The American University of Paris - Miscellaneous

Visiting Scholars

Sara Wynn — Wed, 20 Nov 2024 14:28:34 +0000

Senior and junior researchers interested in applying to be a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Critical Democracy Studies are welcome to submit their applications at any time.

All scholars are expected to fund their stay at their own expense or based on third-party financing. Scholars have access to CCDS resources (library privileges, participating in CCDS seminars, and attending �� events). During their stay, visiting scholars are encouraged to present their research, organize academic events, and actively seek to collaborate with CCDS members and the �� community.

Applications should be sent to ccdsaup.edu and accompanied by the following:

CV
List of selected publications (if applicable)
Duration of stay and dates for the proposed work at the CCDS (minimum 3 months prior to the scholar's proposed arrival date)
Brief description of the proposed research project
Potential collaborations at the CCDS and/or at ��
Brief information about the form of financing (self-financed or financed by a third party)
For PhD candidates, a recommendation letter of reference containing details about the applicant’s research project.

Decisions for acceptance will be made on a rolling basis.

Boris Pavlov ’10 Transforms Travel

Sara Wynn — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 10:53:42 +0000

Pavlov enjoying an Eiffel Tower view.

In his home country of Bulgaria, Pavlov obtained a double American/Bulgarian high school diploma from the American College of Sofia. Tempted by the challenge of living in a place where he did not speak the language, Pavlov applied to �� and moved to Paris sight unseen. "Going to �� was by far one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life," he says. While double majoring in international economics and applied international finance, Pavlov built close friendships with students from around the world, forging a global network that would become central to his life and career. “You can make friends and connections in a lot of places. But that deep cultural understanding and awareness—I don't think you can get it from many other universities,” he says. “�� taught me that it doesn’t matter where a person comes from—it’s about who they’ve grown to be.” Pavlov also served as captain of ��’s competitive volleyball team, and would later return as a volunteer coach, leading the team to international tournaments.

After ��, Pavlov embarked on a kaleidoscope of global educational and professional pursuits. He moved to Nice where he continued his finance studies with a master’s degree from EDHEC Business School before taking a position at Société Générale. Next, he transferred to New York City and spent two years on the trading floor before heading to London. Along the way, he earned a law degree, furthering a long-standing interest in politics. Eventually, restless in the finance sector and curious about entrepreneurship, Pavlov quit his job and returned to Bulgaria to start his own venture.

The transition sparked his first idea for a business opportunity. Though he had moved to Bulgaria, he was still tied to a costly long-term lease on his London apartment. A property manager took it over and rented the flat out on Airbnb. Observing the lack of similar services in Bulgaria, Pavlov launched Flat Manager as a one-man operation, handling everything from the website and branding to the cleaning and key exchanges. “It was super tough because it's a 24/7 business,” he says.

Over time, he built a team, retaining employees through COVID and expanding into Bucharest. With an angel investor—a friend from ��—Flat Manager grew to handle 600 properties across Bulgaria and Romania. Pavlov recently sold the company to one of Europe’s largest private equity firms, marking the first acquisition of a property tech startup from Bulgaria.

Pavlov’s enterprising mindset also extends to public service. In 2022, when Russia’s invasion sent Ukrainians fleeing into Bulgaria, Pavlov paused his own work for three months and partnered with the Bulgarian government and volunteer IT professionals to swiftly build an online resource platform for refugees. The site provided vital information on accommodation, jobs, paperwork, and social and children’s services. The team also set up a three-language call center in a matter of ten days. Bulgaria was one of the first countries to offer this kind of support, and to date, hundreds of thousands of refugees have accessed the program. For Pavlov, this was not just another project. “You're not building a business here… you’re building something that helps people, and they need it yesterday.”

Now, Pavlov has his sights set on disrupting the $100 billion-and-growing travel industry, which he sees as ripe for change. Launching in October 2024, Flataway is an international booking platform that stands apart from major OTAs like Airbnb by adopting a decentralized model, allowing property managers to maintain direct relationships with guests, fostering loyalty and repeat business. Unlike Airbnb, Flataway enables property managers to earn commissions when travelers book through the platform and features only high-quality, professionally managed properties at lower, discounted rates. Additionally, Flataway will reinvest part of its revenue into community initiatives, adding a social impact dimension to the business.

Pavlov describes Flataway as “the dream.” He shares, “I’ve always believed in aiming not just higher—but the highest.” As AI reshapes the travel industry, Pavlov is ever more eager to keep innovating. His approach to personal travel is equally enterprising and spontaneous. He once took a trip from New York to Singapore that ended up including unplanned stopovers in Bali and Dubai before heading home. For Pavlov, travel goes beyond business; it is an essential part of living. “We will never lose the need for travel and to discover new things,” he insists, citing the adage that travel is the only thing you pay for that makes you wealthier—and standing by it.

Boris Pavlov ’10, former investment banker turned entrepreneur, is transforming the travel industry with his innovative vacation rental platform, Flataway.

Academics

Miscellaneous

Fellows’ Publications

Sara Wynn — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 13:45:41 +0000

2025

2024

Articles

Colin-Jaeger, Nathanaël. 2024. “Diviser pour mieux gouverner : en défense des fédérations polycentriques”, Revue Philosophique de la France et de l’Etranger (à paraître).

Colin-Jaeger, Nathanaël. 2024. “Can We Design Spontaneity?”, Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics , 17(1): 66-88.

Colin-Jaeger, Nathanaël. 2024. “La nature de la Fédération : ontologie et caractéristiques normatives”, Implications Philosophiques.

Culp, Julian. 2024. “Morally philosophizing the indefensible or politically theorizing the disagreeable?” Ethics & Global Politics, 17/4, 16–24.

