Counterstrategies to authoritarianism: toward a politics of wellbeing? 

October 4-5, 2024, Vienna.

The AHRC Wellbeing State network project critically investigates today’s wellbeing discourse that promises to update our conception of human flourishing as a resource to help collectively confront the challenges of the 21st century. It brings together academics and policy makers to imagine a ‘wellbeing state’ – a state that enacts a politics of care, collaboration, and sustainability.

The network is led by Clare Woodford (University of Brighton) and Viktoria Huegel (University of Vienna).

The opening Network event will be held at the University of Vienna, Neues Institutsgebäude (NIG), C424

Invited speakers: Paula Biglieri (University of Buenos Aires), Kelly Gillespie (University of Western Cape), Siddhant Issar (University of Louisville).

Friday 4 October

10:00 – 10:15  Registration and coffee

10:15 – 10:45 Welcome and introduction to the Wellbeing State Network project by Viktoria Huegel and Clare Woodford

10:45 – 12:15 Siddhant Issar (University of Louisville) Challenging the Racial Contract: Liberalism, Property, and Abolition.

12:15 – 12:45 Coffee break

12:45 – 14:15 Kelly Gillespie (University of the Western Cape) Orders of Protection: Feminist lessons in anti-privatisation and authoritarianism from South Africa.

14:15 – 16:00 Lunch and break

16:00 – 17:30 Paula Biglieri (University of Buenos Aires) The future in reverse. Social Justice at stake: anti-populism and the far-right in Milei’s Argentina.

19:00 — Debriefing over dinner

Saturday 5 October

10:00 – 11:00 Panel One

Zeynep Cemre Sandalli (Heidelberg University) Emotions and Democratic Citizenship.

Marco Zolli (Scuola Normale Superior) Authoritarian Liberalism? –Wolin and Brown on the Anti-Democratic Tendencies of the Liberal Project.

11:00 – 11:15 — Coffee break

11:15 – 12:15 Panel Two

Lukas C. Bartosch (Corvinus University of Budapest) Mental Wellbeing and Anti-Oligarchic Practices.

Joanna Kellond (University of Brighton) Psychoanalytic Approaches to Wellbeing, Democratic Crisis and Counter-Strategy.

12:15 – 12:30 — Coffee break

12:30 – 14:00 – Roundtable