15-20 July 2024
CEU Campus Budapest

Demographic Imaginaries:

Soft Authoritarianism, Majoritarian Identity Politics and Demographic Anxieties

INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL

Co-founded by the Open Society University Network (OSUN) and
the Research Group Soft Authoritarianisms, University of Bremen

Yisares 2024: Young international Scholars Autumn Research School 2024

The Topic

Conservative governments and far-right movements across different country contexts share a set of strikingly similar strategies that can be summed up as ‘demographic imaginaries.’ They facilitate a backlash against progressive reproductive and women’s rights, same-sex marriage, and LGBT+ communities, the use of coercive policies and rhetoric against religious, ethnic, and other minorities, or anti-immigration policies. Demographic anxieties are nurtured by conspiracy myths such as the narrative of the “great replacement,” just as much as by other forms of majoritarian identity politics which imagine the majority (be it: white, Christian and heterosexual, Hindu National, Turkish Sunni Muslim, or European etc.) as threatened by political, ethnic, religious, sexual and other minorities and their struggles for equal rights.

These demographic imaginaries are at the core of soft authoritarian attempts to reconstitute the body politic, transforming the population along ethnic and social lines to uphold the electoral majority. A wide range of tactics from gerrymandering to neo-Malthusian development policies and population control, anti-abortion legislation, anti- and pro-natalist discourses and policies, are used to secure power. By the inherently contradictory concept of soft authoritarianism, we mean to emphasize the specific ways in which democracies are currently being undermined from within. It describes a specific form of government that deliberately blurs the lines between democratic and authoritarian rule.

This Summer School will address the central role of these demographic imaginaries in facilitating soft authoritarian politics in different parts of the world. It aims to approach this topic from an interdisciplinary and globally comparative perspective. Looking into the specific political, juridical, cultural, technological, and discursive practices in the different country contexts, will problematize how these narratives and policies remain entangled with longstanding nationalist, racist, and sexist notions and colonial fantasies. It will examine how they are reframed today and the technological infrastructures and data-political presumptions they involve. The Summer School therefore has the overall goal of grasping the extent of these politics, their contradictions and effects, and the dangers that they entail for democratic and peaceful living together.

The Summer School

The six-day Summer School offers participants an outstanding learning environment with an international faculty of renowned scholars in their respective fields. The intensive interdisciplinary program is composed of five thematic modules and a range of pedagogical formats including keynote lectures and panel discussions, interactive workshop sessions, and group sessions, in which participants can closely discuss their own research interests and projects with their peers and faculty members, as well as a Academia-meets-Activism event. The program aims to enhance the participants’ critical engagement with a variety of cutting-edge approaches and fostering lasting collaborative international exchange among students and scholars from the Global South and North. 

Eligibility Criteria

Target Group

The course invites applications from MA students, PhD candidates, and Postdocs from Linguistics, Anthropology, Sociology, Political Science, Geography, Law, and Philosophy, and related fields of study. Applications from advanced undergraduate students who have adequate prior study or engagement experience on the subject and make a compelling case in their application/statement of interest will also be considered. We offer the following SUN financial packages: Fee Paying, Tuition Waiver, Partial Scholarship, Full Scholarship

Language requirements

The language of instruction is English; thus all applicants have to demonstrate a strong command of spoken and written English to be able to participate actively in discussions at seminars and workshops. Some of the shortlisted applicants may be contacted for a telephone interview.

Faculty Members

Mukulika Banerjee is Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science

Eva Fodor (CEU) is Professor of Gender Studies at the Central European University

Shalini Randeria is rector and president of the Central European University in Vienna and Professor of Social Anthropology and Sociology

Joachim Scharloth  is Professor of German Sudies at Waseda University, Tokyo.

Zsolt Enyedi is Professor at the Democracy Institute at CEU, Budapest

Tyler Zoanni is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Bremen

Ulrike Flader is Senior Researcher in the RG Soft Authoritarianisms at the University of Bremen and Lecturer at the Department of Anthropology and Cultural Research

Lipin Ram is Postdoc Researcher in the RG Soft Authoritarianisms at the University of Bremen

Hagen Steinhauer is Doctoral Researcher at the RG Soft Authoritarianisms at the University of Bremen

Nurhak Polat is an Associated Fellow of the RG Soft Authoritarianisms and Senior Researcher at the University of Bremen

The Organizers

This Summer School is jointly organized by the Research Group “Soft Authoritarianisms“ and the Collaborative Research Platform “Worlds of Contradictions” of the University of Bremen, and Central European University’s Summer University (CEU SUN). It is funded by the Open Society University Network (OSUN), CEU SUN, and the University of Bremen.

