Category Archives: CFPs & events

CFP: space, borders, conflict and insecurity in West Africa.

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CALL FOR PAPERS

 

West Africa Peace and Security Network (WAPSN) Symposium 2018, Bamako, late April/early May 2018 (exact date tbc)

 

This call for contributions to the WAPSN symposium 2018 invites proposals on the topic of space, borders, conflict and insecurity in West Africa.

 

In West Africa, conflict and insecurity are constantly depicted as transnational or spilling over borders. Terrorism is said to destabilise countries throughout the Sahel region; maritime insecurity is presented as spilling over into all Gulf of Guinea coastal countries; and West Africa appears to be at the centre of a network of organised criminality that has extended its tentacles from South America to Europe.

 

Space and borders in West Africa are at the core of our analyses of the causes of conflict and insecurity. For example, porous borders and traditional trading routes that cut across state borders are often incriminated in assessments of insecurity in the region. Space and borders are also central to the policies that are elaborated to deal with conflict and security issues. Indeed, the West African bodies used to mediate or to implement security policies are increasingly chosen according to their geographical scope. At the same time, the ways in which policy-makers and academics link insecurity, space and borders also have an impact on the organisation of West Africa as a political space. For instance, prioritising the G5 as the most appropriate body to deal with terrorism in the Sahel can have an impact on the legitimacy of ECOWAS as a regional security actor.

 

The WAPSN symposium 2018 welcomes contributions engaging with these issues and providing theoretical and empirical material, as well as methodological reflections on:

 

Conflict, insecurity and borders: In which ways are conflicts and insecurity spilling across borders in West Africa? What are the latest developments? How are the narratives on the transnational dimension of insecurity produced and with what effects?

 

West African policies, borders and space: What are the appropriate geographical levels to deal with transnational security issues in West Africa? Is there overlapping and/or competitions between various West African institutions and bodies? In which ways should geographies of insecurity determine policies?

 

International interventions, borders and space: As French Operation Barkhane has developed a regional dimension, will this be a common feature of international interventions in West Africa? What are the effects of this new feature of interventions on the management of insecurity, sovereignty, access to international resources, or on the inclusion and marginalisation of actors?

 

The construction of regional space and security practices: How are security practices in West Africa (re)defining the West African political space? Are new ‘security regions’ appearing such as the Sahel and the Gulf of Guinea? What are the consequences on ‘West Africa’?

 

Abstracts and enquiries may be directed towards Dr Elisa Lopez (elisa.lopez.lucia@ulb.ac.be) and Dr Kalilou Sidibé (sidibekalilou@hotmail.com) before 8 January 2018.

 

BEYOND THE POST(-)COLONIAL? / AU-DELA DU POST(-)COLONIAL?

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Workshop, Tuesday 12 September 2017, 11.00-18.00, Park Building 2.16

School of Languages and Area Studies, University of Portsmouth. All welcome. Enquiries: ed.naylor@port.ac.uk

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SPEAKERS & PLANNING

 11.00   Coffee and registration

11.15   Welcome (Tony Chafer)

11.30-13.00     Panel 1: The remaking of France? New histories of decolonisation

Chair: Ed Naylor / Speakers: Fabienne Chamelot (Portsmouth), Sharif Gemie (South Wales), Andrew Smith (Chichester), Natalya Vince (Portsmouth)

13-14.00          Lunch (buffet)

14-15.30          Panel 2: Theorising postcoloniality in cultural and literary studies

Chair: Margaret Majumdar / Speakers: Walid Benkhaled (Portsmouth), Charles Bonn (Lyon II), Azzedine Haddour (UCL), Debra Kelly (Westminster)

15.30-16.00     Pause (coffee)

16-17.30    Panel 3:  The postcolonial beyond academia

Chair: TBC/ Speakers: Jodi Burkett (Portsmouth), Itay Lotem (Westminster), Mohammed Saad (UWE)

17.30   Closing remarks (Margaret Majumdar/ Ed Naylor)

All welcome. Convenors: Margaret Majumdar and Ed Naylor. For all enquiries: ed.naylor@port.ac.uk

Generously supported by the Centre for European and International Studies Research of the University of Portsmouth and the Leverhulme Trust.

Beyond the post(-)colonial?

More than fifty years have passed since decolonisation was achieved in most of the former colonies of the European colonial powers. During that time, a substantial body of critical work has been produced under the rubric of ‘postcolonial theory’, which has in turn been the subject of extensive debate and critique. The reception and influence of this postcolonial ‘turn’ has also varied widely between academic disciplines and between countries, with France often viewed as an outlier in comparison to developments in the United States and Britain. The current conjuncture of political and social upheaval seems an appropriate moment to take stock and to ask a series of questions. Does the postcolonial framework of analysis still provide a useful set of concepts for the understanding of the modern world? Or have the flaws in this theoretical corpus now definitively outweighed the insights it facilitated? Has history now moved on in different directions requiring radically new interpretative approaches (e.g. global, decolonial)? How will European colonial imperialism and its demise be viewed in a longer historical perspective? How do these questions impinge on the understanding, not just of the European past in its relations with the rest of the world, but also of potential future(s) for Europe?

Au-delà du post(-)colonial?

Plus d’un demi-siècle a passé depuis la décolonisation de la plupart des territoires colonisés par des puissances européennes. Cette période a été marquée par la création et la publication d’un corpus important qu’on a pu catégoriser sous le nom de la ‘théorie postcoloniale’, un corpus qui a été l’objet de nombreux débats et critiques par la suite. De même, la réception et l’influence du phénomène ‘postcolonial’ n’ont pas été les mêmes selon les disciplines scientifiques ou les contextes nationaux, et à cet égard la France est souvent décrit comme un cas à part en décalage par rapport aux Etats-Unis et au Royaume Uni. La conjoncture actuelle, avec ses sursauts sociaux et politiques, nous semble le moment de tenter un bilan et de poser un certain nombre de questions. Cet appareil théorique peut-il toujours fournir des concepts et des outils qui restent valables pour ceux qui veulent comprendre le monde actuel ? Le bilan de ces innovations théoriques reste-t-il plutôt positif ? Ou les faiblesses de cette théorie se sont-elles avérées plus importantes que les découvertes qu’elle aurait facilitées ? L’histoire elle-même a-t-elle évolué dans des sens différents, exigeant des approches interprétatives radicalement différentes (par exemple, histoire globale ou décoloniale) ? Comment penser aujourd’hui la colonisation européenne et sa fin, dans une perspective historique plus longue ? Quels sont les enjeux de ces débats, non seulement pour une nouvelle analyse des rapports historiques de l’Europe avec le monde plus large, mais aussi pour des perspectives ouvrant sur l’avenir, ou les avenirs, de l’Europe ?