The world is living through an important moment where a multiple crisis (a "polycrisis") takes the form of plural and simultaneous global threats: the rise of aggressive militaristic states and the right-wing populist parties, catastrophic consequences of climate change, and the increasing vulnerability to fatal pandemics. The conference aims to examine the potential of new beginnings arising from the polycrisis. The discussion will take place at the intersection of political theory, philosophy of nature, and policy analysis. It will turn around the concept of the formative powers, particularly in two main areas: political constitutionalism (the constituent power) and the natural energies (natura naturans).
In the area of political constitutionalism the conference will explore the themes of constituent power, the challenges to the traditional approaches to constitutionalism and constitutions, and the visions for the constitution of democratic polities in the new circumstances and beyond the usual standards. These new visions will have to address the crisis in its global and domestic implications. In the field of nature politics, the conference will address the nexus between nature and technology, alternatives to extractivism, and the environmental ontologies, while also reflecting on the perspectives of global climate governance in the current situation of polycrisis.
The conference is organized in partnership with the Center for Comparative Research on Democracy (CCRD) at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Bard College Berlin.
9:00 Welcome coffee
9:30 Opening remarks. Constituent nature, constituent masses, and the reconstituent intellectuals
Artemy Magun, Ilya Kalinin, Oxana Timofeeva, Angelina Davydova
10:00-11:20 Panel I. Philosophy of Constituent Power
Moderator: Ilya Kalinin
Michael Marder (University of Basque Country)
Being Neophyte
Artemy Magun (IGRec)
Towards Transcendental Federalism: Constitutionalism and Dialectics of Law
11:20-11:40 Coffee break
11:40-13:30 Panel II. Constituent Power: History and Contemporary Relevance
Moderator: Artemy Magun
David Dyzenhaus (University of Toronto)
Hobbes as a Theorist of Constituent Authority (not Power)
Peter Niesen (University of Hamburg)
Is It Time to Revitalise the Theory of Constituent Power?
Andreas Kalyvas (New School of Social Research)
Constituent Power in Karl Marx: Revolution and Dictatorship
13:30-14:30 Lunch
14:30-16:00 Panel III. Finite Nature(s)
Moderator: Angelina Davydova
Oxana Timofeeva (IGRec)
Psychopolitics of Nature
Ian James (Cambridge University)
Sharing Finitude: On the Biosphere, the Semiosphere, and Bio-community
16:00-17:20 Panel IV. War and Peace
Moderator: Ertuğ Tombuş
Gregor Moder (University of Ljubljana)
On Perpetual Peace and Occasional Wars: Kant, Hegel and the World History
Maria Kochkina (independent researcher)
Military Animals: A Plea for the International Non-Humanitarian Law
17:20-17:40 Coffee break
17:40-19:30 Panel V. Democratic Power in Crisis
Moderator: Silvia von Steinsdorff
Regina Kreide (University of Giessen)
Housing and Property Relations in a World of Polycrisis
Robin Celikates (Humboldt University)
Migration and/as Constituent Power
Roberto Nigro (Leuphana University)
tba
Ertug Tombus (Humboldt University)
tba
October 11, Friday
9:30-10:00 Welcome coffee
10:00-12:00 Panel I. Politics of Environmental Transformation
Moderator: Oxana Timofeeva
Angelina Davydova (IGRec)
Where and Why Global Climate Governance Fails. What Can Be Done? Reflections Following the COP29
Swaralipi Nandi (Loyola Academy)
Strategic Technologism: De-rhetorising Solar Futures from Right-wing Populism in India
Felix Jaitner (independent researcher)
A New Chapter of Extractivism? Environmental and Climate Governance in Russia in Times of Poly-crises
12:00-12:20 Coffee break
12:20-13:40 Panel II. Extractivist Culture(s)
Moderator: Angelina Davydova
Alexander Etkind (CEU)
Ideology and Utopia of the Anthropocene
Ilya Kalinin (IGRec)
Soviet Oil and Russian Cosmism: Techno-Conservative Formation
13:40-14:40 Lunch
14:40-16:00 Panel III. The Limits of Liberalism
Moderator: Dmitrii Lebedev
Peter Safronov (University of Amsterdam)
Another Law: On Non-Liberal Constitutionalism
Ewa Atanassow (Bard College Berlin)
Liberal Constitutionalism on Trial
16:00-16:20 Coffee break
16:20-17:40 Panel IV. Constituent Power: History and Contemporary Relevance
Moderator: Danila Raskov
Jan Smolensky (New School of Social Research)
Beyond Ulysses: Revisiting the Idea of Self-Binding in Constitutional Theory
Olga Bashkina (KU Leuven)
Against the Divide: Bridging Liberal, Democratic and Republican Constituent Power
17:40-19:00 Panel V. Democracy and Constitutional Processes in Eastern Europe
Moderator: Artemy Magun
Keti Chukhrov (Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design)
Comparative Political Economy of Autocracy and Democracy in Post-Socialist Conditions
Bara Kolenc (University of Ljubljana)
Yugoslavia 1945 - 1991: A Social Experiment in Four Constitutions
19:00-19:15 Closing remarks
Date: 10-11 October
Language: English
Venue: Hörsaal 3075, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Hauptgebäude, 2. Obergeschoss
Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin
For participation in the conference please register on this webpage above.
