News & Events 2010
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19 Jan.
John Keane speaks at King's College London. The title of his talk: "Reflections on A.C. Grayling's Liberty in the Age of Terror [2009]".
Tuesday 19 January 2010, 18.00 - 19.30 War Studies Meeting Room (K6.07), Strand Campus, Kings Building, 6th floor, Kings College London RSVP for this event to: wsptn@kcl.ac.uk. More info here
Synopsis: The latest book of essays by the English liberal philosopher A.C. Grayling confronts readers with a disquieting thought: we are living in times in which the tried-and-tested-and-true precious principles of liberty are endangered by various types of 'fundamentalism, reaction, and their militant expression'. Grayling's Liberty Principle (it can be called) lends his liberalism a strong sense of urgency and rightness that leads him to condemn the 'self-harm' that he thinks is weakening the spirit and fact of liberty in 'the West'.
Grayling's approach seems unobjectionable; citizens with a feel for questions of civil liberty might even think his case obvious. Yet in his reflection on Grayling's approach John Keane argues that tough objections can and should be made to the way Grayling frames his defence of liberty; and that each objection reveals the parochialism of Grayling's book and the defects of John Stuart Mill-style liberalism in the entirely different circumstances of the early 21st century.
February 2010 March 2010 10 April 2010 The Life and Death of Democracy: Author Meets Critics
A Session from the Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting 2010. - Saturday, April 10, 2010; 10:15 AM. Washington DC.
Abstract: This session is designed to highlight a new book by the U.K.-based Australian historian and political theorist, John Keane. The Life and Death of Democracy (Simon & Schuster and WW Norton, 2009) is a global history of democratic institutions. It shows how many different individuals, groups and societies around the globe have contributed to the invention, development, and diffusion of key democratic institutions from the secret ballot to the political party to trial by jury to freedom of the press to separation of powers. The book proposes that today we live in a new age of “monitory democracy.” Democracy, Keane argues, is a human invention “that now ranks in historical importance with the wheel, the printing press, the steam engine and the cloning of stem cells.” This invention, he holds, was originally “a potent form of wishful thinking” that is still with us today – even as the specific forms of democracy change. The late Ralf Dahrendorf, distinguished scholar and former Parliamentary Secretary of State in the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, called the book “a masterpiece of historical writing and at the same time a major contribution to contemporary debate.” The panel will have the following format: Professor Keane will have a short time to summarize the main thrust of the book (perhaps 15 minutes). Three critics will then have 15-20 minutes each to respond to the book – they are Alex Keyssar, Kennedy School, Harvard; Jane Mansbridge, Kennedy School, Harvard; and David Thelen, Indiana University. Professor Keane will then respond to the three critics. Michael Schudson will moderate the discussion.
April 2010 Na de democratie (After Democracy)
A documentary on the future of Democracy by Dutch Telivision Tegenlicht, 12 April 2010.
June 2010 Do we still need enlightenment values?
John Keane, Nigel Warburton, Robert Rowland Smith and Matthew Taylor talked about their ideal enlightenment values for the 21st century.
Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) - Thursday 10 June, 1pm. More info here
July 2010 John Keane is the keynote speaker for Media, Democracy & Change, Australian and New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA) 2010 Conference - Old Parliament House, Canberra, 7-9 July 2010. The title of the keynote lecture is Monitory Democracy, it proposes a fundamental revision of the way we think about democracy in our times. It pinpoints an epochal transformation that is taking place in the contours and dynamics of representative democracy in countries otherwise as different as the United States and India, France and Australia. It calls into question "end of history" perspectives and maritime metaphors (Huntington's "third wave" of the sea simile has been the most influential), both of which are seen to be much too bound to the surface of things, too preoccupied with continuities and aggregate data to notice that political tides have begun to run in entirely new directions. The unorthodox claim is that, from roughly the mid-twentieth century, our world has been living through an historic sea change, one that is taking us from the old world of representative democracy towards a form of monitory democracy defined by the multiplication and dispersal of many different power-monitoring and power-contesting mechanisms, both within more local and national fields of government and civil society and beyond, in cross-border settings that were once dominated by empires, states and business organisations. The lecture poses questions about the causes and causers of this new historical form of democracy, its advantages and disadvantages, and why it has fundamental implications for how we think about media and democracy in the coming decades.
July 2010 John Keane's book, The Life and Death of Democracy, has been shortlisted for the 2010 Prime Minister's Literary Awards for Non-Fiction. The Prime Minister's Literary Awards celebrate the contribution of Australian literature to the nation's cultural and intellectual life. The awards, held annually, recognise literature's importance to our national identity, community and economy. The winners of the Fiction and Non-Fiction categories will receive Australia's richest literary award - a prize of $100,000 each. The winners will be announced later in the year.
Judges’ comments
Professor John Keane’s The Life and Death of Democracy is a monumental history as well as a prescient analysis as to the future of democracy. Keane moves outside previous Anglo-Saxon perspectives to range from India to Uruguay to the Islamic world, in order to emphasise the global roots of democracy. Keane reminds us, however, that ‘democracy is not the timeless fulfilment of our political destiny’. He outlines the emergence of ‘monitory democracy’, a new form replacing representative democracy, and its impact, both good and bad, of the internet, lobbying groups, Non-Government Organisations and the media. Keane’s historical broad sweep, full of detailed knowledge and cogent insights, is expressed in a lively anecdotal prose style, making The Life and Death of Democracy essential reading for academia and the general public alike. Keane makes a strong case for a world history of democracy that is no longer conceived within the confines of national or linguistic boundaries, in order to achieve ‘a more sustainable, balanced and equitable global society’.
For more information, visit the PM's Literary Awards website.
PAST NEWS & EVENTS
2009 CLICK HERE
2008 and earlier CLICK HERE
