[Discussion] Hegemony, Power, and Practice

[sule tarakcioglu]

*Hegemony, Power, and Practice Interim meeting of the IPSA Research 
Committee on Power

CALL FOR PAPERS: Hegemony, Power, and Practice
Interim meeting of the IPSA Research Committee on Power
City University of New York Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016
June 10 - 12, 2004

Research Committee 36/Political Power of the International Political 
Science Association holds an interim meeting between World Congresses of 
the IPSA. At its meeting in June 2004, members and other scholars will 
address the topic, "Hegemony, Power, and Practice."

United States' actions to suppress terrorism and to conquer Iraq in a 
preventive war and subsequent occupation have brought the topic of 
hegemony forward to prominence in worldwide scholarly and political 
debates. Although many recent works deal with the subject, there have 
been relatively few which do so from the perspective of power. Yet, the 
two concepts are so closely related that it is impossible to understand 
hegemony except as a particular form of power relationship. In Gramsci, 
for example, hegemony represents the ideological dimension that is 
linked to power to form a system of domination. At the same time, 
hegemony prompts counterhegemony. One of the reasons for the disjunction 
between hegemony and power in the literature is the tendency for 
academics studying and theorizing hegemony to assume, as Gramsci does, 
that power remains an inherently unproblematic phenomenon. However, the 
extensive power literature has established that understanding power is 
highly complex and that any analysis that takes it for granted as 
unproblematic will tend to be simplistic. In addition to the challenge 
of integrating hegemony and power at a conceptual and theoretical level, 
the presence of hegemonic activity in daily political activities 
requires attention to the ways in which hegemony and power are 
institutionalized and practiced.

The IPSA Research Committee on Power invites proposals for papers to be 
presented at its meeting in New York City from June 10 to 12, 2004. 
Selected papers will be submitted for publication in a special issue of 
Acta Politica devoted to the theme, "Hegemony and Power." It should be 
empahsized that papers which will be included in the proposed 
publication must deal with the relationship between power and hegemony 
in a comprehensive manner in order that the publication will have a 
clear common theme.

In addition to the central theme of hegemony and power, the Research 
Committee solicits proposals for papers dealing with related topics, 
such as the nature of US hegemony, the future of the nation state and 
sovereignty, the relationship between autonomy and hegemony, violence 
and rhetoric in political practice, and collaboration and resistance in 
systems of hegemonic domination. Proposals should include the title of 
the paper, name(s) and affiliation(s) of the author(s), and a synopsis 
of not more than 150 words. They should be sent by e-mail to Mark 
Haugaard, Mark.Haugaard@nuigalway.ie.

There are two deadlines for submission of proposals: 1) for the 
conference in general the date is March 15, 2004, and 2) for those 
wishing to have their papers considered for inclusion in the proposed 
special issue of Acta Politica the date is February 15th. Authors will 
be notified within three weeks of these respective deadlines whether 
their proposals are accepted.

Hotel accommodations will be available in New York at rates ranging from 
approximately $125 to approximately $170 for a single room. To reserve a 
room or to ask questions about local arrangements, contact Howard H. 
Lentner at HowardH.Lentner@att.net.

    Professor Mark Haugaard
Department of Political Science and Sociology
National University of Ireland - Galway
Galway, Ireland

Email: mark.haugaard@nuigalway.ie <mailto:mark.haugaard@nuigalway.ie>