Globalization, Identity Politics, and Social Conflict

Project on Globalization, Identity Politics, and Social Conflict:
Contemporary Discourses and Texts (GIPSC Project)

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Outline

This is an international collaborative research project initiated by colleagues in the U.K., India, and Nigeria in 2000, and recently joined by colleagues in China, Iran, Morocco, and Bulgaria. The general idea underlying this is that the relationships between socio-political and economic phenomena such as globalization, identity-politics and different forms of social conflict are usually most concretely, immediately and effectively encountered and expressed in social/cultural discourses and texts in the public domain, rather than in discourses and texts in specialist domains or within closed spaces (policy formulation spaces, for instance). The project consists in systematically examining the former, both in terms of the experience within specific contexts and in terms of the comparative features that are perceivable, so to say, from outside. The experience within specific contexts is gauged by organizing workshops (typically in collaboration with a research centre/group/institution in the country in question) in chosen countries and initiating discussion between Project members and scholars who are doing research therein; and the comparative perspective is developed, following from the workshops, collaboratively by the Project members (who include representatives from all the countries in question).

The project addresses the above particularly in relation to “contemporary texts and discourses”. This refers specifically to the following:

a. Ordinary language usage and interpersonal communication (pragmatics of everyday language usage in relation to specific spaces [e.g., offices, home, shops], persons [e.g. men to women, older to younger, within peer groups], situations [e.g. formal or informal], and topics);
b. Creative forms (literary, performative, aural and visual arts/crafts/rituals and their dissemination/reception);
c. Mass media texts and discourses (the communication of information, ideas, etc. for mass consumption and the assimilation thereof);
d. Pedagogic texts and discourses pertinent to the above (how educational/research institutions are situated with regard to the task of presenting, analyzing, contributing to the above).

The focus on texts and discourses as described above entails a break from the sociology/economics/political science models of research into globalization, identity politics and social conflict, which typically explore these: (i) either in relation to existing general concepts of social/economic/political organization and agency; (ii) or with a view to answering identified and experienced social/economic/political problems in specific contexts and situations. Much research that is conducted in this area from nominally cultural studies or media studies disciplinary perspectives is also essentially in the sociology/economics/political science mould. However, in disciplinary terms the approach advocated in this project is closely connected to some aspects of cultural studies and media studies disciplines – in general the approach of the project can be characterized as broadly humanities-based (incorporating disciplinary approaches pertinent to sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, literary studies, history, philosophy, education etc.).

Further details of the kind of topics that are covered in workshops is available by clicking on “workshops” from the menu, and checking out the sample abstracts of contributions that are placed there.

The main activity of the project is organizing workshops with collaborating institutions in different countries of interest to the project. Thus a workshop was organized in Delhi in March 2002, another has taken place in Lagos in April 2003, one is due to take place in London in July 2004; and others are planned for Plovdiv, Bulgaria; Rabat, Morocco; Beijing, China; and Tehran, Iran. The following are the organizational principles of these workshops:

a. The GIPSC Project (and any other research group that works in partnership with it) will in every context collaborate with an appropriate institution within the country where the workshop is planned. A collaborating institution typically provides some financial assistance toward the workshop, plays host to the workshop, identifies researchers who are most likely to contribute appropriately and secures their presence. Where necessary, collaborating institutions also arrange for official clearances, and assist overseas visitors to obtain visas.

b. Each workshop is attended by a core group of GIPSC Project members (which includes colleagues from each of the countries involved), who provide a common denominator for all the workshops. In every workshop appropriate contributors are invited from within the country where the workshop is held to contribute on a theme relevant to the project. The point of the workshop is to enable the core group to interact and discuss common interests with scholars active within the country where the workshop is held.

c. Apropos the contributors who are invited in each country, the emphasis is more on their ability to comment on ground level realities with empirical evidence (though relevant theoretical insights are also welcomed), than on their academic standing or reputation. Less-established/young colleagues in a position to make such contributions and those with serious research interests but without academic affiliations are invited (even given preference). There are no keynote speakers or leading sessions.

d. Of particular interest in these workshops are not only the presentations that are made by contributors, but also the discussions that follow them. Discussions are normally recorded and transcribed, and published with workshop proceedings and taken into account when comparative features are later collated by the core group.

The outcomes of the project are of three sorts:

1. Short-term outcomes: The proceedings of each workshop, focusing on the specific context in which it takes place and addressing the issues relevant to the project, are published. This may be mainly in the country where the workshop is held, but also sometimes in Europe and America. The GIPSC Project undertakes to secure contracts for the latter. Results of the research arising from this project are also made available through the Internet and journal publications.

2. Medium-term outcomes: In the course of the project, and as experience and material from the workshops accumulate, GIPSC Project members will explore further the comparative features that appear from the workshops, with a view to assessing existing policy in areas such as media in pluralistic societies, pragmatics of human rights legislation in different contexts, negotiations between diasporic and dominant communities, conflict resolution at different levels (internal and trans-boundary) relevant to specific political and national formations, etc.

3. Long-term outcomes: To foster further research and collaboration between institutions and individuals on more focused themes within this area, on the basis of the network that the project is designed to create. In general, to facilitate collaborative and cooperative research in matters of common human interest, across geographical and political boundaries.