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IS-DAAD-Forskerutveksl. Norge-Tyskland

Formations of the secular in contemporary debates on democracy: Postcolonial interventions

Tildelt: kr 50 000

In the wake of several decades of positivism critique and deconstruction of the modern rational subject in the social sciences and humanities, the value of rationality is severely undermined. Since 2001, the constitutive "others" are no longer depicted as irrational beings within a classic Orientalist paradigm but are instead associated with religious fundamentalism and terrorism, allegedly devoid of democratic spirit related to tolerance, pluralism, and autonomy. In order to study this new state of affai rs, critically engaging with the naturalized assumptions of secularism in contemporary scholarships, we need new postcolonial paradigms of thought when approaching question of democracy and citizenship. To thoroughly interrogate these issues, it seems per tinent to raise the following questions: Does secularism denote a re-foundationalist tendency within contemporary academic literature on democracy and citizenship, or rather, is secularism a prerequisite for post-foundational theorizing? If so, could this be conceptualized, in accordance with Gayatri Spivak's critique of colonialism, as a revitalized "epistemic violence" vis-à-vis "others"? Out aim is to develop an integrated project around these issues, consisting of researchers from Norway and Germany.

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IS-DAAD-Forskerutveksl. Norge-Tyskland