Dr Gulshan Khan (School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham) invites you to attend a one day workshop on Friday 11th January 2019 at University Park.
Rethinking Dependency
The term ‘dependency’ implies reliance on another person or thing. Dependence is a constitutive feature of human relationships, as well as defining the interactions between humans and their environment. We might think of this as a basic condition of survival and growth, and yet ‘dependency’ almost always carries negative connotations and is associated with a damaging or unhealthy subjection, for instance in the form of addiction, colonization, or enslavement. Consider US and UK welfare debates, where expressions such as ‘welfare dependency’ and a ‘culture of dependency’ are invoked by those on the right in support of policy reforms aimed at greater self-reliance, autonomy and independence. On this reading, ‘dependency’ has negative inferences and is seen as a sign of failure and weakness. However, many on the left also invoke a negative view of ‘dependency’. For example, in Marxist and neo-Marxist accounts of imperialism, and in much of the literature in development studies ‘dependency’ is presented as the root cause of the inability of poorer states to establish their autonomy from the dominant imperial powers.
This workshop scrutinises several broad issues about the meaning and significance of ‘dependency’; bringing together experts from different fields to consider whether or not it is possible to rethink dependency in more positive terms and what the implications of this might be for society and politics.
The discussion includes examination of the following questions:
- What is dependency?
- Do we need to signify dependency?
- Can we envisage dependency as a positive relation?
- Do we want to remove the pejorative tone from dependency?
- What does it mean to say that dependency is an ontological condition of existence?
- Does dependency take a binary form or are dependencies multidimensional?
- Can we and should we disentangle dependency from other associated notions and practices such as care, vulnerability, attachment and recognition?
- Does dependency imply domination? What is the relationship between dependency and domination?
- What sorts of dependency should we nurture and why?
- Why sorts of dependency should we challenge and resist and why?
- What are the implications of a revised conception of dependency for policy makers?
The workshop is free to attend, but please register for catering purposes.
Lunch and tea/coffee will be provided, please contact katy.harrison@nottingham.ac.uk if you have any dietary requirements.
This workshop is sponsored by The British Academy.