ACT workshop: Asserting and Contesting ‘the good citizen’

Please note: This page refers to an event that has already taken place.

Time: 07 Jun 2017 - 09 Jun 2017
Place: PRIO, Hausmanns gate 3, Oslo

ACT workshop: Asserting and Contesting ‘the good citizen’

​The citizen’s role has occupied political theorists from different philosophical and religious traditions. Debates on citizenship in Europe are increasingly thought of in terms of civic virtue and how to be a good citizen. Yet the concept of the good citizen is heavily contested.

  • Which tensions and contestations arise in debates on what it means to participate as an active citizen in society?
  • How do lived experiences of citizens today challenge existing models of democracy?
  •  To what extent do these experiences contrast with official policies and public discourse, and in what ways are experiences and discourse affecting one another?

At this academic workshop we aim to debate these and other questions that brings together scholars with a wide background of disciplines, methodological approaches, geographical interests and thematic expertise.​​ ​

    The workshop is organized in conjunction with the research project Active Citizenship in Culturally and Religiously Diverse Societies (ACT)​, which is funded by the Research Council of Norway. Conveners are​ the ACT research team​. 

    The workshop will not be open to the public.

    Program

    Wednesday 7 June 2017

    08:30–09:00 Coffee and Registration  Workshop opening       Chair: Cindy Horst
    09:00–10:00 Welcome, practical information, ACT project presentation and round of introductions

    Session I: Democracy and the Active Citizen   Chair: Per Mouritsen 

    10:00–10:40 Kjersti Fjørtoft, University of Tromsø

    What is Good, Democratic Citizenship?

    Discussant: Thomas Boje

    10:40-11:00 Coffee Break

    11:00-11:40 Carmen Geha, American University of Beirut
    Formal and Informal Pedagogies of Active Citizenship: Lessons Learnt from the Middle East, Gulf and North Africa
    Discussant: Cindy Horst

    11:40–12:20 Maria-Fernanda Gonzalez Rojas, University of Tromsø
    The Identity of a Good Citizen in Scenarios of Crisis: Some reflections on the case of Mexico
    Discussant: Marta Bivand Erdal

    12:20–13:20 Lunch

    Session II: Drivers of Civic Engagement    Chair: Marta Bivand Erdal

    13:20–14:00 Cindy Horst (Peace Research Institute Oslo) and Odin Lysaker (Agder University)
    Miracles in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt and Refugees as Political Subjects
    Discussant: Constanza Vera-Larrucea

    14:00–14:40 Tore Vincents Olsen, Aarhus University
    Muslim’s Views on Homosexuality in Danish Public Debate
    Discussant: Margaretha van Es

    14:40-15:20 Noor Jdid, Peace Research Institute Oslo
    Exclusion as a Driver to take Responsibility
    Discussant: Kjersti Fjørtoft

    15:20-16:20 Discussion       

    Dinner: TBA

    Thursday 8 June 2017

    Session III: Citizenship and Belonging    Chair: Cindy Horst

    08:15-08.30 Coffee  


    08:30-09:10 Thomas Boje, University of Roskilde
    Inclusive Act of Citizenship: Framing the Condition for Good Citizens
    Discussant: Noor Jdid

    09:10-09:50 Margaretha van Es, Utrecht University
    Muslims Condemning Violent Extremism: The Promise of the Social Contract and the Need to be a «Good Citizen»
    Discussant: Jonas Jacobsen

    09:50-10:30 Elin Doeland and Ebba Tellander, Peace Research Institute Oslo
    Everyday Stories of Home: Why Citizenship Matters
    Discussant: Per Mouritsen

    10:30–10:50 Coffee Break

    Session IV: Spatialisations of Citizenship 1  Chair: Jonas Jakobsen

    10:50–11:30 Camilla Marucco, University of Turku
    Women with a Somali background in Turku, Finland: Everyday Spaces, Ideas and Practices of Citizenship
    Discussant: Britt Lynnebakke

    11:30–12:10 Marta Bivand Erdal, Peace Research Institute Oslo
    Migration and Multiscalar Lived Citizenship: Theorising the interactions of migrant transnationalism and Integration
    Discussant: Martijn Koster


    12:10–13:10 Lunch


    Session IV: Spatialisations of Citizenship 2  Chair: Tore Vincents Olsen

    13:10-13:50 Britt Lynnebakke, Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research and Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences
    The Art of Socialising: Social Integration and Associational Participation in a Rural Norwegian Place
    Discussant: Maria-Fernanda Gonzalez Rojas

    13:50-14:30 Constanza Vera-Larrucea, Stockholm University
    Can External Citizens be Good Citizens? Dual Citizens in Sweden about their «Second» Belonging
    Discussant: Tore Vincents Olsen

    14:30-15:30 Discussion       
     
    Dinner: TBA

    Friday 9 June 2017

    08:30–09:00 Coffee

    Session V: Contesting the Good Citizen   Chair: Noor Jdid

    09:00–09:40  Jonas Jakobsen, University of Tromsø, and Per Mouritsen, Aarhus University
    Civic Integration as Civic (mis)recognition: Potentials and Problems in Honneth’s political philosophy
    Discussant: Odin Lysaker

    09.40–10:20 Martijn Koster, Radboud University

    Mediating citizenship: Political brokerage in Brazil and the Netherlands
    Discussant: Carmen Geha

    10.20–11:00 Cindy Horst and Marta Bivand Erdal, Peace Research Institute Oslo


    «The Model Active Citizen»: Asserting and Contesting Perceived Norms of Participation, Commitment and Belonging in Oslo
    Discussant: Camilla Marucco

    11:00–12:00 Discussion       
     
    12:00–13:00 Lunch

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