Welfare Management - Critique and the Articulation of Alternatives

Focusing on the study of welfare management practices today, this conference aims to explore the critical foundations of contemporary systems theory and discourse analysis. The theories of Niklas Luhmann, Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida seem to undermine all hope for establishing a basis for normative criticism. Is the observer of modern society condemned to be a merely passive voyeur of what may or may not be problematic practices? Or are there opportunities for the observer not only to describe these practices but also to prescribe improvements on the basis of concrete criticism? Perhaps social theorists are consigned to merely articulate tentative alternatives without actually proposing any one of them or explicitly opposing the status quo. There is certainly no place outside all systems or discourses from which one might launch a universal critique of them. Whatever basis may remain for criticism, it must necessarily be grounded in a particular empirical field.

Western welfare societies have witnessed radical transformations of their governance structures in recent years. Approaches like New Public Management, Governance and Empowerment, have put the development of new forms of welfare management on the agenda. Welfare management now constantly reflects upon its own conditions for improvement and refinement. In this critical perspective, Michel Foucault’s theory of empowerment, Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems and Jacques Derrida’s deconstructivism have an important role to play because the analysis and criticism they support contributes to the development of the very fields they are applied to.

This conference seeks to take the discussion a step further by asking how it is possible to take a critical position on something that already, from its own point of view, adopts such a position. In other words, how is criticism possible when it no longer holds an external position to what it criticizes but already exists as an integrated part of the field’s own development and dynamic? How is it possible to formulate a scientifically grounded criticism of the existing order under these circumstances? Is it possible to articulate a critique that does not automatically refuse to be integrated within the field it criticizes? Is it even a worthwhile ideal to stand apart from the objects of critique?

The conference wants to establish a forum for discussions of these questions and to stimulate reflection about the problem of analysis when analysts themselves occupy positions within the empirical field. The conference will be based on keynote speakers and workshops with paper presentations. We invite participants to submit papers on the overall theme of the conference. Accepted papers will be considered for inclusion in an international anthology edited by Professor Niels Åkerstrøm Andersen and Professor Sverre Raffnsøe.

C ONFIRMED KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

• Prof. Thomas Lemke (Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main)

• Prof. Jean Clam (Centre Marc Bloch)

• Prof. Sverre Raffnsøe (Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy)

• Prof. Niels Åkerstrøm Andersen (Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy)