Limits of liberal normativity theme of 2024 CEST Symposium

The University of Copenhagen and SUITS jointly convened the annual conference of the Consortium for European Symposia on Turkey in Denmark on 21-23 November 2024.

The 9th annual CEST symposium was co-convened by Joakim Parslow of the University of Copenhagen and CEST director Paul Levin of SUITS. Reuben Silverman, SUITS postdoctoral researcher, coordinated. Stiftung Mercator provided institutional support to this symposium specifically and the consortium more generally.

The Symposium began with Kerem Öktem, professor at Ca' Foscari University and CEST Chair, remarking on the history of nine years of Symposia and three Summer Schools. Paul Levin then introduced the theme of the conference: the limits of liberal normativity. It has been twenty years since Turkey started the European Union accession process whereby the EU monitored Turkey to see whether it has fulfilled the “Copenhagen Criteria” to become an EU member. However, the past twenty years has seriously challenged the EU’s initial dream of a liberal rights-based political order, and Erdoğan has become one of the EU’s largest critics.

The keynote speaker, Thomas Diez of the University of Tübingen, was one of the pioneers of the concept of normative power Europe. That is, that the power of Europe comes less from its military than from its ability to transform countries who want to join the EU into successful, democratic nations. In his address, Diez spoke about the ways in which this project of normative power has failed, why it did not succeed, and how it should be reconceptualised.

Three days of papers and discussions followed. Panel topics included: democracy as norm and practice, trans- and sub- national spaces of organisation, anti-gender politics, laws that result in repression, illiberal oppositions in Turkey and Europe, as well how Europe both makes and breaks norms.

For more information on the CEST, the Consortium for European Symposia on Turkey, see https://cest-turkey.org/  
 

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