WP45 PhD Summer School: The interface of citizenship, civil society and rule of law

University of Aberdeen, Scotland, Tuesday 25th – Friday 28th August 2009. Academic coordinator: Trevor Stack, [email protected]. Administrator: Lloyd Dodd, [email protected]. Deadline for applications: 8th July 2009.

Citizenship, civil society and rule of law have each received abundant attention in recent years, both in theoretical debates and in empirical studies of how they are understood and play out in particular contexts. However, there has been rather less analysis of the relationship between them. Citizenship, civil society and rule of law have been packaged together by international organisations such as the World Bank and IMF under the label of good governance. But they have rather different histories, both within and beyond Europe, which may help to explain, for example, why “transitions to democracy” are often characterised by advances in voting rights while the rule of law gets left behind, and why global civil society seems a more likely prospect than global citizenship or rule of law. So how do citizenship, civil society and rule of law differ from each other, both in theory and in practice? And in what particular ways do they relate to each other? Do they always belong together, or is the marriage at times a forced one?

We invite PhD students working on citizenship, civil society or rule of law to apply for a place at our summer school. We expect that most applicants will have worked on only one or two of citizenship, civil society and rule of law, in which case the challenge is to link their research to the third. The summer school is open to PhD students from any discipline and conducting either theoretical or empirical research.

Programme for summer school

The summer school will begin with a two-day international workshop on Tuesday 25th and Wednesday 26th August, at which scholars from a variety of disciplines will address the topic in theoretical and/or empirical terms. For a full description of the workshop, please see the call for papers (http://www.cinefogo.org/workpackages/wp45/wp45-workshop-august-2009)

The workshop will be followed by the summer school itself on Thursday 27th and Friday 28th August:
on Thursday morning, students will reflect on the workshop with several of the speakers, followed by discussion on Thursday afternoon of a set of related readings
on Friday morning and afternoon, students will draw on their PhD research to address the topic, receiving feedback from the workshop speakers as well as their fellow-students.

Aims of summer school

The summer school is intended to give PhD students the opportunity to:
relate their research to broader, inter-disciplinary debates on citizenship, civil society and rule of law, with a view to rethinking and developing their arguments
present their research in a supportive setting and receive feedback on the content and form of their presentation
discuss their research infomally with scholars and with other PhD students – we recognize that PhD students are sometimes relatively isolated

Admission and funding

There will be no fee for attending the workshop. Successful PhD applicants will receive board and lodging for the duration of the workshop and summer school, as well as the first £200 of their travel expenses. In return we ask that you commit to:
preparing a 10-minute presentation, drawing on your PhD research to address the topic
after your presentation you will receive questions and comments from the scholars and other PhD students
you are also expected to pose questions and comments about the presentations of your fellow PhD students
doing the selected readings in advance of the summer school, with a view to discussing them in the Thursday afternoon session
contributing where possible to the 2-day workshop as well as taking notes on the workshop to discuss in the first session of the summer school, which will reflect on the workshop

We anticipate that admission will be quite competitive, because we will cap the number of summer school students at 20, in order to allow time for a full discussion of presentations and for enough personal contact between PhD students and the scholars present.

Please complete and submit the form below, together with your CV, to the summer school administrator, Lloyd Dodd ([email protected]), by Wednesday 8th July.