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.
The three main case studies of our research are:
- the Catalonian independence movement,
- the Kurdish self-determination movement (mainly in Rojava, Syria),
- the Tamil nationalist movement in Sri Lanka.
Ultimately, we aim to establish a global repository of the political repertoires of separatist movements that operate in democratic arenas.
The Catalonian independence movement
The Kurdish self-determination movement
The Tamil nationalist movement in Sri Lanka
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).
The video below provides a brief explainer to central ideas of the project.
CENTRAL IDEAS OF THE PROJECT
PUBLICATIONS
Political anthropology
Anthropologists have a long tradition of studying politics through its vernacular understandings and everyday dynamics. Rather than taking the formal institutional architecture of democratic politics as their central vantage point, they explore the meaning that political processes may assume and the ritualistic and symbolic dimensions they may have.
Critical interventions in International Law
Most states have outlawed separatism, and yet the origin of the state itself has a problematic relationship with the law. Many critical law scholars have reflected on this conundrum by rethinking the foundations and boundaries of law.
Radical Geography and critical International Relations
Both IR scholars and geographers have interrogated the power invested in the way states are projected and understood. Feminist and de-colonial perpectives have unsettled the self-evident nature of established states to facilitate alternative ways of conceptualising politics and state conduct.