[Bilimsel Haber] Conf: The 10th Annual International Conference on Conceptual History (Istanbul, August 30-September 2, 2007)

[Onur Inal]

- Conference Announcement -

Transnational Concepts, Transfers and the Challenge of the Peripheries

The 10th Annual International Conference on Conceptual History Istanbul,
Turkey, August 30-September 2, 2007


Istanbul Technical University and the History of Political and Social
Concepts Group (HPSCG) warmly welcome you to the 10th Annual
International Conference on Conceptual History. Since 1998 the HPSCG has
been involved in organising annual conferences on conceptual history. In
later years, the focus has been on the theoretical, methodological and
empirical questions dealing with transfers, translations and
re-interpretations of concepts in various parts of the world. This
year's conference will continue on this path.

Processes of political and social transformation have always been a core
interest of conceptual history, particularly those processes variably
called modernization, westernization or civilization related to the
establishment of social and political modernity. Conceptual historians
have studied the key concepts that contributed to bring about social and
political modernity.

At the 10th conference we intend to examine and question the master
narratives and the Western modernization canon that resulted from these
processes. The creation of a canon of ideas, values and concepts
included a division between centre and periphery. Centres became defined
by possessing what was to be seen as the uniform way to modernity.
Peripheries were seen as late-comers and receivers.

Master narratives and their conceptual frameworks were transferred from
parts of Europe to other parts of Europe and to other regions in the
world. They provided tools for local processes of transformations. The
master narratives had an in-build demand for imitation and copying. But
what actually happened in various places were translations,
elaborations, adaptations and mergers into other cultural frameworks.
Although transfers often took place under conditions of power and
asymmetry, 'peripheries' were never passive receivers.

At the conference we will focus on the canonical and transnational key
concepts that played a crucial role in the processes of democratization,
nationalization, temporalization and secularization contributing to the
establishment of social and political modernity in different parts of
the world. We will discuss and compare the reception, translation and
adaptation of concepts such as state, people, democracy, citizenship,
nation, civilization, class and religion in different cultures. We will
highlight the different modernist and anti-modernist strategies formed
by the battles around the concepts. We will deal with the challenges
that the peripheral elaborations have posed to the canon.


SESSION SUBJECTS

Concepts of universality and transnationality
This panel investigates concepts used to characterize universal values
and universal processes in different parts of the world. It will include
the conceptualization of transfer processes. Among concepts to be
discussed is civilization, cosmopolitanism, mankind and history.

Imperial language
This panel will deal with conceptualization of imperial ruling, which
includes the concept of empire itself. An emphasis will be put on the
challenges to imperial ruling in the 19th and 20th century.

Concepts in secularization processes
This panel will discuss the conceptualization of various forms of
secularization processes including the concept of religion.

Periphery and centre
This panel will look into different ways of conceptualizing asymmetrical
relations between inside and outside.

Modernizing concepts
This panel will deal with the import of central concepts in processes of
modernization. The focus will be on the various interpretations and
redescriptions of crucial concepts such as nation, liberalism,
republicanism, democracy, civil society, public sphere and rule of law.

Parliamentarism
This panel will investigate the conceptual build up of parliamentarism
in various cultures.

Conceptual transfers
This panel will deal with tracing transfers of basic political and
social concepts in the 19th and 20th century.

Methodological issues
In this panel we will discuss the theoretical and methodological
questions that arise when moving the history of concepts from its
national setting to dealing with transferences and transnational
processes.

Parliamentary Sources in Conceptual History
This session shall deal with the theoretical and methodological problems
of analysing both the distinctive characteristics of parliamentary
speaking as well as with the problems of intra- and inter-parliamentary
comparison from the viewpoint of conceptual history. It will take up
exemplary case studies on conceptual histories based on parliamentary
sources, connecting the topic with theoretical and methodological
problems. The analysis of parliamentary sources for the study of any
conceptual changes is then one part of the panel. In addition, the
discussion of the distinctive parliamentary vocabulary, including such
as representation, mandate, deliberation, debate, discussion,
negotiation, and even more technical terms such as plenum, committees,
or the names of parliamentary functions and officials may contain
interesting topics for conceptual history.

The international reception of Reinhart Koselleck
This panel will focus on the international perception of Koselleck's
work and investigate the ways in which theoretical premises, paradigms
and specific works of Koselleck have come to influence historiograpic
discussions in the last decades and how that impact has led to a new
understanding of the relation between history and language.

For further details: http://www.itb.itu.edu.tr/anchorage/



Confirmed Participants include:

Key Note speakers:

Serif Mardin, (Sabanci University, Turkey)
Anthony Pagden (UCLA, U.S.A.)
Melvin Richter (Hunter's College, U.S.A)
Zafer Toprak (Bogaziçi University, Turkey)


Gürcan Koçan (ITU, Turkey)
Istar Gözaydin (ITU, Turkey)
Barry Socker (ITU, Turkey)
Stefo Benlisoy (ITU, Turkey)
Ahmet Öncü (Sabanci University, Turkey)
Nedim Nomer (Sabanci University, Turkey)
Simon Wigley (Bilkent University, Turkey)
Recep Sentürk (ISAM Turkey)
Jan Ifversen (Arhus University, Denmark)
Joao Feres (Instituto Universitãrio de Pesquisas do Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil) 
Kari Palonen (Jyvaskylan University, Finland) 
Martin J. Burke (University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A) 
Balázs Trencsényi (CEU Hungary) 
Henrik Stenius (University of Helsinki, Finland) 
Pim den Boer (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands) 
Sandro Chignola (Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy) 
Javier Fernández Sebastián (Universidad del Pais Vasco) 
Peter Burke (University of Cambridge, UK) 
Patricia Springborg (University of Bolzano, Italy) 
Willibald Steinmetz (University of Bielefeld, Germany) 
Raymonde Monnier (Saint-Cloud, France), 
Peter Hallberg (Stockholm University) 
Jörn Leonhard (Universität Freiburg, Germany)

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

The organising committee is now in the process of collecting abstracts.
All participants interested in presenting a contribution are kindly
asked to submit a one-page abstract to:

kocan at itu.edu.tr
kultji at hum.au.dk


IMPORTANT DATES

Closing date for receipt of abstracts: Monday 28th May, 2007
Notification of acceptance of abstracts: Friday 15th June, 2007 Full
paper submission: Friday 13th August, 2007


CALL TO ORGANIZE SESSIONS

Submissions for applications to organize a session for the conference
are also invited. Interested individuals/groups should submit
expressions of interest which include a synopsis of no more than 200
words outlining the duration, title, aims, and content of the proposed
session.

All proposals will be reviewed by the Organizing Committee.
Presentations will be selected to provide a program that offers
comprehensive and diverse treatment of issues relating to the conference
theme.

Authors of accepted abstracts must register for the conference. Where an
abstract is written by joint authors, at least one author is required to
register.

If you have any questions or run into problems, please send e-mail to:

kocan at itu.edu.tr or kultji at hum.au.dk


Gürcan Koçan
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences,
Faculty of Science and Letters,
Istanbul Technical University
34469 - Maslak, Istanbul, Turkey
E-mail: kocan at itu.edu.tr
Tel: +90 212 285 3295
Fax: +90 212 285 6622

Jan Ifversen
Institute of History and Area Studies
Aarhus University
Nrd. Ringgade 1
8000 Aarhus C Denmark
E-mail: kultji at hum.au.dk
Tel: + 45 89 42 64 92
Fax: + 45 89 42 20 47