"Transformations of Politics : Crisis of representation & new forms of participation, a European perspective" a lecture by Prof. Debora Spini at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 19th August 2013

Time : 3:00 pm

Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)

Place : Seminar Room, First Floor, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi
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Event Description : ‘Transformations of Politics : Crisis of representation and new forms of participation, a European perspective’ by Prof. Debora Spini, Syracuse University, Italy

Abstract : This talk will stem from the observation of recent events in many Western democracies. The legitimacy crisis of democratic representation seems to be the dominating feature of the last years. Whilst the decline in civic and political commitment has been widely analysed and discussed in the past decades, many recent developments point towards a revived desire for political involvement and participation. Public spaces are undergoing a profound transformation. They are increasingly populated by actors which are coming from that realm that mainstream political theory defines as "social" rather than strictly "political"; political mobilisation often occurs on issues that were traditionally considered as belonging to the sphere of private life. This need for participation seeks new channels of expression besides those offered by the traditional political actors and by traditional representative institutions: for this reason it is important to reflect on the destiny of political representation in the wider framework of supernational political integration, as in the EU case.  Movements such as the Indignados in Spain, We are 99 in the US, and many others voice through the quest for more direct democracy the urgent need for empowerment.
This paper will seek to provide a theoretical reflection on these transformations, trying to identify besides the unmistakable element of crisis, also the possible potentials and chances for a renewal of democracy.

Speaker : Prof. Debora Spini teaches political theory at Syracuse University in Florence. Spini has published in Italian and English on the theme of civil society in a globalized world:  among her most recent works the monograph La società civile post nazionale (Rome 2006) the co-edited book Civil Society and Global Governance, London-New York, Routledge, Garnet Book Series, 2010 (co-edited with D. Armstrong, V. Bello and J. Gilson) and the book chapter Political Agency and Subjectivity in Modernity, in Political Agency in the changing nexus between society, economics and politics, R. Marchetti and B. Maiguasca, Eds, London, Routledge, Garnet Book Series, 2013. Prof. Spini is also researching on theology and politics at the origins of western modernity, and on identity, gender and women's subjectivity.

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