Culp, Julian. 2024. “Deweyan Democracy and Education in a 'Society of Broadcasters',” in Festl, Michael (ed.), John Dewey and Contemporary Challenges to Democracy and Education, 87-104.

Culp, Julian. 2024. “The Global Crisis and the Psychological Feasibility of Internationalism,” Social Philosophy and Policy40/2, 372-86.

Culp, Julian. 2024. “Global Justice Must Be Seen To Be Done—A Defense of Integrated Pluralism,” Journal of International Political Theory.

Spieler, Miranda. 2024. “Ourika and the Chevalier de Boufflers.” In French Revolutionary Lives. Edited by David Bell and Colin Jones, 29-47. War Culture and Society. Series editor Rafe Blaufarb et al. Palgrave MacMillan.

Zarić, Zona. 2024. “The Rapeability and Takeability of Bodies and Lands”. In: Contours of Change, ed. Sanja Bojanić and Valeria Graziano. 176–189. Rijeka: CAS SEE University of Rijeka.

Zarić, Zona. 2024. “Pour une praxis de la compassion”. Multitude 96: 100–105.

Zinigrad, Roman. 2024. “Laughing Matters in Courts: Humor and the Normalization of Hate Speech”. Alternatives 2024. doi.org/10.1177/03043754241244891.

Reviews

Culp, Julian. 2024. “Craig Calhoun, Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar, and Charles Taylor. Degenerations of Democracy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2022),” Constellations 31/1, 124-6.

Culp, Julian. 2024. “Markus Tiedemann, Post-Aufklärungsgesellschaft – Was wir verlieren und was uns bevorsteht (Leiden/Paderborn: Brill/mentis, 2023),” Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Philosophie und Ethik 46/1, 123-4.

Spieler, Miranda. 2024. Review of Edenz Maurice, La Guyane: la promesse républicaine: faire France outre-mer 1920-1980 (2022), submitted May 2024, forthcoming H-France.

Blogs

Zinigrad. Roman. 2024. “How Social Media Amplifies Support for the Far Right in France”. LSE EUROPP (Sep. 2, 2024).

2023

Articles

Colin-Jaeger, Nathanaël. 2023. “Raison publique, libéralisme, pluralisme et complexité : la contribution de Gerald Gaus à la philosophie politique”, Raisons Politiques, 92(4): 85-94.

Culp, Julian, and Johannes Drerup. 2023. “Equality of Educational Opportunity,” in Sardoč, Mitja (ed.), Handbook of Equality of Opportunity. Berlin: Springer, 1-25.

Culp, Julian. 2023. “Ethics of Education,” in Sellers, Mortimer, and Stephan Kirste (eds.), Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Berlin: Springer, 1-7.

Culp, Julian. 2023. “Demokratie,” in Frühbauer, Johannes, Michael Reder, Michael Roseneck und Thomas Schmidt (eds.), Rawls-Handbuch. Stuttgart: Metzler, 213–217.

Culp, Julian. 2023. “Thomas Pogge,” in Frühbauer, Johannes, Michael Reder, Michael Roseneck und Thomas Schmidt (eds.), Rawls-Handbuch. Stuttgart: Metzler, 497-503.

Culp, Julian. 2023. “Democratic Citizenship Education in Digitized Societies – A Habermasean Approach,” Educational Theory 73/2, 178-203.

Hristov. George, Adriana Zaharijević and Zona Zarić. 2023. “Critique of the Master-Slave Dialectic” [Gospodari i robovi: kritika zasnovana na klasi, rasi i rodu]. In: Manuel of Critique [Priručnik kritike], ed. Marjan Ivković and Željko Radinković. 263–294. Belgrade: Akademska knjiga.

Mladenović, Ivica, Dušanka Milosvaljević and Zona Zarić. 2023. “Critical sociology” [Kritička sociologija]. In: Manuel of Critique [Priručnik kritike], ed. Marjan Ivković and Željko Radinković. 465–494. Belgrade: Akademska knjiga. November 2023

Novak, William J. and Stephen W. Sawyer. 2023. “Une Histoire Pragmatique du Politique” [Possibilities for a Pragmatic History of the Political]. Histoire @ Politique 51: 184-193. doi: https://doi.org/10.4000/histoirepolitique.15568.

Ron, Ariel, and Sofia Valeonti. 2023. “The Money War: An Interpretation of Democracy, Depreciation, and Taxes in the U.S. Civil War.” Cambridge Journal of Economics 47 (2): 263-268. https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/bead006.

Spieler, Miranda. 2023. “L’Enlèvement des esclaves de Paris des Lumières.” In Colonisations: notre histoire, 120-122. Paris: Seuil.

Spieler, Miranda. 2023. Review of Cecile Vidal, Caribbean New Orleans, in Annales: Histoire, Sciences Sociales 4: 828-831.

Spieler, Miranda. 2023. Forum comment on David Todd, Velvet Empire (2022), H-Diplo Roundtable.

Zinigrad, Roman and Stephen W. Sawyer. 2023. “State and Religion: The French Response to Jihadist Violence”. 14(8) Religions 1010. doi.org/10.3390/rel14081010.

Zinigrad, Roman. 2023. “Commentary on the Abidjan Principles: Obligations to Respect, Protect, and Fulfil the Right to Education in the Context of Private Involvement”. Oxford Hum. Rights Hub J. 2023.

Reports

Sawyer, Stephen W., and Roman Zinigrad. 2023. Mainstreaming, Gender, and Communication in France. The American University of Paris. D.Rad. pp.95. halshs-04471793.

Sawyer, Stephen W., and Roman Zinigrad. 2023. Civic Education Programs as Preventive Measures in France. The American University of Paris. D.Rad. pp.22. halshs-04471801.

