On 23 January 2023, 6:15-7:45 PM, Katharina Bluhm (FU Berlin/Scripts) holds a lecture on: Russia as the Pioneer of a New Illiberal Conservatism? (in German).

The livestream and a recording of the lecture is available on the SCRIPTS YouTube channel.

About the lecture series "Contestations about and in liberal orders: On the Critique and Future of the Liberal Script"

The stakes are high: the future of democracy and the international liberal order no longer seems secure 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Western chants of triumph that accompanied it. Russia's breach of international law in Ukraine and a new war in Europe, the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Trumpism in the U.S., the emergence of authoritarian populist parties everywhere, China's rapid rise, Brexit, or international terrorism - the external and internal challenges to what has been called the "liberal script" are manifold. The U.S.-led order established since the Cold War is weakening. At the same time, new protest movements point to the ambiguities and tensions in liberal societies: racism and exclusion of BIPoC and FLINTA*, militarized border regimes, or the extreme inequality in so-called meritocracies expose the promises of the liberal script as illusions. How do liberal societies respond to this? Will the "liberal script" perish, change, or emerge stronger from the crises? What response do competing order(s) have to the global climate crisis, migration, or international security?

SCRIPTS brings together outstanding research from the Cluster of Excellence and interdisciplinary perspectives on current contestations of the liberal order. Michael Zürn introduces the theoretical foundations and the problem and leads through the further sessions on regional and thematic emphases, internal tensions and critiques of the liberal script together with SCRIPTS researchers and selected guests.

All Lectures

See the poster here.

31 October 2022, 6:15-7:45 PM

Michael Zürn (WZB/SCRIPTS)

The liberal script: Does it exist and what could it be? (in German)

 

07 November 2022, 6:15-7:45 PM

Tanja Börzel (FU Berlin/SCRIPTS) and Thomas Risse (FU Berlin/SCRIPTS)

Liberal partial orders: Liberal orders beyond the national community (in German)

 

14 November 2022, 6:15-7:45 PM

Marianne Braig (FU Berlin/SCRIPTS)

Co-write. Writing in. Writing on: Challenges of the Liberal Script in Latin America. (in German)

Amrita Narlikar (Universität Hamburg/SCRIPTS)

Rejection and Ownership: Variants of the Liberal Script in Asia

 

21 November 2022, 6:15-7:45 PM

Gudrun Krämer (FU Berlin/SCRIPTS)

MENA and more: Islamism as a counter-conception to the liberal script (in German)

Andreas Eckert (HU Berlin/SCRIPTS)

Does Africa have a liberal script? And does it need one? (in German)

 

28 November 2022, 6:15-7:45 PM

Jürgen Gerhards (FU Berlin/SCRIPTS)

What an open refugee policy has to do with liberal values and why some countries open their borders to refugees and others do not (in German).

Mark Hallerberg (Hertie School/SCRIPTS)

(Re-)Allocation and the Liberal Script

 

05 December 2022, 6:15-7:45 PM

Stefan Gosepath (FU Berlin/SCRIPTS)

The problem with merit (in German)

 

12 December 2022, 6:15-7:45 PM

Christian Volk (HU Berlin/SCRIPTS)

Protest and democracy (in German)

 

09 January 2023, 6:15-7:45 PM

Christoph Möllers (HU Berlin/SCRIPTS)

Andreas Reckwitz (HU Berlin)

Hedwig Richter (UniBw München)

Roundtable: "Der freiheitliche, säkularisierte Staat lebt von Voraussetzungen, die er selbst nicht garantieren kann." (in German)

 

16 January 2023, 6:15-7:45 PM

Gülay Çağlar (FU Berlin/SCRIPTS)

Gender justice in the liberal script: feminist perspectives (in German)

 

23 January 2023, 6:15-7:45 PM

Katharina Bluhm (FU Berlin/Scripts)

Russia as the Pioneer of a New Illiberal Conservatism? (in German)

 

30 January 2023, 6:15-7:45 PM

Schirin Amir-Moazami (FU Berlin/SCRIPTS)

The liberal script read postcolonially (in German)

 

06 February 2023, 6:15-7:45 PM

Rahel Jaeggi (HU Berlin)

Solidarity with liberalism at the moment of its fall (in German)

 

13 February 2023, 6:15-7:45 PM

Michael Zürn (WZB/SCRIPTS)

Future of democracy and liberal orders (in German).

About "Offener Hörsaal"

For more than thirty years Freie Universität has been holding public lectures over a broad range of topics. Interested individuals are invited to attend the lectures and and gain insights into well-founded analyses of current issues and new findings from all fields of research that are presented in a generally understandable manner. The lectures offer dialog and discussion about many issues in scholarship and science, society, nature, and technology. More information here.

Access

The lecture series is open to all and takes place on Mondays 6:15 - 7:45 pm in lecture hall 1b ("Rostlaube"). The lectures can also be followed through a livestream on the FU Website.