.

______________________________________

The First Global South International Studies Conference

(November 29-30 & December 1, 2012)

Co-sponsored by the International Studies
Association’s Global South Caucus and the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris
(Sciences Po) – Campus Moyen-Orient Méditerranée à Menton

Sharing Insights and Ideas:

Theorizing, Teaching, Research, and
Publishing on the Global South

GSCIS Conference Update

Preparations for the Menton conference are proceeding apace. We are very pleased with the quality of proposals as well as the geographical diversity of the presenters. Please make sure to check the website (http://gscis.blogspot.com/2012/06/normal-0-microsoftinternetexplorer4.html) for updates regarding travel grants and hotels as well as the preliminary program. We look forward to seeing you in Menton!
jbw

GSCIS Menton Conference: UPDATE

Dear All:
Thank you to all who have sent in proposals for the Menton conference. We will be in touch regarding acceptances soon. And for those who are still thinking about it, do hurry up and send your proposals in. This promises to be an exciting conference -- the small size alone will allow us to get to know one another in a way that we cannot do at ISA or APSA!

Please note the following:

Hotels, transport, and eating impose important budgetary constraints on conference attendance. Below, we provide a brief and tentative set of recommendations on these three factors.

Hotels:

For a general overview of hotels, visit the official tourism site:

http://www.hotelmenton.fr/hotel-menton/

For some examples of hotel rates less than 50 Euros:

http://www.hotelmenton.fr/hotel-menton/+-moins-de-50-euros-+.html

The visitor can choose any price range and classification (from four stars to no classification). Keep in mind that tourism is the main source of income for the town, so there are strong incentives to adhere to regulations. Bargains for better rates would come soon, after we have a more solid idea of numbers.

Transport:

Trains and buses are frequent and generally not expensive. Actually, a whole section of the Riviera is connected with an impressive network of public transport.

In-town bus rides are mostly for one Euro, and the same goes for intra-regional busses. For example, you can get from Menton to Nice, or any of the stops in between including Monte Carlo, for one euro (on the bus number 100).

Good deals can also be found for trains across the Riviera, as well as routes connecting it to further distances, say from Paris to Nice.

Food:

There are at least three large supermarkets (chains) with several branches across Menton, and many smaller convenience stores. These amenities can help keep the budget – and health concerns – in check.

Also, it goes without saying that restaurants and sandwich places are plentiful.

Two Election Results

bDear Colleagues:

Members voted on two matters recently and here are the results:

1) Dr. Zakia Afrin has been elected for a two-year term to the Executive Council.
 2) Dr. Jomo Sundaram has been handily voted as the choice for our 2013 Distinguished Scholar honoree.

Thank you to all participants.

Best,
jbw

Of interest: WAPI- A West African Training Program

CALL FOR APPLICATION - THE WEST AFRICA PEACEBUILDING INSTITUTE (WAPI) 2012

The West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) in partnership with the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) would like to announce the start of admissions to the West Africa Peacebuilding Institute (WAPI) 2012.

This year’s Institute will be held from 03^rd to 21^st September, 2012 at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Accra, Ghana.

WAPI is a three-week intensive training program that aims to strengthen the capacity of civil society-based peacebuilding practitioners and institutions in order to promote the development of indigenous responses to conflict.

Six courses will be offered during the three-week period, each week having two 5-day intensive courses running concurrently. The courses are highly interactive and participatory, blending theory and practice in the field of peacebuilding.

Admission to WAPI is open to practitioners, students, policy makers and civil society members, business community and individuals interested in peacebuilding, processes of dialogue and mediation, conflict and development, cross-border crimes, electoral disputes management, youth and peace education, conflict prevention and gender, natural resource conflict management.

Please find details in both English and French on the courses and fees and application forms (English and French) attached. Send the completed application form to:

wapi@wanep.org and facquah@wanep.org

Deadline for submission of application document is 20^th August, 2012.

Please circulate this information to colleagues and institutions that may be interested.

You could also visit our website for further details or regular update on the training: www.wanep.org 

……………………………………………………………………………………………… 

WANEP is a West Africa Civil Society Organization with over 400 Member- organizations working in Partnership with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and has Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). WANEP is also a Member of the Peace and Security cluster of the African Union’s (AU) Economic and Social Council –ECOSOC.

