ÌÇÐÄTV

Madeleine Fagan publishes new article in International Political Sociology ’’ (open access)

This article argues that the Anthropocene produces a paradox when thinking about political mobilization. I show how the knowledge production practices that render the Anthropocene visible and actionable, including planetary boundaries, Earth System Science modeling of earth systems, and geological strata, also circulate a security rationality. This rationality is one that attempts to manage, co-opt, or productively direct processes of becoming, which limits possibilities for mobilization. A lens that assumes political mobilization is a function of increased knowledge, understanding, and evidence contributes to this problem. By starting instead with an understanding of possibilities for mobilization as emerging from social relations, the article highlights the way in which the security rationality circulated by Anthropocene knowledge production risks transforming those social relations into security relations. Netting the planet and the human together through the practices of calculation and representation that make the Anthropocene visible produces a decontextualized, disaggregated, and dispersed subject and so limits possibilities for collective political mobilization.

Date: Monday, 6th February

Time: 12:15-13:30

Place: R1.03, Ramphal Building

In the study of China’s foreign affairs, historians like to suggest that the past is always present. A ‘Century of Humiliation’ in the nineteenth century or fighting the Japanese in the 1930s and 1940s are often referenced. Yet another historic development, namely China’s development of nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s, is often absent from this assessment. In contrast to many other nuclear weapons states, China has largely been quiet about its nuclear past. Only in the last years of former leader Hu Jintao (2003-2012) and now the current leader, Xi Jinping (2013-) has China started to commemorate its nuclear weapons development more seriously. This paper sets out to understand both the nature and timing of this commemoration within China but also the wider implications of nuclear commemoration for regional and international security. Ultimately, under Xi Jinping, China’s nuclear past is finally becoming present.

Dr Nicola Leveringhaus is Senior Lecturer in East Asian Security and International Relations at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. Dr Leveringhaus specialises in nuclear weapons issues in Northeast Asia, especially related to China. She has lectured at Sheffield University (2015-16) and was a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2012-15) at the University of Oxford. She has been a Senior Visiting Scholar at Tsinghua University; and a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. She holds an MPhil in Modern Chinese Studies and DPhil in International Relations from St. Antony's College, Oxford. Her second book China and Global Nuclear Order, from Estrangement to Active Engagement was nominated for the 2017 ECPR Hedley Bull Prize.

ONLINE EVENT – 8th February 2023, 17:00-18:30

Presented by BREM – Borders, Race, Ethnicity and Migration Network

Join the meeting using this link on the day of the discussion:

Thom Tyerman will discuss his book Everyday Border Struggles: Segregation and Solidarity in the UK and Calais with Ana Aliverti (University of ÌÇÐÄTV) and Joe Turner (University of York)

In an age of mobility, borders appear to be everywhere. Encountered more and more in our everyday lives, borders locally enact global divisions and inequalities of power, wealth, and identity. From the Calais ‘jungle’ to the UK’s ‘hostile environment’ policy, this book examines how borders in the UK and Calais operate through everyday practices of segregation. At the same time, it reveals how border segregation is challenged and resisted by everyday practices of ‘migrant solidarity’ among people on the move and no borders activists. In doing so, it explores how everyday borders are key sites of struggles over and against postcolonial and racialised global inequalities. This talk will be of interest to scholars and students working on migration, borders, and citizenship as well as practitioners and organisers in migrant rights, asylum advocacy, and anti-detention or deportation campaigns.

As part of the AHRC-DFG funded project: Moral Obligation and Epistemology: The Case of Vaccine Hesitancy, we have launched a podcast series.

We will be interviewing academics in health psychology, philosophy, politics and public health, as well as professionals working in public health, government, and social media. Topics explored in the podcast include: the rationality of hesitancy, conspiracy theories, misinformation, and hesitancy among vulnerable communities.

The podcasts will appeal to academics interested in the causes of vaccine hesitancy, and in the tools and methods we can use to increase vaccine uptake.

PAIS is a member of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) – here is a reminder of events, opportunities and benefits for PAIS researchers, including PhD students.

The ECPR The Joint Sessions of Workshops will be held 25 – 28 April 2023 at Sciences Po Toulouse and Online. This is an excellent intensive series of workshops on specific topics. The call for papers is now open – browse the and submit your proposal by 9 January 2023.

The ECPR General Conference will be held 4 – 8 September 2023 at Charles University, Prague. The deadline for paper proposals will be 28 February 2023 (see ).

There is also – just – time to register for the ECPR Winter School on Social Science Methods, to be held 6 – 11 February 2023 at KU Leuven and Online. To secure your spot: click to browse the course list, add your chosen course to the basket, and head to checkout. The course confirmation deadline is 19 December.

Because ÌÇÐÄTV is a full ECPR member institution, there are funding opportunities especially for research students and early career researchers – see . The easiest way to keep up with ECPR events and opportunities is to sign up to MyECPR at .

Any questions, please contact ÌÇÐÄTV and PAIS’ official representative, Michael Saward (m.j.saward@warwick.ac.uk).