Author: Nora Lafi
“Communal representation, imperial deliberation and the question of democracy within the Late-Ottoman Parliament” (Online)
December 13, 2021. 16h00-18h00 (Berlin Time). Registration: https://forms.gle/A8AJDvdaQyUiG5qD8
Abstract:
When in December 1876 the Ottoman constitution was promulgated, the first elections in Ottoman history had to be organised in early 1877. This was the occasion, when Ottoman reformist elites and intellectuals had to debate and decide, how the Ottoman population was to be represented in the first parliament. Finally the parliament was constituted with deputies from all provinces, but also with members of various population groups living in the empire. In her talk, Elke Hartmann examines the example of the Armenian deputies in the first Ottoman parliament. Who were they? How were the deputies chosen and elected? Whom did they represent? What did representation mean to them and / or their communities? Were these topics debated? Shortly after the first Ottoman parliament took up its work, the empire was confronted with war, leading to a crushing defeat against Russia. Subsequently, the parliament was dissolved and the constitution suspended. What remained from the experience of the first parliament, the first Ottoman experiment in democracy?
Elke Hartmann is professor at the Institut für Osmanistik und Turkologie of the Freie Universität Berlin. She published in 2016 Die Reichweite des Staates. Wehrpflicht und moderne Staatlichkeit im Osmanischen Reich 1869-1910 [The Outreach of the State. Conscription and Modern Statehood in the Ottoman Empire], Paderborn (Ferdinand Schöningh). She is also the author of the chapter “The “Loyal Nation” and Its Deputies. The Armenians in the First Ottoman Parliament” in Herzog (Christoph) and Sharif (Malek) (eds.), The First Ottoman Experiment in Democracy (Beirut, Orient Institut, 2010, p.187-222). Earlier in 2021 she published in Budapest (L’Harmattan) Örmény élet a oszmán birodalomban [Armenian Life in the Ottoman Empire].
Next session: January 17, 2022: Dario Miccoli, “The Jews of Alexandria: middle class feelings, urban identity and politics, 1880s-1920s“
Full programme of the HISDEMAB online seminar
On 23-24-25 November 2021 HISDEMAB Team members met in Berlin for their first “real life” research workshop (after 14 months of weekly online dialogues). Programme here.
Histoire de la mémoire: traumatisme de la mémoire et thérapie de l’histoire (sous la direction d’Habib Kazdaghli), Tunis, 2021
In the framework of an international conference on Libya organized by IRMC. Title of the paper presentation: “Elections, Deliberation, Participation and Representation in Libya during the era of the Ottoman reforms”
Schmahl (Robin), “Was Kant a racist?”: the public discussion on Germany’s belated intellectual decolonisation”, in Luntumbue (Valentin), et al. (eds.). Places in the Sun: Post-Colonial dialogues in Europe and beyond, Brussels, Institute for a Greater Europe, 2021, p.57-73.
Theoretical Reflections on Social Movements: contestations of liberal democracies and laboratories of democratic practices
July 08, 2021. 15h00-17h00 (Berlin Time) Registration: https://forms.gle/A8AJDvdaQyUiG5qD8
Abstract
With some exceptions, sociological research first conceptualised social movements as a specific response to the perceived demise and collapse of what Martin Conway has called ‘the West European model of democracy’. Other more historically-orientated works has focused on the broader ‘dynamics of contention’ (Charles Tilly) in which social movements were just one parameter. More recent work in political science, sociology and history has considered the role of social movements within the field of democracy and democratic practices. This talk seeks to visit and revisit some of these conceptual and theoretical debates and explore where a historical sociology of social movements in the context of democracy might go. It will emphasise the historicity of conceptualisations of ‘social movements’ and ‘democracy’ and thus emphasise the need for reviving a historical sociology of social movements.
Holger Nehring is Professor of Contemporary European History at the University of Stirling, UK. He has published widely on the history of social movements, especially peace movements. Together with Stefan Berger co-edits the book series Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements. Among his latest publications: “Challenging the Myths of the Scottish Sixties” (in Moving the Social, 2020); “Remembering War, Forgetting Hiroshima: “Euroshima” and the West German Anti-Nuclear Weapons Movements in the Cold War” (in Ikenberry GJ & Gordin MD (eds.), The Age of Hiroshima. Princeton, 2020); “Grenzen der Demokratie?” Bundesdeutsche Friedensbewegungen und die Westarbeit der SED im Übergang von den 1950er zu den 1960er Jahren” [“Limits of Democracy?” West German peace movements and he SED’s Western Department from the 1950s to te 1960s], In: Berger S., Dietz B. & Muller-Enbergs H. (eds.), Das Ruhrgebiet im Fokus der Westarbeit der DDR (Essen, 2020); “Energy and War. Debates about Nuclear Energy in early-Cold War West Germany” (Groniek, 2020); The History of Social Movements in Global Perspective (ed. with S. Berger, Palgrave, 2017); Politics, Symbols and the Public Sphere (2005).
Next session: November 2021 (Programme to be announced in September 2021)
Full 2020-2021 programme of the HISDEMAB seminar