WANEP : Building Relationships for Peace

Deconstructing Mazruiana: 25 interesting, updated concepts and ideas for us to think about

First presented at the 1999 meeting of International Studies Association, Washington, DC, February 18–19, 1999. Global Development Panel in Honor of Distinguished Senior Scholar.

DECONSTRUCTING MAZRUIANA:

SOME STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS OF
ALI A. MAZRUI’S THOUGHT

by

Ali A. Mazrui

Director, Institute of Global Cultural Studies

and

Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities

Binghamton University

State University of New York at Binghamton, New York, USA

Albert Luthuli Professor-at-Large

University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria

Ibn Khaldun Professor-at-Large

School of Islamic and Social Sciences, Leesburg, Virginia, USA

Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large Emeritus

and Senior Scholar in Africana Studies

Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA

Walter Rodney Professor

University of Guyana, Georgetown, Guyana

These 25 structural elements of Ali Mazrui’s thought were chosen by the author himself as a basis of discussion.  The thoughts are compiled from his different works and drawn from different stages of his career.  Element No. 1 on “Social Darwinism and Theories of Modernization” is summarized from his article in World Politics (Princeton) Vol.21  No. 1, 1968.  The final Element (No. 25) on “Judging Civilizations” is summarized from his article in Foreign Affairs (New York) Volume 76 No. 5, September - October 1997.  This deconstruction has a long appendix - Mazrui’s Essay “THE MUSE OF MODERNITY AND THE QUEST FOR DEVELOPMENT”.

1.                  From Darwinism to Modernization Theories:

Western theories of modernization have often been based on Eurocentric models whose ancestry goes back to social Darwinism and beyond.  Non-Western societies are seen as simpler organisms slowly evolving towards the complex sophistication of Western civilization.  At best modernization becomes Westernization.

2.                  Yes to Modernization; No to its Theories:

We need not throw out the baby of modernization with the bath water of its Western theories.  Let us look anew at the baby.  Modernization as a process needs a fresh examination.

3.                  What is Development?:

Development equals modernization minus dependency.

4.                  What is Modernization?:

Modernization is change which is compatible with the present stage of human knowledge, and helps to release the creative energies of the people in socially responsible ways.

5.                  What is dependency?:

Dependency is surplus need or deficit control.  Country B is dependent on country A if country B needs A more than A needs B; or if B has less control over their relationship than A has.

6.                  Towards Transcending Dependency:

Dependency in a less developed country can be transcended through five strategies - indigenization, domestication, diversification, horizontal integration and vertical counter-penetration. (See Mazrui’s paper “The Muse of Modernity”)

7.                  The International Class System:

International stratification is based not on who owns what but on who knows what.  The power of Western skills controls the diamond mines of South Africa and the oil wells of Saudi Arabia.  Israelis own less than the Arabs, but Israelis are more skilled.

8.                  Power and the Means of Destruction:

In a technologically underdeveloped country power resides among those who control the means of destruction rather than those who control the means of production.  Soldiers in Africa have often been much more powerful than business tycoons.

9.                  Ethnicity vs. Class:

In a technologically less developed society, the forces of biological reproduction are more politicized than the forces of economic production.  That is why kinship ties and ethnic forces are more powerful in Africa than class affiliations.

10.              The Primacy of Culture:

Marx was right that “man had to eat in order to live” (the origins of economics).  But man had to know what to eat and what to avoid (the origins of culture).  So culture is prior to economics.  In the beginning was the Word , and the word was culture.

11.              Paradigm Lost?:

In development studies culture has often been a paradigm lost.  Are we now witnessing paradigm regained?

12.              Seven Functions of Culture:

There are seven functions of culture in society.  Culture as lenses of perception, as a source of motivation , as a standard of judgment, as a criterion of stratification , as a basis of identity, as a means of communication, and as a framework of consumption and production.

13.              Women: Between Centering, Liberating and Empowering:

Women in Africa are more centered in the means of production than women in the West, but women in Africa are less liberated than Western women.  Women in both cultures have yet to be adequately empowered.

14.              Women: Between Rights and Roles:

Traditionally, African women have been custodians of fire, water and earth - while God has taken charge of the omnipresent air.  The Westernization of an African woman has often meant more rights but a less central role in society.

15.              Women in Islam and the West:

Islam grants greater dignity but less liberty to women than Western culture does.  Sons in the Muslim world respect their mothers more than sons do in the West; but husbands in the West are more respectful (though not necessarily more faithful) to their wives than are husbands in the Muslim world.

