CfP Global Justice: Radical Perspectives (MANCEPT Panel 8-10 September 2014)

Global Justice: Radical Perspectives

This is a call for proposals for a workshop that has been accepted as part of the annual Manchester Centre for Political Theory (MANCEPT) conference from 8-10 September 2014, at the University of Manchester.

The Global Justice debate, framed around the scope of justice, is largely abstract, adopts the methodology of ideal theory, and endorses a liberal perspective, i.e. liberal cosmopolitanism, statist liberalism, and liberal nationalism.  Is this the best way to theorise about Global Justice?  In this session we question whether the dominant liberal paradigm of Global Justice can do justice to the issues that we face at a global level.

For example, questions about who the world’s poorest people are, are not discussed.  70% of the world’s poor are women.  People with disabilities are more likely to suffer from poverty.  Poverty mainly exists in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin American and Asia, i.e. non-white persons are more likely to suffer from extreme poverty.  Questions about the capitalist economic system, and global class inequalities, are also largely absent.  A global ruling elite – according to a recent OXFAM report, 85 people – control as much wealth as the poorest half of the world’s population.  Yet the philosophical literature on Global Justice rarely, if ever, mentions these facts about the world.

Do more radical approaches help us to cast light on what global injustice actually is and what we should do about it?  What can feminist, post-colonial, Marxist, queer theory, disability studies, and critical race theory approaches tell us about Global Justice, if anything?  Do identity, history, gender, race and power matter to Global Justice?  Can we incorporate these critical perspectives into the existing debates?  Or must we reconfigure what constitutes global justice or injustice if we are to make sense of the real-world inequities that motivate critical theorists and social movements?

Suggested topics include:

• Feminism and Global Justice
  • The feminisation of poverty
  • Gender and emigration
  • Sexual violence in global context
  • Post-colonialism
    • Neo-colonialism and global justice
    • The legacy of colonialism, slavery or historical injustice
    •  “Post”-colonialism?
    • Marxist approaches
      • Global class struggle
      • Labour and global justice
      • Revolutionary theories
      • Queer Theory and Global Justice
        • LGBTI rights at international level
        • LGBTI and asylum
        • Homophobia and heteronormativity in global justice theory
        • Disability and Global Justice
          • Disability and poverty
          • Disability rights in international perspective
          • Mental health justice
          • Critical Race Theory and Global Justice
            • The Trans-Atlantic slave trade and global justice
            • Race theory and immigration policies
            • Race and inequality
            • Intersectional Approaches to Global Justice
              • Intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and/or disability in global context
              • Mestiza theory
              • Recognition as a global justice issue

We invite submissions that discuss these topics or related ones. If you are interested in participating in this workshop, please submit an abstract (no more than 500 words) prepared for blind-review to mancept.radicalgj@gmail.com by Friday 23^rd May. Please, attach also a cover letter with your full details.

We aim to circulate the papers to all workshop participants and, thus, we would expect a full version of the paper by 25^th August.

The workshop is part of the annual Manchester Centre for Political Theory (MANCEPT) conference from 8-10 September 2014, at the University of Manchester.

Panel convenors:

Maeve McKeown (University College London)

Alasia Nuti (University of Cambridge)