Reviews

Culp, Julian. 2023. “Krassimir Stojanov, Bildung gegen Populismus? Über antidemokratische Halbbildung und ihre Alternativen (Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2022),” Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Philosophie und Ethik 45/4, 117.

Blogs

Zinigrad, Roman. 2024. “The False Hope of Israel’s Protestors: Why The Supreme Court Is Not (And Never Was) The Last Bastion of Democracy”. VerfBlog (08.09.2023).

2022

Articles

Culp, Julian. 2022. “Symposium on Peter Hägel's Billionaires in World Politics,” The Journal of Global Ethics, 18/2.

Culp, Julian. 2022. “Global Democratic Educational Justice,” in Curren, Randall (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Education. London: Routledge, 245-56.

Culp, Julian. 2022. “Four Challenges to Political Autonomy Education in Contemporary Public Spheres,” On Education. Journal for Research and Debate 5 (14).

Culp, Julian. 2022. “Does Democratic Citizenship Education Engineer Consent to Political Authority?” in Luppi, Roberto (ed.), Autorità e democrazia. Educare al pluralismo nel XXI secolo.Rome: Armando Editore, 163-176.

Culp, Julian. 2022. “Zur postkolonialen Kritik globaler demokratischer Bildungsgerechtigkeit,” in Drerup, Johannes und Philipp Knobloch (eds.), Bildung in postkolonialen Konstellationen. Bielefeld: transcript, 235-260.

Dimand, Robert, and Sofia Valeonti. 2022. “Irving Fisher, Simon Newcomb, and Their Plans to Stabilize the Dollar.” The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 29 (6): 1052-1065. https://doi.org/10.1080/09672567.2022.2137550”.

Sawyer. Stephen W. 2022. “Deglobalizing the Global History of Europe,” Annales Histoire et Sciences Sociales, 1-11, doi:10.1017/ahsse.2022.10.

Sawyer. Stephen W., and William J. Novak. 2022. “Of Rights and Regulation: Technologies of Socio-economic Governance in a Revolutionary Age” in Social Rights and the Politics of Obligation in History, Charles Walton and Steven Jensen, eds. (Cambridge University Press).

Spieler, Miranda. 2022. « Viande de barbecue » dans L’Épicerie du monde. Edited by Pierre Singravélou, 17-21. Paris: Fayard.

Valeonti, Sofia. 2022. “Henry C. Carey’s Monetary Thought and American Industrialization in the Greenbacks Debate.” History of Political Economy 54 (2): 186-216. https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-9699025.

Reports

Culp, Julian. 2022. Demokratie und Digitalisierung in der Erwachsenenbildung. Vienna: Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF).

Blogs

Sawyer, Stephen W., and Roman Zinigrad. 2022. “Radicalizing Law to Deradicalize Society: The French Legislative Arsenal of Deradicalization and the Threat to Human Rights”. D.Rad Blog.

2021

Articles

Culp, Julian. 2021. “John Rawls,” in Festl, Michael G. (ed.), Liberalismus Handbuch. Stuttgart: Metzler, 149-156.

Culp, Julian. 2021. “Martha Nussbaum,” in Festl, Michael G. (ed.), Liberalismus Handbuch. Stuttgart: Metzler, 165-171.

Culp, Julian. 2021. “Supranationalität,” in Festl, Michael G. (ed.), Liberalismus Handbuch. Stuttgart: Metzler, 263-268.

Culp, Julian, and Johannes Drerup. 2021 “Demokratieerziehung und die Herausforderungen des Liberalismus,” Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, Ausgabe 4. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa.

Culp, Julian. 2021. “Schulische Demokratieerziehung und die Krise der repräsentativen Demokratie,” Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 2021/4. Wertheim: Beltz Juventa, 528-542.

Delalande, Nicolas, and Stephen W. Sawyer. 2021. “La fabrique transnationale de l’État. Nouveaux regards sur une exception française”. D’ici et d’ailleurs. Histoires globales de la France contemporaine, Quentin Deluermoz, ed. (Paris: La Découverte).

Ducange, Jean-Numa, Silyane Larcher et Stephen W. Sawyer. 2021. “La République multiple. Une histoire transnationale et globale”. D’ici et d’ailleurs. Histoires globales de la France contemporaine, Quentin Deluermoz, ed. (Paris: La Découverte).

Sawyer, Stephen W. 2021. « Un procès en légitimité. Adolphe Thiers, la Commune et les fondements démocratiques de la République ». Revue d’histoire du XIXe siècle. 63 : 39-56.

Sawyer, Stephen W. 2021. “From Histories of Liberalism to a History of the Demos: Toward a Democratic Critique of Neoliberalism,” Consecutio Rerum, Anno 5, no 9.

Sawyer, Stephen W. 2021. “‘Paris Broken, but Paris Liberated’? The State, City Administration and Scales of Reconstruction in Post-War Paris, 1944-1976,” Cold War Cities, Tze-ki Hon, ed. (Routledge).

Spieler, Miranda, 2021. « Être esclave dans une capitale impériale: Paris XVIIIe siècle » dans Histoire mondiale de l’esclavage. Edited by Paulin Ismard, Benedetta Rossi, and Cécile Vidal, 245-252. Paris : Seuil.

Spieler, Miranda, 2021. “Peasant Resistance in Postrevolutionary Haiti.” Reviews in American History. 49(3): 413-421.

Zinigrad, Roman. 2021. “Parental Rights in Education under International Law: Nature and Scope” in Realizing the Abidjan Principles on the Right to Education: Human Rights, Public Education, and the Role of Private Actors in Education 79-103 (F. Adamson et al. eds., Elgar Publishing, 2021).

