Call for Papers - Fringe Politics in Southeastern Europe: Drivers of Change?

Conference venue: Zagreb, Croatia
Period: September 12-13, 2014
Deadline for submitting abstracts: March 21, 2014
Deadline for submitting full papers: August 31, 2014

The politics of protest and dissent have become a more  visible part of state‐society relations in Southeastern Europe (SEE), especially in the wake of the global economic crisis.
To date, existing social science research largely ignores domestic political agency, particularly outside institutionalised state and non‐state arenas. First and foremost, fringe political  movements in SEE, when challenging the status quo, are often equated with‘radicalism’ or ‘extremism’, and thus,  a threat that the state should address or oppose. This tacitly legitimises the state and forecloses the possibility of the beneficial impacts of certain types of movements, either discursively or in practice, on the political system. Recent protests that have addressed corrupt practices in relation to the erosion of trust in public officials may be a case in point (e.g. the protests in Bosnia starting in February 2014). Moreover, when researchers do focus on these arenas of protests in SEE, they often do so within thematically - and territorially ‐ constrained paradigms, limiting the opportunity to investigate the sites of co-operation and conflict among and between  different  movements, and more  importantly, the interaction between these fringe activities and state institutions. Research on fringe politics also often overlooks possible translocal, transnational and even global linkages amongst these movements. There has been too little exploration of how different degrees and trajectories of European integration impel or impede different political opportunities.

To address these  lacunae in the current research, this two-day workshop will explore and re-examine supposedly ‘anti-‘ or ‘post-political’ movements by focusing on those forms of fringe politics that can be considered as drivers of change.

Our aim is to bring together several strands of politics ‘at the margins’ in SEE that have been largely overlooked by researchers examining the region, including, but not limited to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) activism; anti-austerity and anti-corruption protests; and protests for the right to public spaces.

The workshop welcomes papers that study drivers of ‘fringe politics’, protests, and movements (especially contributions with a transnational and regional focus) in one or more of the following aspects:

This workshop will be organised by the UACES Collaborative Research Network ‘Fringe Politics in Southeast Europe’ and will be co-hosted by Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb and The Institute of Economics (Zagreb, Croatia).

To propose a paper, please send an abstract (500 words) and a biographical note (200 words) to k.slootmaeckers@qmul.ac.uk by 21/03/2014.
Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 10/4/2014. Those presenting papers will be expected to submit a full draft to the workshop organisers no later than 31/08/2014.
There is a limited budget for accommodation for individuals based in SEE who will be presenting papers.

UACES Collaborative Research Network ‘Fringe Politics in Southeast Europe’
e-mail: k.slootmaeckers@qmul.ac.uk