Foucault News

Expressions of Interest invited.
Doc / Post-Doc Applied Research Program: Governmentality Of Migratory Flows (2017)

GOVERNMENTALITY OF MIGRATORY FLOWS  GOMIF

The European Public Law Organization through its Department of Hellenic Center of European Studies (EKEME) has applied for funding under the framework of Jean Monnet to support the launch of a one-year Doc/Post-Doc Program focusing on Migratory Flows as a major Governmentality issue. The proposed program will be comprised of five intensive four-day sessions held in Greece, France, Spain and Luxembourg and conducted by academics from the following institutions in those countries: the University of Athens, the University of the Aegean, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the University of Bordeaux and the University of Luxembourg.

This program is primarily addressed to Doc and Post-Doc researchers with an interdisciplinary interest, but is also open to highly motivated Masters’ degree students.

Interested Students should contact the Program’s administration via e-mail with a short letter of interest and a copy of their CV at the following address: kpanselinos@eplo.int (Application Deadline: August 31st, 2017).

Program Description

The main topic of the Program is Migration as perceived through the lens of Governmentality, in particular as a permanent challenge to set the biopolitical border between constituted power, primarily of the nation State and the EU, and strategic power as concern for the population. It recognizes dimensions of a new class war in migratory flows, in particular in transnational conditions proper to the European Union that has been built on the freedom to move. It will attempt to provide a transversal understanding for all parts concerned as this may be achieved through the governmentality approach and addressed to both migrants and the indigenous societies.

A. The innovative aspects of this Program may be traced in the following features:

• Members of Academia, both professors and researchers will use the conceptual tools of Governmentality to problematize on actual, real-life situations based on legal texts and practices as those become evident in almost real time.
• Academics will be faced with organizations and people with experience in the field (NGOs, migrant organizations) and interested civil society at large, thus encouraging a direct debate between Practice and Theory.
• All this will constitute a truly transnational venture, by bringing together Students, Researchers and Professors from different epistemic backgrounds, regardless of nationality.

B. Fitting the European governance perspective into terms of Foucauldian governmentality is a theoretical and practical challenge that will be adequately met by experienced academics that have significant experience of the European Union institutions. The following academics will deliver the program:

• Professor Emeritus Nikos Scandamis (European Law, University of Athens) has conducted the EU’s migratory policy as Director at the European Commission in the 80’s and is the author of «Paradigme de la Gouvernance européenne. Entre souveraineté et marché».
• Professor Emeritus Achilleas Mitsos taught European policies and politics at the University of the Aegean and was Director General for Research of the European Commission until 2005.
• Jean Monnet Professor Olivier Dubos of the University of Bordeaux, Director of the Montesquieu Law Review and the review “Droits européens », has published extensively in the area of Public Law and especially human rights, recently on « Les agences décentralisées : catégories juridiques et méandres de la gouvernementalité dans l’Union » (Bruxelles 2016).
• Professor Eleftheria Neframi teaches European Law at the University of Luxembourg. She was professor at Paris 13 University as “agrégée” of the faculties of law in France. She has published widely on questions of European external relations, European litigation and Europeanization of national law.
• Professor Marta Franch Saguer teaches Administrative Law at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, author, among others, of «Le gouvernement économique européen».

C. The Program will be of an intensive nature and will involve seminar-like classes where attendance is mandatory and active participation is essential. For the Academic year of 2017/2018, the Program will be comprised of five Sessions taking place at the facilities of the participating organizations on the following dates:

Inaugural Session (October 20th – October 24th, Sounion, Greece)

Autumn Session (December 15th- December 19th, Bordeaux, France)

Winter Session (February 23rd – February 27th, Barcelona, Spain)

Spring Session (April 13th – April 17th, Luxembourg)

Closing Session (June 15th – June 19th, Island of Tinos, Greece).

D. A Diploma level degree will be granted to participants attending all sessions, whereas a Certificate of Attendance will be awarded to those choosing to be involved in only one or several sessions. The working language is English; however working knowledge of French is an asset.

E. This program is tuition-free. The tuition of this program will be covered by the Jean Monnet funding mechanism, pending the success of the application. Students will be responsible for their own accommodation and travel expenses, and will be assisted by the relevant organizing institution in each country.

Interested Students that wish to apply should contact the Program’s administration via e-mail with a short letter of interest and a copy of their CV at the following address: kpanselinos@eplo.int (Application Deadline: August 31st, 2017).

The EPLO is an international organization dedicated to the creation and dissemination of knowledge in the area of Public Law lato sensu and Governance, including but not limited to, inter alia, national, comparative and European public law, human rights law and environmental law and the promotion of European values for a better generation of lawyers and democratic institutions worldwide. There are sixteen countries, sixty nine Universities and four public authorities currently participating within its Board of Directors. To this date it has developed, organized and supported more than 200 educational, research, training, institution building and other activities and has provided assistance to democratic institutions in more than 70 countries.

Governmentality is a concept coined by the philosopher Michel Foucault, defined as “the ensemble formed by the institutions, procedures, analyses and reflections, the calculations and tactics that allow the exercise of this very specific albeit complex form of power, which has as its target population, as its principal form of knowledge political economy, and as its essential technical means apparatuses of security”. This is a relational conception of society and its institutions connecting the political and the subjective realms by reflecting on the historical and social conditions that rendered a certain historical knowledge of society “real”. It is proper to critically reflect on the findings of governance research in a kind of a meta-analysis which is particularly promising for complex situations, such as the population flows.