All over the world, we are currently observing deepening crises of liberal democracies and an intensification of authoritarian and neo-fascist tendencies. Emergencies of Authoritarianism is an international and interdisciplinary research project dedicated to deepening our understanding of this contemporary global constellation of authoritarianisms. ‘Emergencies’ implies emergences: It captures the heterogeneous genealogies of authoritarianism both in their spatial specificity and their temporal transformations and shifts. More importantly, ‘Emergencies’ also connect scientific analysis with democratic intervention: An emergency is an urgent situation that demands an immediate response. We therefore strive in to combine scientific analysis with the search for practical perspectives for policy making, alliance building and concrete solidarity.
All over the world, we are currently observing deepening crises of liberal democracies and an intensification of authoritarian and neo-fascist tendencies. Emergencies of Authoritarianism is an international and interdisciplinary research project dedicated to deepening our understanding of this contemporary global constellation of authoritarianisms. ‘Emergencies’ implies emergences: It captures the heterogeneous genealogies of authoritarianism both in their spatial specificity and their temporal transformations and shifts. More importantly, ‘Emergencies’ also connect scientific analysis with democratic intervention: An emergency is an urgent situation that demands an immediate response. We therefore strive in to combine scientific analysis with the search for practical perspectives for policy making, alliance building and concrete solidarity.
upcoming
April 24, 2025
Authoritarian Times: Crisis and Utopia
6:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Buenos Aires
Free event
A panel discussion with Zeynep Gambetti (Istanbul), Rosaura Martínez (México), Daniel Loick (Amsterdam) and Paula Biglieri (Buenos Aires), moderated by Gisela Catanzaro (Buenos Aires)
Location: Centro Cultural de la Cooperación Floreal Gorini, Av. Corrientes 1543, Sala Laks (3rd Floor), Buenos Aires, Argentina
New authoritarianisms are often taken to emerge in a time of crisis. However, beyond indicating an uncertain future, the precise conditions of this crisis often remain elusive. Questioning the relationship between the crisis of the temporal regime of modernity and the new authoritarianisms, this panel will simultaneously promote a discussion on what is new about these authoritarianisms, and also on the very diagnosis of our present as an era emptied of images of the future. Analyzing the transformations of temporal regimes in their heterogeneity, as well as their relationships with other material and symbolic crises, the panel will seek to address the contradictory aspects of our time on a double level: On the one hand, it seeks to question the meanings of the current crisis: How can this crisis be thought and how does it relate to what authoritarianism does to time? On the other hand, a series of questions related to the challenges of political struggle impose themselves: what openings, if any, for emancipatory responses to authoritarianism does the crisis of historical time bring about?
Paula Biglieri is an independent researcher at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) and co-organiser of Cátedra Libre Ernesto Laclau at the University of Buenos Aires. Zeynep Gambetti is an independent researcher in political theory, based in Istanbul, and co-chair of the board of the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs. Daniel Loick is associate professor of political and social philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and principal investigator of Emergencies of Authoritarianism as well as of a research project on Abolition Democracy. Rosaura Martínez Ruiz is Professor of Philosophy at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and a member of the National System of Researchers (Mexico),Gisela Catanzaro is professor of political science and sociology at the University of Buenos Aires and independent researcher at CONICET.
Gambetti, Loick, Martínez Ruiz and Catanzaro are members of the research project “Emergencies of Authoritarianism,” an initiative of the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs funded by the Volkswagen Stiftung (Germany). This event is co-organized by the ICCTP, the Centro Cultural de la Cooperación Floreal Gorini, and the Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani at the University of Buenos Aires.
past
October 18, 2024
Emergencies of Authoritarianism: Global Entanglements
A panel discussion with Debaditya Bhattacharya (Delhi), Gisela Catanzaro (Buenos Aires), Zeynep Gambetti (Istanbul), Eva von Redecker (Berlin), moderated by Daniel Loick (Amsterdam). 18.10.2024, SPUI25, Amsterdam.
Authoritarian, right-wing populist, and fascist tendencies are currently gaining strength all over the world. But how do different instantiations of authoritarianism relate to each other? It is clear that methodological nationalism cannot account for the mimetic resurfacing of memes, electoral strategies, and administrative maneuvers in hitherto unconnected parts of the globe. But the well-rehearsed dialectic between the local and the global does not capture the phenomenon either: specific forms of authoritarianism are neither local phenomena that become interconnected only ex post facto, nor are they simply local manifestations of a global phenomenon. Rather, the heterogeneous emergencies of authoritarianism are transversal, interacting with, inspiring, and challenging each other in complex ways, not without maintaining their respective specific national and regional frontlines. The participants of this panel discussion will shed light on the global entanglements of authoritarianism based on their specific local experiences and situated knowledge. What are some of the main characteristics of authoritarianism today? How are its different variations connected with each other? How are they dependent on other global developments? What are useful theoretical concepts to analyze, criticize and effectively respond to authoritarianism?
Mission Statement
Authoritarian, right-wing populist, and fascist tendencies are currently gaining strength all over the world. The task is not only to analyze authoritarianism critically, but also to respond to it politically. For this purpose, this project proposes the novel concept of Emergencies of Authoritarianism. Emergencies implies emergences, the development of authoritarian tendencies out of their “normal” latency and enabling conditions. We adopt a critical perspective that analyzes local trajectories in their transversal global entanglements and complex interactions in order to avoid both methodological nationalism and Eurocentric bias. At the same time, emergencies imply urgencies: they demand an immediate response. Authoritarianisms cannot be reduced to past times, nor to distant places, but can emerge, with new victim groups, anywhere.
Over the coming years, the project will organize workshops and conferences at different locations around the globe and present its results in various publication formats. As a transnational network with equal partners from the Global South, we work closely with non-academic actors such as NGOs, cultural institutions, and journalists, using locally generated knowledge to develop robust responses to the threat of authoritarianism.
Emergencies of Authoritarianism is a project of the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs (ICCTP). The ICCTP aims to document and facilitate the new global contours of critical theory today by supporting critical thought both inside and outside the university in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and science and technology studies.
The project team is coordinated by Judith Butler (Berkeley), Robin Celikates (Berlin), Daniel Loick (Amsterdam), and Zeynep Gambetti (Istanbul), and involves Debaditya Bhattacharya (Delhi), Gisela Catanzaro (Buenos Aires), Denise Ferreira Da Silva (New York), Rosaura Martínez (Mexico City), and Eva von Redecker (Berlin). “Emergencies of Authoritarianism” is funded by the VolkswagenStiftung (Germany).
Partners
