Second Critical Studies Conference

"Spheres of Justice"

Conference Details

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Conference Statement

1. The Calcutta Research Group plans to hold each alternate year a conference on critical thinking. The First Critical Studies Conference was held on July 2005 in Kolkata on the theme, “What is Autonomy?” The first conference was for 2 days.  In all 18 papers were discussed and participants were from different parts of the country with five scholars from abroad (Nepal, Hong Kong, United States, Italy and France). One from St. Petersburg was refused visa by the Indian Embassy. The conference produced some exciting papers.  There is a proposal to bring out a publication on the basis of the demand that this be turned into a series on critical thinking. Paula Banerjee, Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury, and Samir Das are in charge of this publication. Details of the conference can be found on CRG website - http://mcrg.ac.in/CS.htm  

2. The second conference will be held on 20-22 September 2007. It will be held on the theme of justice. The provisional title of the Conference is “Spheres of Justice” or “Justice: The Other Faces”.  The philosopher Etienne Balibar will deliver a public lecture as a keynote address.  The public lecture will be held in Rotary Sadan Auditorium, Kolkata 

3. Though the theme of justice has occupied a high ground in philosophical discussions since the beginning of political philosophy, yet in terms of democracy and popular politics its exact meaning and implications have been nebulous, one of the reasons being the fact that justice in reality is a meeting ground of many ideas, situations, concepts, expectations, mechanisms, and practices. Many things intersect to form the context of social justice – ethical ideas of the people, laws, the evolving nature of claims, and the pattern of collective claim making politics, institutional issues relating to the delivery mechanisms of justice, ideas about rights and entitlements, ideas among the citizens about responsibility of the rulers towards them, plus many situations generating many conditions of justice. All these contribute in making the social context of justice, also the social form and social site of justice. Situations of marginality produce ideas of justice. Lack of access to means of representation / resources / means of survival such as education, health, etc. produces marginality. Similarly displacement creates marginal situations. Likewise minority status engenders marginal existence. Hereditary discriminations have the same effect. Gender has the same role. These marginal situations have one thing in common – they speak of power matrix. And they produce specific calls for justice. Different marginalities generate different expectations and forms of justice – thus gender justice, justice for the indigenous people, justice for those denied of dignity for long, justice in the form of certain socio-economic rights, justice for people starving to death or for people living below poverty line – all of which mean justice for those who cannot access the mechanisms for justice. Justice also means doing away with what is perceived as injustice, removing our blindness to injustice. The thing to note here is that while constitutions have provisions of justice in their articles and clauses, unlike in the case of rights justice does not have a compact formulation, even though justice is at times considered as one of the founding provisions. Given the significance of the notion of justice in various anti-colonial movements and in its associated ideas and thoughts, and the wide demand for justice from each of the underprivileged sections of the post-colonial societies today, and the recurring incidents of communities assuming the responsibility of delivering direct justice in the background of perceived delays and determining their own norms of justice, the proposed deliberation in the conference assumes significance. Apart from intellectual, theoretical, and literary exercises, other discursive and institutional exercises have been marked by popular thoughts and ideas. Various manifestos, leaflets, pamphlets, popular writings, sketches, songs, newspaper articles, speeches, films, theatres, etc. have been the other sites where ideas of justice at the popular level have been articulated. We have to further note that justice, particularly social justice is an arena only partly covered by law; rest is covered by social and political ideas and practices. Ethical ideas about honour, right, respect, autonomy, claim, share, revenge, and shame also play significant role in determining mores of justice. A sense of entitlements also has a role to play. Justice thus propels variety of forms – from social-economic rights, to forms of justiciability, forms of redistribution of wealth, the form of due process, subjective experiences of justice, and as distinct from these experiences the objective tests of justice. In this context one has to note the parts played by social movements and social mobilisations in determining the popular concepts of justice.  

4. There are several routes to approach the issue of justice – several ways of engagement. The philosophical path may tell us to go back to ancient philosophers whose theories of justice tell us of the correctness of social order and the virtue in maintaining it, or to the middle age theorists who combined religion, virtue, and justice in a comprehensive theory of ethics where justice had no special place, or to the modern day social theorists in whose works justice becomes a complex arithmetic and a strenuous human effort to maintain it in a world marked by hierarchies and illiberalism. A slightly historical twist to the philosophical path can be found in Michael Walzer’s Spheres of Justice (1983). One can also have a sociological route, which enables one to identify various social notions of justice, the “habitations of justice” we may say in the sense in which Bourdieu used the word “habitation”, and this enables us to see justice and its demand and procedures as a social phenomenon. The ethnographic method may help us to map these habitations, and help us to see what one can call the ethnographies of justice. There is a route grounded in ethical readings also. Finally, there is a historical route, which allows one who takes it to see in a historical glance what can be called the “regimes of justice” and a “regime of justice” which has in it several notions, institutions, discourses, and agencies of justice existing simultaneously but in a relation of power and subsidiarity. 

5. The Conference will be ready to discuss whatever critical thought and approach generate on the broad theme of justice in our minds. With the spirit of the approach, we may have in mind the following problematic to be addressed in the conference. The list is however only indicative and does not exhaust the possible themes and sub-themes. It is also not necessary that there will be a separate panel for deliberation on each of these issues. Participants and panel conveners can get idea of the issues likely to be critically discussed in the conference. 

6. Structure of the Conference: 

(a  1)It will be a 3 day conference.

(b  2)Public lecture and roundtables may be parts of the conference.

(c  3)Panels will be invited to the conference. For submitting suggestions for panels, panel conveners will have to submit short panel statements along with names of proposed panelists.

(d  4)Individual papers may also be proposed. Such a proposal can be submitted along with a provisional title and an abstract.

(    5)There is no provision for travel allowance, but full hospitality will be provided for a maximum period of 4 nights.

(f  6)Papers will be put on the website; discussions will be led by designated discussants.

(g 7)By 28 February 2007 suggestions about themes of papers and panels will have to reach CRG; by 15 March the first draft schedule will be prepared; by 15 May abstracts of the papers have to reach CRG; and by 1 August , 2007 final papers will have to reach CRG.  

7. The conference will be held in either the National Library seminar room or the Academy of Fine Arts seminar hall. Outstation guests will be lodged in Hotel Sojourn and Hotel Stadel in Salt Lake and in Hotel Akashdeep in Park Circus, Kolkata.  

8. The Second Critical Studies Conference will be preceded by discussions on the relevant themes at a smaller scale where other institutions can also participate. 

9. The Second Conference will have a special feature. Just after the conference there will be “A Two-Day Workshop with Etienne Balibar” on 24-25 September 2007. A select group of participants will be invited to join the workshop. On the first day Etienne Balibar will speak on his research interests, current research work, and his reflections on past work; and on the second day there will be question and answer session. In order to have an engaging workshop, CRG will the help of friends and well-wishers will hold a series of “Reading Balibar” sessions as preparatory to the workshop. Some of the participants may be asked to present papers on Balibar there for discussion. The organizers plan to record and publish the proceedings of the workshop. 

10. For any communication regarding the entire programme pl. write at sanam@mcrg.ac.in

Venue Details for the Second Critical Studies Conference