Reports

Sawyer, Stephen W., and Roman Zinigrad. 2021. De-radicalisation and Integration in France: Legal & Policy Framework. The American University of Paris. D.Rad. pp.81. halshs-04471780.

Sawyer, Stephen W., and Roman Zinigrad. 2021. Trends of Radicalisation in France. The American University of Paris, D.Rad. pp.64. halshs-04471773.

Sawyer, Stephen W., and Roman Zinigrad. 2021. Cultural Drivers of Radicalisation in France. The American University of Paris. D.Rad. pp.71. halshs-04471785.

Sawyer, Stephen W., and Roman Zinigrad. 2021. Stakeholders of (De)-Radicalisation in France. American University of Paris. D.Rad. pp.62. halshs-04471763.

Reviews

Spieler, Miranda, 2021. Review of Sophie White, Voices of the Enslaved: Love, Labor, and Longing in French Louisiana (2019), in Slavery and Abolition. 42(3): 653-654.

Spieler, Miranda, 2021. Review of Brandon Byrd, The Black Republic: African Americans and the fate of Haiti (2019), in Slavery and Abolition, 42(2): 415-417.

Blogs

Culp, Julian. 2021. “Licht und Schatten John Rawls’ politischer Philosophie,” praefaktisch-Blog, February 28.

Sawyer, Stephen W., and Roman Zinigrad. 2021. The Democratic Promise of “Deradicalization”. Tocqueville21 (02.06.2021).

Critical Theory 101: Future Directions and New Challenges

Sara Wynn — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 13:38:55 +0000

The seminar series Critical Theory 101: Future Directions and New Challenges, co-organized by The American University of Paris and the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade, seeks to explore the evolving landscape of critical theory as it enters its second century. Launched with a keynote by Axel Honneth on June 13, 2024, the series will continue with a session featuring Nancy Fraser on November 4, 2024, and conclude with Rahel Jaeggi in February 2025. Bringing together the most prominent voices in contemporary thought, the seminars will address emerging challenges and map out new directions for critical theory, reflecting on its capacity to engage with current social and political transformations while rethinking its foundational principles for the future.

Renewing the Social Contract: Call for Papers

Sara Wynn — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 10:41:23 +0000

Renewing the Social Contract:
The Challenge of Inclusivity and Democratic Government in Social Contract Theory

Renouveler le contrat social
Le défi de l'inclusion et du gouvernement démocratique dans la théorie du contrat social

International Conference

Center for Critical Democracy Studies, The American University of Paris

December 18-19, 2024

Keynote Speakers:

Myriam Hunter-Henin, Professor of Comparative Law and Law & Religion, UCL Faculty of Laws

Albert Weale, Professor of Political Theory and Public Policy, UCL Department of Political Science

Call for Papers

Social contract approaches seek to explain the origins of political obligations but are also recognized as tools of social change. Social contract theory “provides a test for distinguishing what is fair from what is oppressive, for distinguishing choice from subordination, and for exposing adaptive/deformed preferences […] and also as a practical tool to spur individual and social action” (Walsh). In the face of classic social contract philosophers, who maintained that normative legitimacy may be grounded in hypothetical agreement, recent accusations of exclusivity and anthropocentrism have challenged contract theories’ relevance. And yet, in spite of these challenges, contract theories have experienced a resurgence. According to Albert Weale, these revised theories use new approaches to the concepts of diversity and power dynamics and novel interpretations of justificatory frameworks.

First, critiques by scholars like Mill and Pateman highlight how the logic of the social contract may reflect systems of racial or gender domination. Are such ill-conceived social contracts that perpetuate inherent bias redeemable? Secondly, even democratic regimes are increasingly threatened by political stratification, alienation of minorities, and crises of trust in government institutions. Can social contract theories cope with social polarization and radical disagreement? Can they accommodate partial or complete renegotiation? Finally, growing acknowledgment of transnational and global problems such as the environmental crisis is transforming the landscape of political discourse and bringing new emphasis on the role of administrative intervention and regulatory power to preserve democracy. Can new obligations and regulatory frameworks be incorporated into the social contract framework? These issues have brought forward a series of multifaced challenges and pushed many to reconsider (and even propose to jettison) the idea of the social contract.

This conference seeks to engage with this second wave of theories and reflect on the challenges of inclusivity and democratic government within contract theory from an interdisciplinary perspective. How should contract theory be amended in the context of contemporary transformations of democracy? How can we develop alternative theories considering the need for gradual transformation to consider contestation? How can social contracts be thought of as resilient?

The Center for Critical Democracy Studies at the American University of Paris invites researchers in the fields of political theory, philosophy, law, history, economy, and other social sciences to submit abstracts on the theme of the conference conceived broadly.

La Parisienne: Stéphanie Buisson and Team Lead �� Faculty and Staff in Charity Run

Sara Wynn — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 14:32:45 +0000

Story Tags:

Global Professional Skills Program

Thumbnail Image:

Thumbnail Description:

Human Resources led �� staff and faculty to run La Parisienne, promoting wellbeing and supporting breast cancer research.

Header Image Category:

Miscellaneous

Custom Header Image:

For Breast Cancer Awareness Month (or “octobre rose,” as it’s known in France), �� Director of Human Resources, Stephanie Buisson, and her team put together a new initiative aimed at connecting community members and supporting wellbeing activities and practices on campus. Together with colleagues from across the University, Buission ran La Parisienne, an annual all female race with proceeds going to breast cancer research.

