Workshops

Platformization, Forms of Authoritarianism, and the Future of Democracy: Perspectives from the Global South

About the Workshop

The workshop Platformization, Forms of Authoritarianism, and the Future of Democracy: Perspectives from the Global South was held from 1st -3rd February 2024 in a hybrid format at the University of Passau. The workshop marked the inaugural activity of the three-year research project under the same title, which is funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung; the project began at the University of Passau in November 2023. The three post-doctoral researchers of the project, Dr. Fathima Nizaruddin, Dr. Ülker Sözen, and Dr. Gustavo Robles, are affiliated with the Chair of Development Politics, Prof. Dr. Wolfram Schaffar.The project aims to examine the effects of platformization on democracy in the Global South under the contemporary authoritarian turn through four sub projects that focus on the cases of Argentina, India, Turkey and Thailand/Myanmar.

What was it about?

The event consisted of three days of intense discussions prompted by a diagnosis that the platformisation of life and work has reconfigured the ideological and political coordinates and created the conditions for the emergence of an authoritarian turn that calls into question the future of democracies in countries in the Global South.

This concern was always accompanied by a hypothesis that this phenomenon is understandable from perspectives that go beyond local, disciplinary, and thematic limits persisting in the social sciences and humanities. For this reason, the four main researchers of the project, Dr. Fathima Nizaruddin, Dr. Gustavo Robles, Dr. Ülker Sözen, and Prof Dr. Wolfram Schaffar invited a broad range of scholars from different disciplines and study areas. The discussion during the roundtables was delineated according to thematic axes that inform our research lines: 1) the critical political economy of platforms, 2) the meaning of a perspective from the Global South, 3) the transformation of work in the platform economies and, 4) the meaning of a perspective from the Global South.

The workshop provided a highly productive space for discussion future research, in which the hosts and the guests could not only show their work but also establish valuable networks and plan future collaborations.

The Workshop Content

The workshop was attended by guests from various universities, such as the University of London (UK), Goethe University of Frankfurt (Germany), University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), University of Hamburg (Germany), University of Buenos Aires (Argentina), University of Pennsylvania (USA), Utrecht University (Netherlands), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany), University of Basel (Switzerland), Central European University (Austria), Vienna, and organizations like the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.

Intersections of Youth, Gender, and Religion under Digital Media

About the workshop

Dr. Sözen organized and convened the workshop entitled “Intersections of Youth, Gender, and Religion under Digital Media” at Leipzig University on September 26-27, 2024. The workshop brought together distinguished researchers from Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Germany, and Turkey. It discussed the contestations, innovations, mobilizations with respect to gender, youth, Islam, and neo-spritualities in the digital space. The presentations focused on Muslim-majority societies along with the transnational and diasporic configurations of Muslim identites under digital media. The full programme can be accessed here.

Dr. Sözen also co-organized the workshop entitled “The Crisis of Social Reproduction in the Global South: Anti-Gender Politics, (Re)production of Life and Resistances” at Kassel University on July 19-20, 2024. This workshop, supported by IRGAC and Kassel University Political Theory Department, delved into manifestations of the neoliberal crisis of social reproduction (CSR) and their links to authoritarianism in the Global South. The presentations discussed anti-gender politics, responses of the state and business actors to govern and profit from the CSR, and the resistances and social struggles that affirm the agenda of reclaiming life. The full programme can be viewed below

Presentations

Dr. Sözen presented the following topics during these workshops;

“Religious- Atheist Debates and the Youth on Turkish Social Media.” In “Intersections of Youth, Gender, and Religion under Digital Media” Workshop, 26-27 September 2024, Leipzig University.
“Anchoring Patriarchy on Social Media: Crisis of Social Reproduction and Online Self-Help Cultures in Turkey.” In “The Crisis of Social Reproduction in the Global South” Workshop, 19-20 July 2024, Kassel University.
“Family and marriage discourses in the religious and secular guidance channels on Turkish social media.” In “Family and Religion/Secularity in Turkey and Germany” Workshop, 25-26 January 2024, Leipzig University.

The Workshop Content

Presentations on various topics (see workshop programme below) were made by the following guests and speakers; Jihan Zakarriya, Copenhagen University; Jasmin Eder & Christoph Günther, University of Erfurt; Amany Abdelrazek-Alsiefy, Humboldt University of Berlin; Seyda Bagdogan-Beckman, Copenhagen Business School; Sebastian Elsässer, CAU Kiel; Ülker Sözen, Leipzig University & University of Passau; Moh Zaimil Alivin, University of Edinburgh; Hossein Kermani & Zahra Hosseini Khoo, University of Vienna; Feyda Sayan-Cengiz, Manisa Celal Bayar University; and Hande Gür, University of Alberta & Kurtuluş Cengiz, Ege University.