PLATO anthology workshop

The purpose of the additional Antwerp workshop is to start the work on an edited book proposal toward a theory of (de)legitimation in the European Union with contributions by PLATO's PhD researchers.

Purpose of the workshop

The purpose of this workshop is to prepare an edited volume for the PLATO project. Each researcher is invited to contribute a chapter/article of her/his PhD to be included in the volume regarding crises of legitimacy and/or legitimation in the European Union. During the workshop we will:

  1. Map how each researcher analyses different dimensions of legitimacy of the EU
  2. Identify how these relate, complement, or rival each other
  3. Set out a time table for the preparation of draft chapters for the PLATO school in Twente in October 2019

Download full outline (pdf)

Programme

Seminar room M.102

09:00-09:30 Registration with coffee and tea
09:30-11:00

Session 1: Mapping contributions across dimensions and forms of legitimacy and (de)legitimation

11:00-11:20 Coffee break
11:20-12:30

Session 2: Matching the different contributions to an edited volume

12:30-13:30 Lunch (M.103)
13:30-14:00 After-lunch walk to Hof van Liere
14:00-15:30

Session 3: Practical steps towards the edited book

15:30-16:00 Coffee
16:00-16:30 Walk to Antwerp Brewer Company
16:30-18:30 Tour and Beer tasting
19:00 Dinner, Il Capriani

Preparatory work

After consultation between Chris Lord and the members of the local organization committee, we came to the following first rudimentary structure of such an edited volume. We would like each PhD researcher to submit a 1-page document on the three elements specified below to Dirk and Chris by the deadline of Friday 8 March.

Since each PhD project has its own specific focus and aim, each chapter will naturally also adopt a particular conceptualization (and operationalization) of key concepts, as well as their place in the research hypotheses. Such conceptualizations can range from broad to narrow, more abstract to more empirical, and the key concepts can vary from legitimacy, legitimation, over (dis)trust, support and contestation to crises and reform. Therefore, we would like you to specify on which aspect you would mainly focus in your contribution:

  1. On which or several of the 3 ‘models’ specified in Chris Lord’s Living Review do you mostly focus?
    1. direct legitimation to citizens?
    2. indirect legitimation by member state parliaments/democracies?
    3. input/throughput/output legitimacy, and which of these?
  2. Do you mainly focus on legitimacy crises, i.e. on legitimacy-threatening deficits, or legitimation crises, i.e. obstacles to repairing those deficits?
  3. (Il)legitimacy can exist in the eye of the beholder and (de)legitimation strategies take form with respect to a particular type of constituency. On which type of constituency does your main focus lie?
    1. Mainly individuals or mainly collective actors?
      1. If individuals: mainly citizens or policy makers?
      2. If collective actors: public opinion as a collective? stakeholders? political parties? interest groups? economic sectors? Other?
    2. Mainly national or mainly European actors?
  4. When analysing what is to be legitimated, do you mainly focus on:
    1. Politicians / individuals?
    2. Politics / institutional design?
    3. Policies / policy output?

On the basis of the information you will provide us with in that 1 page document, Dirk De Bièvre, Peter Bursens and Chris Lord will map the 15 contributions, which will be distributed on beforehand and which you will be expected to have read. During the workshop we will not expect you to present that, but will dive immediately into a possible design of the volume, discuss this, and reflect on how you can proceed with writing out your own draft chapter by the time of the Twente workshop.

On the basis of that, we would like to write an edited book proposal for an academic publisher in the course of 2019. The 15 contributions would be flanked by an introduction and a concluding chapter. The introduction would map and relate these PLATO research contributions and their different approaches to (il)legitimacy and (de)legitimation, explain their differing concrete avenues to research those, as well as present the different empirical findings of these contributions. The concluding chapter would then consist of a more helicopter-like chapter toward a theory of (de)legitimation in the European Union.

Venue

The workshop will take place at the University of Antwerp's City Campus. De Meerminne, home of the Faculty of Social Sciences, is centrally located in one of the new campus buildings, just opposite the 'Sint Jacobs' church, one of the many important historic buildings of the city.

City Campus map (pdf)

De Meerminne building
'De Meerminne' on the University of Antwerp's City Campus (photo: Bouwbedrijf Floré)

Brewery tour

Antwerp Brewery Company
Indiëstraat 21
2000 Antwerpen

Dinner

Il Capriani
Bataviastraat 19
2000 Antwerpen

Directions

From neighbouring countries to Antwerp

Antwerp Central Station – at 10 minutes from the university – is only 40 minutes away from Brussels South Station, which is a hub for High Speed Trains from London, Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt. Some high speed trains also stop in Antwerp. Therefore the most convenient and most ecological way for most of you is to reach Antwerp by train.

From Brussels Airport to Antwerp

There is a direct train from Brussels Airport (Zaventem) to Antwerp Central Station, which will take approximately 30 minutes. The train will depart from the -1 floor of the airport, please follow the signs. Tickets can be purchased at the machines located at the airport.

Local organisation committee

Dirk De Bièvre, Peter Bursens, Bas Redert, Philipp Lausberg (Antwerp)
& current guests Claire Godet and Joris Melman (Oslo)

Published Feb. 12, 2019 11:09 PM - Last modified Feb. 15, 2019 9:47 AM