Buisson, a regular runner herself, and HR Administrative Executive Assistant, Sophia Stéphany, are always looking for ways to improve the wellbeing of faculty and staff. When Buisson suggested launching an institution challenge to get a group to run La Parisienne, the whole team mobilized to bring on board 30 women—15 walkers and 15 runners—among faculty and staff to participate in the 7-kilometer race. The initiative was announced on March 8, International Women’s Day, to bring women across �� together to get active for a good cause—and they made it happen.

Buisson and Stéphany decided that the University would sponsor all runners and would host a post-run brunch for participants and their friends and family at the AMEX Café. Race registration included the usual t-shirt and the possibility of partaking in three days of fitness classes, dance activities and concerts associated with the race. In addition, the Office of Human Resources sought to provide a unique accessory for the team of women, turning to Sara Wynn in the Office of Communications (MA in Global Communications ’22) who designed sky blue �� caps for everyone, which helped the team of women recognize each other in the crowd.

“The theme was flower power—some of us had flowers in our hair—and there was music everywhere. It was so festive and fun—there couldn’t have been better energy all day! And the brunch was so cozy. It was a great experience we will repeat next year,” explained Stéphany.

In addition to being fun, festive and for a worthy cause, Stéphany adds that the race was an opportunity for staff and faculty to get to know each other across department lines. “Interacting with people—outside the office—who you don’t normally work with or even necessarily know because your job responsibilities don’t overlap was really great,” she said.

For Stéphany, for whom it was her first race, the event is also special because it starts and finishes at the Eiffel Tower, taking participants through the 7th, 8th and 16th arrondissements— and right through ��’s urban campus.

As part of the mission to build connections between members of the �� community, Buisson and her team look, in future years, to expand the Parisienne team to include students, perhaps some of those in the student led running club and other fitness and wellness groups led by Student Life and the Student Leadership Office.

Other exciting campus-wide wellbeing and team-building initiatives that the team has organized, often in collaboration with others across the University, include the first-ever �� Retreat, the end of year holiday party and the 4th of July celebration. And they are just getting started.

Civic Jazz - The Launch of the Center

Sara Wynn — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 13:42:57 +0000

Improvisation, empathy, cooperation: signatures of jazz and qualities that critical democracies can take to heart. This evening brought to light a number of parallels between jazz and the potential of modern democracies.

The Marcus Roberts Trio played several pieces of their own composition and some classics during their discussion with Mr. Gregory Clark. The second act was entirely musical and clearly illustrated the lessons that Mr. Roberts and Mr. Clark had conveyed during the first act. Great music happens when the entire group plays, not just for itself, but for the betterment of the piece.

It was clear that this was an ongoing dialogue for both men. Their work together, be it in these public conversations, or in Mr. Clark’s book Civic Jazz, reinforces the collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of the Center that they were in Paris to launch. As the Center’s press release puts it, “[T]hey are exploring the influences for good that can emerge from jazz.”

While Mr. Roberts and Mr. Clark explore jazz, the Center for Critical Democracy Studies, through the work of Dr. Stephen Sawyer among others, will examine the influences for good that can emerge from interdisciplinary, interlingual, and intercultural dialogues and events that revolve around critical democracy. Dr. Sawyer, director of the new Center, said, “We cannot tackle these questions working alone,” and invites us all to join in the conversation about democracy. “There is no department or scholar at �� and beyond that cannot actively contribute to this reflection.”

Take a look at the video and photo gallery below to get the highlights of the evening:

Justice Stephen Breyer

Sara Wynn — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 13:39:05 +0000

What Demos for the 21st Century?

Sara Wynn — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 13:35:45 +0000

Transnational Migration and the Shifting Demos

Robin Celikates (FU Berlin): Remaking the Demos ‘From Below’? Critical Theory, Migrant Struggles, and Epistemic Resistance

Dr. Robin Celikates the symposium with his paper Remaking the Demos “from Below”? Critical Theory, Migrant Struggles, and Epistemic Resistance, recently published in Didier Fassin and Axel Honneth's Crisis Under Critique.

Extract forthcoming

Ayelet Shachar (Frankfurt/Toronto): Gated Citizenship

Dr. Ayelet Schachar presented her paper Gated Citizenship forthcoming in the 25th Anniversary Special Issue of Citizenship Studies, from which the following abstract was drawn:

In The Birthright Lottery, I explored the multiple ways in which birthright access to citizenship operates as a distributor (or denier) of opportunity on a global scale. And what a significant distributor it is. Today, 97 percent of the global population gains access to citizenship solely by virtue of where or to whom they were born. In this article, I wish to shift the gaze from the automatic transmission of citizenship, which I refer to as the initial allocation, to deciphering the code, or underlying logic, governing the secondary allocation: the process of naturalization. Counter to predictions of waning sovereignty, tremendous investment is placed on regulating mobility, migration, and access to the good of membership. Bringing insights from law, political theory and comparative analysis, this article identifies three core sorting mechanisms that produce overt and covert inequalities in the acquisition of citizenship. I will refer to these as the trinity of the territorial, the cultural, and the economic. These intersecting yet analytically distinct dimensions create a versatile toolbox of line-drawing instruments. Their range of variation and combination permits constricting (or conversely, loosening) the requirements of admission in reference to different target populations, placing a heavy burden on those seeking to get in. The discussion lays bare the mistaken assumption that we live in a world wherein mobility is purely chosen and easily available for anyone who wishes for or needs it—irrespective of race, gender, class, power, and legal regulation. It further explores avenues for expanding our political imagination to rewrite the rules governing access to membership.

