Deutsche Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft
Frist: 21.02.2025

CfP - Co-laboratingforChange? The Future ofPeace and Security in an Age of Crises, Hamburg

International Workshop

Date: 25-27th June 2025

Location: betahaus Schanze – Hamburg Germany

We invite contributions from International Relations, peace and conflict studies, critical security studies, political geography, climate research, and adjacent fields of the social sciences and humanities that engage with participatory and collaborative research methods – broadly understood – in the study of one or several of the following thematic areas:

Uncertain futures and temporalities of the polycrisis

First, we are interested in participatory approaches to study practices of future-making as well as the lived temporalities of the polycrisis. How are the temporalities of the polycrisis experienced by stakeholders in everyday lifeworlds? How can collaboration and engagement with practitioners advance our understanding of future-oriented security practices? And how can we use participatory methods to imagine alternative, more progressive, just and sustainable futures in the policycrisis? These and similar questions could be addressed by proposed contributions.

Spatialities of peace and conflict

Second, we are looking for contributions that dig deeper into the spatialities of peace and conflict in the face of multiple crises. These works could, for example, address questions such as: How can participatory methods help to better understand the local boundaries and manifestations of peace and conflict? How can we study conflicts across scales? How can we approach everyday theories of peace through engagement and collaboration? And how can participatory research work for the benefit of involved co-researchers, reduce structural inequalities, contribute to conflict transformation, and foster sustainable forms of peace?

Technologies and practices of security

Third, we are inviting participatory and practice-oriented contributions to the study of security and defence. How can we study everyday and embodied experiences of insecurity given that the negative implications of the polycrisis become manifest mainly at the local level? How can performative methods, reenactment, or the collaboration with artists, engineers, or security practitioners help to open the black box of security technologies? What are the limits of participatory methods in the security domain given field-specific problems of access and secrecy? These are some of the questions that we would like to discuss at the workshop.

Please submit an abstract of 250 words by Friday, 21 February 2025, to doingpeace2025@ifsh.de .

Travel and accommodation will be covered for workshop participants.

Please do not hesitate to contact the workshop organisers if you have any questions.