Programme

Monday, 15 July 2024

Welcome & Orientation

Module 1

Demographic Anxieties & Soft Authoritarianism (Part 1)

Lecture and Q&A : Shalini Randeria (CEU), Zsolt Enyedi (CEU)

Moderation: Ulrike Flader (Bremen)

 

Lunch & Leisure Time

Module 1

Demographic Anxieties & Soft Authoritarianism (Part II)

Workshop & Discussion: Shalini Randeria (CEU), Zsolt Enyedi (CEU)

Moderation: Ulrike Flader (Bremen)

 

Toggle Content

Welcome Reception

Tuesday, 16 July 2024

Module 2

Discourses of De/Marginalization (Part 1)

Panel and Q&A: Joachim Scharloth (Tokyo)

Moderation: Hagen Steinhauer (Bremen)

Toggle Content

Module 2

Discourses of De/Marginalization (Part 2)

Workshop Discussion: Joachim Scharloth (Tokyo)

Moderation: Hagen Steinhauer (Bremen)

Lunch & Leisure Time

Students Presentations
(2x parallel session)

Group A) Shalini Randeria, Eva Fodor & Ulrike Flader

Group B) Zsolt Enyedi, Mukulika Banerjee & Lipin Ram

Toggle Content

Students Presentations
(2x parallel session):

Group C) Joachim Scharloth, Tyler Zoanni & Hagen Steinhauer

Group D) Nurhak Polat

Wednesday, 17 July 2024

Module 3

Gender Regimes & Anti-Liberal State
(Part 1)

Lecture and Q&A: Eva Fodor (CEU)

Module 3

Gender Regimes & Anti-Liberal State
(Part 2)

Workshop Discussion:
Eva Fodor (CEU)

Lunch & Leisure Time

Students Presentations
(2x parallel session)

Group A) Zsolt Enyedi, Tylor Zoanni & Ulrike Flader

Group B) David Lyon, Shalini Randeria & Lipin Ram

Students Presentations
(2x parallel session)

Group C) Joachim Scharloth & Hagen Steinhauer

Group D) Eva Fodor, Mukulika Banerjee & Nurhak Polat

Thursday, 18 July 2024

Field visit to NGO’s/Activists in Budapest

Panel Discussion Event

“Academia meets Activism”

Friday, 19 July 2024

Module 4

Politics of Data and Infrastructures
(Part 1)

Lecture and Q&A: David Lyon (Queen’s University, Canada, tbc)

Moderation: Nurhak Polat (Bremen)

 

Module 4

Politics of Data and Infrastructures
(Part 2)

Workshop & Discussion: David Lyon (Queen’s University, Canada, tbc)

Moderation: Nurhak Polat (Bremen)

Lunch & Leisure Time

Students Presentations
(2x parallel session)

Group A) Mukulika Banerjee & Ulrike Flader

Group B) Eva Fodor, Tylor Zoanni & Lipin Ram

Students Presentations
(2x parallel session)

Group C) Joachim Scharloth, Shalini Randeria & Hagen Steinhauer

Group D) Zsolt Enyedi & Nurhak Polat

Saturday, 20 July 2024

Module 5

Demographic imaginaries’ and imagining democracy
(Part 1)

Panel and Q&A: Mukulika Banerjee (LSE), Tyler Zoanni (Bremen)

Moderation: Lipin Ram (Bremen)

Module 5

Demographic imaginaries’ and imagining democracy
(Part 2)

Workshop & Discussion: Mukulika Banerjee (LSE), Tyler Zoanni (Bremen)

Moderation: Lipin Ram (Bremen)

Lunch & Leisure Time

Round Table: Reflections of Students on Presentations and Summer School Content

Peer-to-Peer Session
Ulrike Flader, Hagen Steinhauer & Nurhak Polat

Final Feedback & Farewell

Shalini Randeria & Lipin Ram

Closing Dinner

Partners