16.              Between Genius and Gender:

Two developmental revolutions are needed in the Third world - a revolution in skills and a revolution in gender.  The talents of the people need to be unleashed; and the powers of women need to be unbound.

17.              Development: Political, Economic and Social:

The central aim of political development should be the evolution of humane governance and democratic participation.  The central concern of economic development should be the improvement and consolidation of productive capacity and distributive economic justice.  The central aim of social development should be the release of the creative energies of each citizen, male and female, through education, socialization and opportunities for self-fulfillment.  Social development should also foster the three C’s: Community, Compassion and Cooperation in a global context. 

18.              Towards De-Leninizing Marxism:

What has failed in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe is not Marxism but Leninism.  What has failed is the vanguard party, democratic centralism and unmitigated statism.  If Marxism is to survive in the twenty-first century, it must learn to de-Leninize itself.

19.              What is globalization?:

The term “globalization” is new but the process itself is centuries old.  Globalization is much more than the Information Superhighway and the new expansion of international markets.  Globalization consists of all the forces which are pushing the world towards becoming a global village.  Globalization is the villagization of the globe.

20.              What is an intellectual?:

An intellectual is a person who has the capacity to be fascinated by ideas and who has acquired the skill to handle some of those ideas effectively.

21.              Who are the revolutionaries?:

The masses sometimes have the power to pull down the temple of the old order, as the mobs of Paris in 1789 and the mobs of Teheran in 1979 did.  But it is the intellectuals (secular or religious) who attempt to create an alternative order and design a new temple.  Robespierre, Lenin and Khoumeini were all intellectuals.

22.              Monotheism vs. Democracy?:

Why has pluralist democracy survived better in India than in either Pakistan or Bangladesh?  Could one of the reasons be that the concept of God in Hinduism is pluralistic while the concept of God in Muslim Pakistan and Bangladesh is not?  Did a pluralistic God in Christianity (Three in One, One in Three) make it easier for Western culture to evolve a liberal democratic system?  Does strict monotheism lean towards political absolutism?

23.              Between Nostalgia and Hate-Retention:

Societies differ in capacities for nostalgia, as well as in retention of bad memories.  Jewish nostalgia gave birth to Zionism.  The Armenian long memory of the 1915 massacres has generated assassinations of Turkish diplomats decades later.  African culture is distinctive in having a short memory of hate.  Political amnesia is often a valuable developmental resource.

24.              Between the Dual and the Plural Society:

Most social scientists have tended to lump dual societies with plural societies.  A dual society (where two groups account for more than eighty percent of the population) is vulnerable to polarization and stalemate.  Dual Cyprus is in a stalemate, dual Czechoslovakia broke up, dual Northern Ireland is trying to find its way out of violence, and dual Rwanda is trying to recover from the ravages of genocide.

25.              How are civilizations to be judged?:

Civilizations are to be judged not merely by the heights of achievement to which they have ascended but also by the depths of depravity to which they have sometimes descended.  Muslims are often criticized for not producing the best, but they are seldom congratulated for having standards of behaviour which have averted the worst.  There are no Muslim equivalents of systematic Nazi extermination camps, nor Muslim conquests by genocide in the bloody tradition of whites in the Americas, nor Muslim versions of South Africa’s apartheid sanctioned by the Dutch Reformed Church, nor Muslim versions of the Stalinist terror in the name of Five Year plans.  Nor can Islam be blamed for the only World Wars in human history - those started in Europe.

M

Four Items

First, a reminder that the deadline for submission of proposals for the First Global South IS Conference, to be held in Menton, France in November-December, is fast approaching: September 1st, 2012 (at the latest). Please send proposals and questions to the conference chair,  imad.mansour@sciences-po.org. Additional information about the meeting is available at  http://gscis.blogspot.com/2012/06/normal-0-microsoftinternetexplorer4.html.

Second, the Summer 2012 newsletter is out and can be accessed at http://www.isanet.org/global_south_caucus/2011/04/global-south-newsletter.html. Special feature: Informative synopses of Virtual panel and roundtable presentations at San Diego!

Third, the generic website has been completely updated. If anyone finds any glitches/bad links, please be sure to email me.

Finally, the deadline for the selection of the 2013  Distinguished Scholar nominee is tomorrow, 15th at midnight (members only vote). The choice will be put up on the blog on the 16th.

Thank you and hope your summer is going along well.
jbw