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Call for Papers: Minorities, Nations and Cultural Diversity. The Challenge of Non-Territorial Autonomy
Conference venue: Belfast (UK)
Period: Nov. 9-10, 2012
Deadline for submitting abstracts: Sep. 21, 2012
Description of the Conference
This call for papers on "Minorities, Nations and Cultural Diversity. The Challenge of Non-Territorial Autonomy" has been announced by the European Centre for Minority Issues in Flensburg (Germany), the School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy at Queen’s University Belfast, and the Department of Central & Eastern European Studies, University of Glasgow. The call is aimed at selecting paper proposals on the issue of non-territorial autonomy for an international conference that will be held in Belfast on November 9-10, 2012.
Many nation states have consistent minorities residing within their territory. Modern democracies have been trying to organize their institutional framework in order to grant collective rights to majorities and minorities and ensure their participation to the collective public life, in order to minimize the risk of territorial secession.
Usually, nation states provide a certain degree of autonomy to minorities when they are concentrated in a specific region, where they often constitute the majority of the population. However, most minorities do not reside compactly, thus making it impossible to grant territorially-based autonomy.
In this case, policies of non-territorial autonomy are required, such as Consociationalism and National Cultural Autonomy, but also forms of representation that de-territorialises self-determination, juridical autonomy as with religious communities, or models of multiculturalism.
Eligible topics for the conference
Papers can address theoretical or empirical issues related to non-territorial autonomy, including case studies. A non exaustive list of topics include the following issues:
- Can NTA serve the goals of European integration? Can such models be incorporated into the EU minority protection framework?
- Does NTA help resolve protracted territorial conflicts? Examples include, but are not limited to Bosnia, Kurdistan or Israel/Palestine?
- What are the limits and/or possibilities of implementing NTA models in liberal democracies?
- Can NTA models rejuvenate multiculturalism?
- Can models of NTA enhance the integration of Diasporas?
- What are the opportunities for Indigenous self-determination within the NTA framework?
- Can models of NTA help the effective participation of minorities in post-colonial states? And, can NTA models help eliminate the cultural residues of colonialism?
Guidelines for submission
Applicants should submit a 300 word paper proposal at http://www.conferencepro.eu/nta by September 21, 2012. The organizers will award 8 to 10 travel and accomodation grants of 400 £ to early career researchers.
Organizer
- European Centre for Minority Issues
- School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy, Queen’s University Belfast
- Department of Central & Eastern European Studies, University of Glasgow
Information & contacts
e-mail: ntaconference@qub.ac.uk
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