EURASIA AND SILK ROAD IN GLOCAL PERSPECTIVE

CALL FOR PAPERS:

EURASIA AND SILK ROAD IN GLOCAL PERSPECTIVE, Cambridge, UK, 3 May 2016

Dear colleagues,

Cambridge Central Asia Forum and Centre for Development Studies of the University of Cambridge in conjunction with VerusScript Publishers are organising a workshop titled ‘Eurasia and Silk Road in Glocal Perspective’. This workshop will consider global and local aspects of Eurasian regional projects. We invite papers which consider the processes unfolding in greater Eurasian space in the view of the recently-launched projects of Eurasian Economic Union and Great Silk Road Belt. Papers with sectoral or sub-regional focus that engage with below broader themes of Eurasian research are welcome.

Theme I: Imagining Eurasia/Great Silk Road in a global context

The papers will consider how elites of Eurasian regional project envisage the role of Eurasia in a global perspective. In particular, the papers will consider local elites relate the concept of Eurasia to the artefacts of today’s globalized world. The papers will look into the question of what kind of relations the idea of Eurasia/Silk Road envisages for such concepts as modernity, nation, state, and international development; notions of diplomacy and soft power will feature here. We are particularly interested in discussing how the proposed Eurasian area will fit into the world economic and political system.

Theme II: Performing Eurasia in European and Global context

We invite papers which will consider if and how the countries of Eurasia act as one actor in their interaction with the structures of global governance. The papers will trace how policy-makers of these regions build relations with structures of global governance (WTO, World Bank, EBRD, IMF) and other regional blocs (EU, Latin America, ASEAN, BRICS). The papers will consider the question of what kind of relations between the different actors is possible as well as imaginable.

Theme III: Performing Eurasia in Asian Context
Eurasia is often depicted as an entity stretching and striving from the East to the West. The panel will consider an often ignored axis of North/South relationship given strong interests of various regional powers. The panel will address this issue by inviting papers which would outline views towards Eurasian countries by such countries as Turkey, Iran, India, Middle East and Gulf States.

Theme IV: Performing Eurasia in the local context
The panel will consider the effects of Eurasian regionalism on local conditions. In particular, it will analyse the concept of Eurasia in
formal and informal social practices, such as business practices, transport, cross-border trade, survival strategies, media landscape, education, advertising, fashion, etc.  We will invite papers from various humanities disciplines, e.g. anthropologists, economists, business and media scholars.


Interested applicants are invited to submit 300-word abstract together with their short bio to the email caf@devstudies.cam.ac.uk by 4 April 2016. The workshop will be held on 3 May 2016 in Cambridge.  Selected
papers will be invited for review for publication in the inaugural issues of Cambridge Journal of Eurasian Studies.