The Demos and Legitimacy

Alexander Kirshner (Duke): Legitimate Opposition and the Specter of Electoral Autocracy

Dr. Alexander Kirshner presented a chapter from his forthcoming book, Legitimate Opposition, the content of which is summarized below:

In political systems defined by legitimate opposition, those who hold power allow their rivals to peacefully challenge and displace them, and those who have lost power do not seek to sabotage the winners. Legitimate opposition came under assault at the American capitol on January 6, 2021, and is menaced by populists and autocrats across the globe. Alexander Kirshner gave a talk based on his new book, Legitimate Opposition, which provides the first sustained theory of legitimate opposition since the Cold War. On the orthodox view, democracy is lost when legitimate opposition is subverted. But efforts to reconcile opposition with democracy fail to identify the value of the frequently imperfect, unfair and inegalitarian real word practice. Marshalling a revisionist reconstruction of opposition’s history, Kirshner’s book provides a new account of opposition’s value fit for the 21st century and shows why, given the difficult conditions of political life, legitimate opposition is an achievement worth defending.

Eva Erman (Stockholm): Artificial Intelligence and the Political Legitimacy of Global Governance

Dr. Eva Erman presented her paper Artificial Intelligence and the Political Legitimacy of Global Governance from which the following extract was drawn:

Although the concept of ’AI governance’ is frequently used in the debate, it is still rather undertheorized. Often it seems to refer to the mechanisms and structures needed to avoid ‘bad’ outcomes and achieve ‘good’ outcomes with regard to the ethical problems AI is thought to actualize. In this paper we argue that, although this outcome-focused view captures one important aspect of ‘good governance’, its emphasis on effects runs the risk of overlooking important procedural aspects of good AI governance. One of the most important properties of good AI governance is political legitimacy. Starting out from the assumptions that AI governance should be seen as global in scope and that political legitimacy requires at least a democratic minimum, this paper has a twofold aim: to develop a theoretical framework for theorizing the political legitimacy of global AI governance, and to demonstrate how it can be used as a critical yardstick for assessing the legitimacy of actual instances of global AI governance. Elaborating on a distinction between ‘governance by AI’ and ‘governance of AI’ in relation to different kinds of authority and different kinds of decision-making leads us to the conclusions that much of the existing global AI governance lacks important properties necessary for political legitimacy, and that political legitimacy would be negatively impacted if we handed over certain forms of decision-making to AI systems.

A Transnational Demos?

Sandra Seubert (Frankfurt): The Constitution of European Citizenship

Dr. Sandra Seubert presented her paper The Constitution of European Citizenship from which the following extract was drawn:

Although a European citizenship status was introduced in the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, taking on a citizen-centred perspective on the EU is still a provocation: it challenges the state-centred vision of the Union and potentially disrupts the EU’s legitimatory basis. The paper will address the constitution of European citizenship in a double sense: on the one hand by critically reconstructing what is already constituted (EU citizenship as existing legal status) and on the other hand by reconstructing ongoing citizenship practices of (re)constituting, contesting and eventually transcending the current status. The analysis applies an enactment approach to citizenship to develop an appropriate theoretical background and analyse current empirical dynamics.

Miriam Ronzoni (Manchester): How Should Transnational Solidarity Be Conceived for Republicans?

Dr. Miriam Ronzoni presented her paper How Should Transnational Solidarity Be Conceived for Republicans? from which the following extract is drawn:

In this paper, I draw on some of these insights to zoom in the account of cross-border solidarity that can stem out of, and be most suitable for, this diagnosis. If the diagnosis is correct, what we must do is establish norms and institutions that will give power back to polities, as it were. I have argued in previous work that this model is very different from various forms of cosmopolitan blueprints (be they primarily focused on distributive justice or on democracy), because the institution-building they call for is both incremental and primarily aimed at protecting the agency and solving capacity of states. What is more, it might require both doing and undoing – for instance, some scaling back from deep economic and financial integration might be required. On the other hand, in spite of being motivated by a vision or recreating the conditions for free statehood, this approach is anything but conservative or light-touch: the reforms and reconfigurations it calls for are different from those transnationalists and global federalists would advocate, but a great deal still needs to change. The conditions for the guaranteed, joint free statehood of all polities may well involve very demanding and ambitions reforms – such as tackling harmful international tax competition; a framework for accountability and labour-force empowerment within transnational supply chains; measures to tackle financial volatility and possibly even slow down both financial and economic integration; solutions for countries whose very existence and stability is threatened by climate change; and sanctions for inter-state, supranational, and transnational domination.

Barbara Buckinx (Princeton): Prospects for Globally-Vigilant Citizenship

Dr. Barbara Buckinx presented her paper Prospects for Globally-Vigilant Citizenship from which the following extract is drawn:

How can we ensure that global public institutions such as those associated with the United Nations will address the pressing global problems of our time without committing abuses of power? In domestic republicanism, participation by citizens is the primary condition for the protection of liberty. In particular, citizens are expected to be vigilant – to maintain awareness of and protest domination when and where it occurs. The requisite vigilance is more likely to obtain when citizens feel a sense of pride in and allegiance to the state, and when they view themselves as part of an important, ‘freedom-enhancing’ collective endeavor. Global republican scholars such as James Bohman have been sensitive to this demanding ideal of citizenship. Articulating a supranational notion of citizenship that is located in multi-layered and overlapping set of publics and institutions, Bohman points to the European Union as an existing supranational institution that has led to a corresponding, fledgling demos.

However, the grounds and mechanisms for fostering allegiance to the state – such as a joint history or language, public education, and the practice of joint participation in political decision making – are still largely absent at the global level, and this has implications for the robustness of non-dominating global public institutions, now and in the medium term. It is too early to tell whether an ethos of global citizenship and an attitude of global vigilance will eventually follow the establishment of global public institutions without our having to encourage it in any special way. However, even if vigilance beyond domestic borders will develop naturally, this does not help with our current predicament, which is that, in this highly unjust world order, many global public institutions are already operational yet not adequately constrained by citizens ‘holding their feet to the fire.’ The question for the time being is thus whether globally-vigilant citizenship can be encouraged or developed in the short-to-medium term.

