SovereignPerformance is a research project focused on the political repertoires of democratic movements that strive for independence or autonomy. We study these by looking at the performative and aesthetic dimensions of politics.
CENTRAL IDEAS OF THE PROJECT
The project is hosted by the Conflict Research Group at Ghent University and funded by a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council. It is executed by a team of five post-doctoral researchers and a team leader (Bart Klem).
NEWS
SovereignPerformance Public Lecture with Engin Isin
On 27 October, the SovereignPerformance project organises a public lecture with Prof. Engin Isin, who will examine the planetary challenges and investigate emerging promising and effective collective organising methods. On one hand, this lecture discusses a planetary condition characterised by climate change, genocidal wars, orbital and superscale data processing centres, interplanetary communication networks, and the inadequate or ineffective responses of national and international organisations. On the other, it analyses how numerous social movements have broadened their scope and organisation to address these challenges and are developing new political practices termed ‘planetary movements’. These developments are reshaping our understandings of sovereignty and citizenship. You can find more information and register at the following link.
Special Issue presentation: Opposition learning in the Middle East and North Africa
Together with the UGent’s Conflict Research Group, the SovereignPerformance project will co-organize a presentation of the Special issue “Opposition learning in the Middle East and North Africa” (co-edited by Alfonso Casani and Francesco Colin) on 9 November 2026. This project was born out of a simple realisation: if authoritarian regimes learn, why can’t opposition actors learn, too? Alfonso Casani and Francesco Colin will be joined by André Bank and Anne Kirstine Rønn to present the theoretical framework developed in the special issue, some of its empirical contributions, and discuss the possible implications for scholarship. You can find more information and register at the following link.
New publication in the Review of International Studies
“The institutional lives of peace. A historical-institutionalist perspective on the (unintended) political legacies of peacebuilding” (authored by Richard Georgi, Bart Klem, Nasia Hadjigeorgiou and Carolina Valente Cardoso) appeared in the Review of International Studies. It asks the simple question why peacebuilding institutions tend endure, often for decades, even though they almost invariably fail to meet their objectives. They have a significant, often lasting impact, but one that is different from what was intended. Peace institutions become absorbed in the political landscape, and they develop their own institutional dynamics. In this article, we review four different institutions in four very different contexts: Cyprus, Colombia, Angola and Sri Lanka. We draw on Historical Institutionalism to develop an analytical toolkit that offers us traction on these four fascinating institutional trajectories.
New publication in the GLD Policy Brief series
How can we restore focus on the political relevance of civic engagement? The Policy Brief “Trespassing ‘Civic’ Spaces: Insights from the Political Resonance of Citizenship Performances in Local Morocco” (authored by Francesco Colin) argues that examining how citizens perform rights claims helps us understand the political struggles behind state-society relations. It articulates key recommendations to policymakers and development professionals to take the politics of local performance seriously.
New webpage for SovereignPerfomance events
As the project grows, the SovereignPerformance project is launching our dedicated Events page on this website. It will be the place to discover upcoming conferences, workshops, and other activities related to the project. Stay connected with our team’s activities and join us in exploring the performative repertoires of sovereign aspiring entities.
New publication in the European Journal of International Relations
“Bootstrapping sovereignty: the placeholder dynamics of contested states from identity documents to international courts” (authored by Janis Grzybowski and Bart Klem) looks at how actors other than governments and international organizations, including ordinary people, field offices of UN agencies, and international courts, come to indirectly validate assumptions of sovereignty. Speaking to the core of this project, this article argues that claims to state sovereignty have performative effects when picked up in circulating attributions, including unwitting ones. These placeholder dynamics help explain how attributions of sovereignty simultaneously challenge, mimic, and rearticulate the statist international (dis)order.