INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: ISSUES OF LEGITIMACY:
Entrepreneurial Culture, Corporate Responsibility and Urban Development
Naples,Italy, 4-8 September 2012
Convened by: IUAES Commissions on Urban Anthropology and on Enterprise
Anthropology Withthe Collaboration of: University of Naples Federico II;
University of Naples 2; Media Group Il Denaro; Brazilian Anthropological
Association; Centro de Investigationes y Estudios Superiores en
Antropologia Social, Mexico; China Union of Anthropological and
Ethnological Sciences; China Commission on Urban Anthropology; Colegio
de Etnólogos y Antropologos Sociales, Mexico; Indian Anthropological
Association; International Association of Southeast European
Anthropology; IUAES Commission on Anthropology of Women
General Outline
Over the last three decades, the crisis, and subsequent
de-legitimization, of polarized political ideologies which had
characterized international politics since the Second World War has
apparently brought about the supremacy of economics over politics, and
an acceleration of economic globalization. While it has become gradually
clear that, cross-culturally, such supremacy and acceleration are not
overarching phenomena and their predominance cannot be taken for
granted, it has also become clear that in such a climate national
policies struggle to take on board individual and corporate
interests,demands from local communities and, most problematically,
international regulations. To complicate matters further, all too often
such international regulations prove to be inspired by concepts that are
ambiguous, elusive, badly defined or impossible to apply, thus
compounding on the perceived weak legitimacy of governance and the law
in the broader society.
In today’s increasingly competitive global economic scenario, urban
settings are a dominant form of associated life that encapsulate the
socio-economic impact of increasingly significant international
regulations and flows of capital and people. By and large, governance
and the law have generally failed to meet constructively the challenge
posed by the complexities and implications of this world-wide
phenomenon, thus raising a critical problematic of both legitimacy and
legitimation. Anthropological analysis of diverse ethnographies has
brought to light strong entrepreneurial cultures firmly rooted in the
morality and ramifications, in practical life, of a strong continuous
interaction between the material and the non material.
A major task of this Conference will be to reflect on the significance,
ramifications and impact, or potential impact, on the broader society of
such an empirical sine qua non. The key role that the varied forms of
individual and collective entrepreneurialism, and the attendant culture
and social impact, have to play in such a scenario is much too often
frustrated by the aforementioned perspectivism. Eschewing confusion
between individuality and individualism, anthropologists have
highlighted key aspects of entrepreneurialism that point to the naivety
of the economic maximization view. They have demonstrated the moral and
cultural complexity of individual action, bringing out the social value
of entrepreneurialism. They have also demonstrated how misplaced or
instrumentally selective moralities in policy and in the production and
enforcement of the law both play a critical role in such a failure,
encourage exclusion, and are key in the widening gap between governance
and the governed across the world. It is critical, however,to move further.
Through empirically based analyses, this Conference will explore these
complex issues widely,in Western and non-Western settings, in relation
to five broad themes. They are:
1. Access to Credit, Entrepreneurialism and the Law: Problematic Issues
for Enterprise;
2. Cross Cultural and Ethnic Business in Mixed Cities;
3. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Urban Development;
4. Entrepreneurialism, Neo-Liberalism and Socio-Economic Policy;
5. Women Entrepreneurs: BetweenSocio-Cultural Hindrance, Challenged
Integration and Economic Success
Proposals for panels and papers are hereby invited.
Proposals for Panels should include Title and Abstract (300 words max)
of the Proposed Panel and, where applicable, papers including titles and
abstracts (200 words max). Proposals should be sent to Dr I. Pardo
i.pardo@kent.ac.uk by 30 October 2011.
Proposals for individual Papers including title and abstract (200 words
max) should be sent to Dr Giuliana B. Prato g.b.prato@kent.ac.uk by 30
October 2011.
Jerome Krase, Ph.D.
Emeritus and Murray Koppelman Professor
Brooklyn College
The City University of New York