I discuss two ways forward. First, we must harness the vigilance of citizens with regard to their own domestic states. Nationally-rooted citizens with a concern for global issues possess the required disposition of vigilance and electoral power to force their state to advocate against global domination, including by global public institutions. Second, ‘cosmopolitan states’ (e.g. Shapcott, Glenn) should take on the cultivation of globally-minded and -vigilant citizens as one of their chief responsibilities. Civic education ought to focus on developing globally-vigilant citizens.

Jamila Mascat (Utrecht): Towards a Postcolonial Theory of Global Justice

Dr. Jamila Mascat presented her paper Towards a Postcolonial Theory of Global Justice from which the follow extract is drawn:

This paper aims to propose a definition of the concept of “postcolonial justice” in view of elaborating an empirically-informed theory of postcolonial justice qua reparative justice. It suggests doing this through combining scholarly literature on colonial and slavery reparations (Bessone 2019; Brennan and Packer 2012; De Greiff 2006; Lu 2017; Miller and Kumar 2007) with an analysis of the political demands to decolonize society that decolonial grassroots activism has recently brought to the fore (such as the decolonization of universities, museums and public spaces). Firstly, the paper will investigate to what extent the notion of “postcolonial justice” – a concept that seems to have been very poorly explored in postcolonial scholarship – can provide a fruitful theoretical framework for connecting distinct demands for racial justice, cultural justice, epistemic justice, memorial justice and spatial justice. Secondly, it will show that reparation claims can be considered to be a crucial pillar in a theory of postcolonial justice. Lastly, it will argue for the conception of a theory of postcolonial justice that is both critical and reparative.

Representing the Demos

Annabelle Lever (Sciences Po Paris): Democracy in Selection

Dr. Annabelle Lever was unable to attend the final session of the conference but her paper will be included in the forthcoming collection. An extract can be found below:

Should we replace elections with lotteries? Bernard Manin’s famous book on representative government first taught many of us that the Greeks thought of elections as an aristocratic, not a democratic, way to select people for political power and authority, by comparison with lotteries, where everyone has an equal chance to be selected. (Manin 1997) Until recently, however, the idea that a commitment to democracy requires replacing elections with lotteries, in whole or in part, generated little interest amongst political philosophers. (Blondiaux 2008; Courant and Sintomer 2019). That has now changed. (Abizadeh 2020) ( A. Guerrero 2014) (A. Guerrero 2021b; 2021a) (Landemore 2020) (Owen and Smith 2018) (P.- . Vandamme et al. 2018). Hence, this paper asks whether lotteries are more democratic than elections and whether, for that reason, we should use them to supplement or replace elections?

The recent literature on democracy contains several criticisms of lotteries as political selection devices. Most recently Landa and Pevnick and Umbers object that they will not achieve the instrumental improvements in government for which they are sought, (Landa and Pevnick 2021) (Umbers 2021); Ottonelli and Ceva, along with Lafont deny that lottocratic critiques of elections reflect an adequate understanding of democratic representation, (Ceva and Ottonelli 2021; Lafont 2020), and Umbers argues that lottocracy is at odds with principles of distributive justice and social equality. (Umbers 2021, 316–19)

My paper, by contrast, focuses on the idea that democracy requires an equal chance to be selected for political office. That claim is intuitively plausible and, if successful, would provide compelling, though not decisive, evidence that lotteries are democratic in ways that elections are not. However, if the claim is not persuasive, then the burden of justificatory proof, which fans of lotteries now heap on elections, must fall more equally and might, in principle, fall more heavily on lotteries than elections. Concentrating on this central claim about lotteries, then, is necessary to understand the criteria that democratic selection procedures must meet, and if successful, should help to provide common ground for a variety of instrumental and non-instrumental perspectives on lottocratic assemblies.

Peter Stone (Trinity College Dublin): Why Open Democracy?

Dr. Peter Stone presented his paper Why Open Democracy from which the following extract was drawn:

This paper examines open democracy, the conception of democracy introduced by H l ne Landemore in her recent book of the same name. Open democracy offers both an institutional paradigm and a specification of democratic values underlying it. It differs from alternative conceptions of democracy through the institutions associated with it. Whereas contemporary democracies rely primarily upon elections and referenda, open democracy places randomly-selected minipublics and volunteer activists at its core. In doing so, however, it leaves the demos—the body of citizens as a whole—with little, if any, role to play in decision making. Is this compatible with democracy? It depends critically upon the set of democratic values associated with open democracy, a set that turns out to be highly revisionist in nature. Open democracy places political equality at its heart. This explains its central commitment to sortition as a selection method in place of election. But while democracy is indeed usually associated with political equality at an individual level, at a collective level it is associated with popular sovereignty or popular rule. It is Landemore’s revised understanding of these demands—one that effectively turns popular sovereignty into an individual and not a collective value, and that comes close to reducing it to political equality. The attractiveness of open democracy thus turns critically upon the question of whether democracy must advance collective values alongside individual values such as political equality.

