EARLY CAREER SYMPOSIUM

‘Theorising Governance’
Postgraduate and Early Career Symposium
University of Glasgow, Friday 12th June 2009

Governance has gained increasing conceptual currency across the social sciences. At the level of ideas, it captures important changes in the way in which society is governed, especially how networks and hierarchies have been structured and restructured in recent decades. Yet it also reflects something more fundamental. Namely, the long standing theoretical interest of the academic community in issues relating to power and rule in contemporary society. Traditionally, this has manifested itself in concerns about ‘who’ has power and ‘what’ are its effects. More recently, this has also encompassed a consideration of ‘how’ power is exercised and its underpinning discursive strategies.

An inherently contested concept, at the most general level governance refers to the strategies, tactics, procedures and processes deployed in order to control, shape, regulate or exercise authority over others at a variety of scales ranging from the micro to the macro level. It involves actors both within and beyond the state, and most importantly perhaps, affords a key role to subjects in their own self-government, as recent UK policy initiatives such as the Respect Agenda, Community Empowerment and Welfare-to-Work have illuminated only too clearly.

Building on last year’s event in Sheffield, the focus of this symposium is the exploration of theories of governance, and their implicit and explicit links with the concept of power.

Key themes include:
• Different theoretical approaches to exploring and critiquing developments in governance
• The limits of theory in analysing empirical data and the challenges this poses for research
• Critical insights and implications for the policy process

Confirmed plenary speaker:
John Flint, Professor of Housing and Urban Governance
Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Sheffield Hallam University

This event is being funded by the Urban Studies journal. Attendance is FREE and both lunch and tea/coffee will be provided. To register or offer a workshop paper, please contact:
Kim McKee (kim.mckee@ges.gla.ac.uk), Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, East Quadrangle, University Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8QQ


PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT IS NOW FULL AND ALL SPEAKERS CONFIRMED (24/3).