Pluralism: Addressing the Challenges of the Modern Nation-State / The Pluralism, Inclusion and Citizenship Project

Pluralism: Addressing the Challenges of the Modern Nation-State The Pluralism, Inclusion and Citizenship Project Saturday 2nd May - Monday 4th May 2015 Dubrovnik, Croatia Call for Presentations: Pluralism is both a challenge as well as a goal of communities in the contemporary modern Nation-States. Communities are grappling with issues like ISIS, the near-independence of Scotland, ongoing viability of the EU, Russia vs. Ukraine vs. international community and asylum-seekers policy, just to name a few. At the same time, there is increased diversification of population with large-scale migrations, and diversity of populations in modern Nation-States is celebrated. Modern communities are grappling with a number of core issues. They include: - dealing with curtailment of individual freedoms amid fears of attack; - striking a balance between 'secrecy', police and state surveillance, individual privacy, post wiki-leaks in a strong cyber-link scenario; - planning cities and spaces and addressing ghettoization of urban communities in quarters where tourists visit (such as tourists visiting 'Arab quarter' in Paris, the 'Jewish quarter' in London; and - evaluating the impact and influence of ethnic groups on local economies, shop traders, etc. Pluralism in the contemporary Nation-State scenario is increasingly coming under scrutiny. The Nation-State requires new modes of thought and analysis, as global trends in population, capital flows, cultural exchanges, cyber links and the like enmesh with post-national forces, challenging the stability of the Nation-State and its permanence as the basic socio-political construct. Pluralism as the contextual framework for rational thinking has allowed for and created a vision that there are pluralities of diverse facts and passage of time amongst other things, for the consolidation of these processes that permeates throughout the diaspora. This vision, though, can sometimes easily allow for, instances of pure speculations. Facts are influenced strongly by contexts. As context brings real knowledge to existing data, the objectivity of the data is questioned by some. The Pluralism Project, thus far, has embodied the ontology of knowledge creation from all groupings acknowledging that there is subjectivity in creating objectivity. The focus of the project has been to create a platform for an international, interdisciplinary exchange of ideas to explore awareness of the responses to such paradigmatic and institutional policies and processes in advancing counter positions that translate into pluralism. The project has moved its focus to the realities of paradigm consolidation in general and the imbalances of power in reality. The 10th Global Conference on Pluralism will build on the previous conferences. 'Pluralism: Addressing the challenges of the modern Nation-State' summarizes the way the project has developed over previous years and they have acknowledged that facts are usually contested and contexts are value loaded. Keeping with these observations, this year's event will mainly focus on finding new and hitherto established ways to examine: -The impact of transnationalism and post-nationalism on pluralism and conversely, its impact upon transnationalism and post-nationalism -Mapping the development of the nation-state and its effect on pluralism -Assessing the relationship between pluralism and national identity -Exploring modes of development of pluralism in civil society -The role of digital media as platform where issues of pluralism, dual citizenship, and transnational movements are debated and sustained -The ontology of the nation-state; the ontology of modernity: are they compatible with pluralism? -Agency in the pluralism process: is it a requirement for citizenship? -The post-secular and pluralism -Corporate interventions on pluralism and inclusion -Demographic shifts and new pluralisms -Beyond the nation-state: the future of pluralism -The impact of Cultural Pluralism on human development and the mobility transition: brain drain, brain gain, and brain circulation -Relationship between liberalism and pluralism -Pluralism, identity and violence -Religious identity and pluralism -Difference, Recognition and pluralism -The idea of clash of civilizations as a paradigm to "understand" the modern world predicament -Model of universal dignity and pluralism The Steering Group welcomes the submission of proposals for short workshops, practitioner-based activities, best practice showcases, how-to sessions, live demonstrations, performances, and pre-formed panels. We particularly welcome short film screenings; photographic essays; installations; interactive talks and alternative presentation styles that encourage engagement. What to Send: 300 word proposals should be submitted by Friday 23rd January 2015. All submissions are at least double blind peer reviewed. Proposals should be submitted simultaneously to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word or RTF formats with the following information and in this order: a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract E-mails should be titled: Pluralism 10 Proposal Submission Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend. Joint Organising Chairs: Ram Vemuri and Rob Fisher: pic10@inter-disciplinary.net The conference is part of the 'Diversity and Recognition' research projects, which in turn belong to the 'At the Interface' programmes of Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference must be in English and will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s). All publications from the conference will require editors, to be chosen from interested delegates from the conference. Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation. For further details of the conference, please visit: http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/diversity-recognition/pluralism-inclusion-and-citizenship/call-for-papers/ Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.