Dear Colleagues,
We would like to invite you to contribute to the following panel we will be organising for the IPA Conference in Grenoble. The deadline is 31st of January. Please send your papers to the panel organisers. The details of the IPA 2010 conference can be found in http://www.ipa2010-grenoble.fr
Best wishes,
Aysem Mert & Katja Freistein
The fantasmatic logic as inertia and force: Myths, legends and utopias in policy making
Panel Organisers:
Aysem Mert, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, aysem.mert@ivm.vu.nl
Katja Freistein, Goethe Universität Frankfurt, freistein@em.uni-frankfurt.de
Panel chair: Jason Glynos, Department of Government, University of Essex
In the so-called “post-ideological” world (Žižek 1989, 1997), in which the articulations of ideologies have changed drastically (although they might be important as ever) it is increasingly important for the political scientists to explain why social change happens or does not happen. Whether or not one agrees with the conceptualisation of a post-ideological world is beside the point: Class formations as well as nationalism are less and less decisive in shaping political identities, or at least their influence is neither directly identifiable nor steady enough to explain the changes at all levels of politics. Ernesto Laclau (2005) suggested that the force behind the formation of identities and hegemonic struggles (or the lack of these) is the logic of fantasy. According to Jason Glynos and David Howarth (2007) not only does the logic of fantasy helps us understand “the resistance to change of social practices (the ‘inertia’ of social practices), but also the speed and direction of change when it does happen (the ‘vector’ of political practices)”. In other words, it renders the subjects “complicit in concealing or covering over the radical contingency of social relations” (ibid).
In a parallel but different vein, philosophers from different ends of the political spectrum such as Oswald Spengler, Cornelius Castoriadis, and Roland Barthes regarded myths as the dominant ideologies of our time. For Barthes (1957), myth had the double function of pointing out and notifying and thereby making us understand something while it simultaneously imposes it on us. The very principle of myth, he suggested, was transforming history into nature. Indeed, myths, legends and utopias are symbols that are exceptionally powerful in guiding social imageries and hence can help the analysis of the political extensively. But more importantly, deconstructing or revealing them also has a subversive edge: As Ronaldo Munck and Denis O'Hearn (1999) note, while “the West has demystified the myths and narratives of [other cultures], it has failed to deconstruct [those of] its own” and instead universalised them; and made them “the manifest destiny of all peoples” (ibid: 21).
This panel will therefore focus on the role of myths, legends and utopias in policy making at all levels, and from different parts of the world.
Studies of the fantasmatic logic in relation to political logics and social practices in the formation of public and organisational discourses as well as the making of national or international public policy or the lack of such policies will be its major concern.
Accordingly, papers with a focus on the following are invited to apply:
• The contribution of post-structural discourse theory to critical policy analysis
• Clarification of concepts in use (of myths, legends and utopias)
• The relationship between policy analytic practices and theories of legitimacy and power (that of discourse theory, deconstruction, post-colonial theory etc.)
• Questioning of traditional models of government, administration and policy-making (through deconstruction of myths, when possible)