2nd INTERNATIONAL ISAR SYMPOSIUM
with a Special Focus on State: Between Tradition and Future
December 21-22, 2013
Istanbul


At the mention of the word ‘State’, we do not only understand the concept nation-state, but a varied range of ideas; and, what is more, there exists a theoretical accord, whereupon the needed metaphysical distinction between the ideas of abstract universal ‘State’ and concrete particular nation-state is preserved. Do these two facts mean that, in practice, we succeed in protecting ourselves from the reduction that occurs within a definite fetishistic illusion, and by which means the notion of an abstract universal state is reduced to a particular nation-state form?
Taking this question as our point of departure, we aim to analyze ‘the State’ both as a completely theoretical and abstract entity, and an historical and actual concrete form and practice. In this way, we aspire to discuss in detail all aspects of the ‘State’ at this symposium.

In this manner, at the point of defining ‘the State’s’ own form and content, we will bring the relationship that exists between the two fundamental references, secularism and religion, to the center of the symposium. We hope to demonstrate academic proofs that will give us the (conceptual) horizon we need both about the past and future of ‘the State’ when we scrutinize it from this type of perspective.

2nd International ISAR Symposium on the subject of ‘the State’, focuses on inter- and multi-disciplinary perspectives and it is not limited to this subject alone; it is also open to presentations on other topics by graduate students and professional academics as well (on condition of sufficient sophistication), to whom we would like to announce our invitation.


The basic subjects that we want to address at our symposium on ‘the State’:
• The definition of the state
• The contents of the state as an empty self and abstract universal
• The debate over whether or not there exists a content and form that makes the establishment of the state necessary – A secular state’s conditions of possibility
• The State’s forms of traditional and contemporary, secular and religious constitution [constitutive force]
• The future forms that today’s hegemonic nation-state formation may take
• The nation-state, which has now taken the form of a single megalopolis in our world, and the debate over whether or not there remains another basic function to its fundamental apparatus that serves capitalism and its globalization
• The possibility and impossibility of defining the existing global order as a new state (empire) which does not have a territorial center of power
• Constitutional state
• The state as the ideological and corporate center of the process that turns us into subjects
• The meaning of freedom, as freedom from the state’s power
• The moral and ethical foundation of rebellion against the state
• A non-totalitarian state’s conditions of possibility
• The probable effects of the Arab Spring’s course on the form of the nation-state
• The federal state and the division of the state
• The relation between the European Union and the collapse of the nation-state.
• The conditions of possibility for a state that does not generate nationalism and has clearly defined limits

The symposium will take place in Istanbul. The languages for the presentations are English, Turkish and Arabic. The abstracts should not exceed 250 words.

Important Dates

July 20, 2013: Abstract Submission
August 1, 2013: Notification of Acceptance
November 1, 2013: Submission of Full Paper
December 21-22, 2013: Symposium

Please submit the abstract of your paper with your CV to: symposium@isar.org.tr

www.isar.org.tr