Carlo Burelli (Genoa): Resilient Demos - A Realistic Justification of Democracy

Dr. Carlo Burelli presented his paper Resilient Demos - A Realistic Justification of Democracy from which the following extract was drawn:

Is democracy a realistic political ideal? This paper argues that democratic institutions are realistically desirable because they score highly on resilience. It does so by reviving Machiavelli’s argument that resilience is a key political virtue. Machiavelli underplays moral virtues and instead emphasizes political virtues: those skills that are essential for political actors and institutions to survive. The essential political virtue for him is resilience: the ability to adapt attitudes and strategies depending on the contingent challenge. Machiavelli’s insightful observation is that all individuals lack this virtue. Consequently, personalistic regimes tend to exhibit limited resilience. Instead, democracies can replace leaders with those most suited to the contingent situation. Machiavelli’s intuition is captured by the contemporary distinction between stability and resilience. Stable systems only undergo a small number of small fluctuations. Resilient systems are instead continuously changing to adapt to new contingencies. We can think of authoritarian regimes as stable institutions, quite persistent under normal conditions, but also unable to adapt to unprecedented crises. Instead, democracies are resilient institutions, whose fluctuations make them seemingly fickle under normal conditions, yet they are also well-suited to adapt to extraordinary challenges, because of their ability to experiment with self-adaptation under normal conditions.

Simone Chambers (UC Irvine): How Can the People Rule? Majority Rule and the Rise of Populism

Dr. Simone Chambers closed the symposium with her paper How Can the People Rule? Majority Rule and the Rise of Populism from which the following extract was drawn:

Populism poses a challenge for democratic theory. Is it possible to rescue the concept of ‘the people’ from its use and abuse at the hands of (especially but not exclusively) right wing populist politics? Has populism simply made plain what some have been saying all along: appeals to the people (the will of the people or the rule of the people) are always dangerous. Here we have the long-standing suspicion that all ideas of a collective agent of democratic rule are incompatible with pluralism and political equality. What I call the populist challenge, then, breaks down into two questions. Is it possible to construct a concept of the people that is non-exclusionary and does justice to the ideals of political equality? Is it possible to think of this non-exclusionary people as ruling in any meaningful way? I answer yes to both questions. Rescuing the people from populism involves rethinking the role and function of majority rule within democratic orders, however. This paper sets out to demote majority rule from its privileged place within democratic theory without giving up on the ideal that the people can rule through (among other things) voting.

After a brief discussion of the populist reliance on majoritarian procedures, the first part of the paper canvases several responses to populism including left populism, minimalist theories of democracy, and liberal proceduralist theories. I ultimately endorse a deliberative proceduralist view that articulates what Habermas calls “communicatively fluid sovereignty.”

The final section of the paper seeks to concretize and illustrate fluid popular sovereignty using referendums as an example.

DEMOS21 Inaugural Event

Sara Wynn — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 13:30:35 +0000

"DEMOS21 INAUGURAL EVENT “WHAT IS ENGAGEMENT?” WITH ÉTIENNE BALIBAR

On Friday, December 11, 2020, the Center for Critical Democracy Studies (CCDS) hosted Étienne Balibar for the inaugural lecture in its year-long lecture series, Demos21. In Balibar’s talk he discussed the fundamental question: “What is engagement?”, stressing that the French word “engagement” is a concept that translates in English as both engagement and commitment. “To speak about engagement is inevitably to speak, reflect, meditate or ruminate about oneself,” he explained. “One’s history, one’s life, one’s actions, one’s achievements, one’s errors, one’s failures and one’s mistakes.” Balibar’s focus was on the partisan activity of intellectuals who had decided to defend, illustrate and support some kind of political, social or moral code and who, therefore, found it necessary to join some kind of movement. Aiming to provide a broad, introductory overview of his response to the evening’s principal question, Balibar drew on the works of thinkers such as Jean Paul Sartre, Theodor Adorno and Karl Marx to explore how engagement can be defined in the context of intellectualism.

Following the talk, an audience discussion was moderated by Professor Philip Golub (��) and �� alumna Zona Zaric (IFDT). The lecture was organized in partnership with the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory (IFDT) at the University of Belgrade and the Center for Advanced Studies – Southeast Europe (CAS SEE) at the University of Rijeka.

The American University of Paris - Miscellaneous

Visiting Scholars

Boris Pavlov ’10 Transforms Travel

Related Links

Fellows’ Publications

2025

Books

Articles

2024

Books

Articles

Reviews

Blogs

2023

Books

Articles

Reports

Reviews

Blogs

2022

Books

Articles

Reports

Blogs

2021

Articles

Reports

Reviews

Blogs

Critical Theory 101: Future Directions and New Challenges

Renewing the Social Contract: Call for Papers

Related Links

La Parisienne: Stéphanie Buisson and Team Lead �� Faculty and Staff in Charity Run

Related Links

Civic Jazz - The Launch of the Center

Justice Stephen Breyer

What Demos for the 21st Century?

DEMOS21 Inaugural Event

"DEMOS21 INAUGURAL EVENT “WHAT IS ENGAGEMENT?” WITH ÉTIENNE BALIBAR

The American University of Paris - Miscellaneous

Visiting Scholars

Boris Pavlov ’10 Transforms Travel

Related Links

Fellows’ Publications

2025

Books

Articles

2024

Books

Articles

Reviews

Blogs

2023

Books

Articles

Reports

Reviews

Blogs

2022

Books

Articles

Reports

Blogs

2021

Articles

Reports

Reviews

Blogs

Critical Theory 101: Future Directions and New Challenges

Renewing the Social Contract: Call for Papers

Related Links

La Parisienne: Stéphanie Buisson and Team Lead ���������� Faculty and Staff in Charity Run

Related Links

Civic Jazz - The Launch of the Center

Justice Stephen Breyer

What Demos for the 21st Century?

DEMOS21 Inaugural Event

"DEMOS21 INAUGURAL EVENT “WHAT IS ENGAGEMENT?” WITH ÉTIENNE BALIBAR

La Parisienne: Stéphanie Buisson and Team Lead �� Faculty and Staff in Charity Run