The Place of Conflict | Debate

Organized in partnership with the British Academy, the debate brought together various perspectives on the place of conflict in contemporary democratic practices and institutions.

What are the conflicts that structure our societies, new political identities, and forms of contestation? What are the institutions, spaces and practices needed to address these conflicts and struggles?

We look to democratic institutions to enable us both to express conflict and minimize the escalation of its divisions into violent confrontations or severe social polarisation. How well do our current democratic practices achieve this? Are our institutions ‘wearing out’? Are they organised around old conflicts that are no longer important, and failing to contain new ones?

How can we conceive of new forms, that would allow public disagreements to be legitimately expressed and confronted? How can we conceive of new discursive styles and registers that would allow extending the participation to public disagreements to new actors? How can conflicts best be transformed into a productive force towards social justice in today's society? And if we were to re-politicise our democratic lives, what normative bases should we agree upon? And finally, what kind of conflicts, conflict shaping and resolution practices do matter to contemporary political practices and social movements?

Speakers

Srecko Horvat, DiEM25
Tariq Modood, Bristol University
Richard Sennett, New York University and LSE
Paulina Tambakaki, University of Westminster
Chair Colin Crouch, University of Warwick

Organized in partnership with the British Academy, the debate brought together various perspectives on the place of conflict in contemporary democratic practices and institutions.

What are the conflicts that structure our societies, new political identities, and forms of contestation? What are the institutions, spaces and practices needed to address these conflicts and struggles?

We look to democratic institutions to enable us both to express conflict and minimize the escalation of its divisions into violent confrontations or severe social polarisation. How well do our current democratic practices achieve this? Are our institutions ‘wearing out’? Are they organised around old conflicts that are no longer important, and failing to contain new ones?

How can we conceive of new forms, that would allow public disagreements to be legitimately expressed and confronted? How can we conceive of new discursive styles and registers that would allow extending the participation to public disagreements to new actors? How can conflicts best be transformed into a productive force towards social justice in today's society? And if we were to re-politicise our democratic lives, what normative bases should we agree upon? And finally, what kind of conflicts, conflict shaping and resolution practices do matter to contemporary political practices and social movements?

Speakers

Srecko Horvat, DiEM25
Tariq Modood, Bristol University
Richard Sennett, New York University and LSE
Paulina Tambakaki, University of Westminster
Chair Colin Crouch, University of Warwick