PLACES

PLACES - Political Science, Law, Anthropology, Communication, Economics and Business, Sociology - a part of the Rīga Stradiņš University Research Week, is a biennial event of academic exchange and knowledge sharing that provides a room for discussions on the newest achievements in political science, law, anthropology, communication, economics and business, sociology, and other social science disciplines.

Invitation

At the beginning of the 21st century, Zygmunt Bauman wrote the following in his book Community: Seeking Safety in an Insecure World (2001:4): “Security and freedom are two equally precious and coveted values which could be better or worse balanced, but hardly ever fully reconciled and without friction.” Today, this conceptualisation is important more than ever, as the sense of insecurity is spreading among societies, and social scientists are challenged by the need to rethink the value orientations of their work. The 4th International Interdisciplinary Conference PLACES aims to address this tension.

The current decade has been marked by the crises that have confronted global society - the global COVID pandemic, Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, the rise of far-right populism and the ongoing climate crisis are just some of the loud examples of the challenges that need to be addressed. On the one hand, the scale, depth, and nature of the permacrises we are witnessing, both globally and locally, make it clear that not only are we unprepared for many of these crises, but that addressing them may require an entirely new way of thinking about solutions. On the other hand, some of these solutions seemingly require curtailing individual and collective freedoms in the name of putative security. Shifting the focus from averting crises to ways of strengthening collective resilience to withstand challenges, identifying new mitigating measures, increasing the speed at which novel solutions can be found, and rethinking center-periphery relations constitute the core topics and questions of this conference.

How should freedom and security be balanced when engaging society and strengthening solidarity to ensure that groups in society can mobilize to respond to emerging threats rapidly? How can we achieve the level of trust and mutual support that can be used as a basis for increasing the effectiveness of any? Whose freedom and whose security are enhanced, and whose are restrained in these processes?

To engage with these challenges, PLACES proposes to address two questions:

What tools, good examples and opportunities can be observed, described, or proposed while engaging with permacrises?

For decades, practitioners and researchers in various fields have been accumulating empirical and theoretical evidence on how best to address various threats. There is a need for an inventory of existing promising solutions so that society can fully benefit from the accumulated knowledge. Meanwhile, the rapid development of technologies has created a wide range of new

opportunities—some of which seem to promise solutions, and others may help humanity develop new ways of working more effectively on issues related to the Grand Challenges.

What are the trade-offs and threats associated with the need to address the changing world?

It is now also clear that solutions that are implemented but not fully understood can be a source of even deeper challenges. On the one hand, they themselves can be a source of long-term future threats. On the other hand, they also have the potential to sow division, mistrust, and polarization in society. For example, digital transformation continues to create a deep digital divide between social groups, leading to various social cleavages and inequalities. Meanwhile, the flagship policies developed to address the climate crises threaten to distribute the required costs unevenly, deepening the already existing divisions and creating new ones. The cracks in the social fabric created by these tensions may reduce the solidarity required for any effective response to the challenges facing society.

The 4th International Interdisciplinary Conference PLACES invites speakers from a variety of disciplines (political science, anthropology, sociology, management, law, economics, etc.) to discuss these and other related questions, presenting new empirical material as well as case studies and theoretical insights addressing global, regional and national attempts to address and cope with contemporary challenges while illuminating the ways of and tensions in the process of balancing freedom and security.

Main Topics

Academic freedom
Green transition & homo climaticus
Media freedom
Security crises in NATO & EU
Autonomy in medical humanities
Legal aspects of freedom & security
Expectations towards food

Proposed Panels

ACADEMIC FREEDOM VS MANAGERIAL SECURITY. Convener: Assoc. Prof. Klāvs Sedlenieks

In the face of more managerial security, universities all over the world have undergone curtailing of academic freedom either by direct interference of the governments in the researched topics, or by withdrawing funds from certain areas, or through revoking academic autonomy and the introduction of corporate governance principles. The panel asks: is science possible without academic autonomy, and what are the limits and justifiable borders of academic freedom? We also inquire: is it possible to combine academic freedom with public funding, and how?

GREEN TRANSITION TO EMPOWER “HOMO CLIMATICUS”. Convener: Vineta Kleinberga

While the European Green Deal is the EU’s strategy aimed at decarbonizing the economy while preserving growth, it has the potential to deepen existing inequalities or create new ones. How can we ensure that the EU moves towards climate neutrality in a socially responsible manner? To what extent can individual and collective freedoms be restricted to ensure the future security of the planet? How can we best enable the emergence of “homo climaticus” – an individual for whom climate-friendly choices are the primary considerations – through incentives or regulations? This panel welcomes interdisciplinary contributions to discuss risks and solutions for enhancing socially responsible green transition.

MEDIA FREEDOM AND THE PROTECTION OF JOURNALISTS AND QUALITY JOURNALISM. Convener: Assoc. Prof. Ilva Skulte

Freedom and protection as concepts include a certain contradiction. However, to ensure that media can freely operate to provide audiences with objective information, in contemporary media environment, the level of safety must be increased. The European Media Freedom Act underlines the necessity to protect the quality of journalism, editorial independence, sources, and journalists themselves against, for example, bullying or SLAPP. The development of digital tools and internet communication as well as spreading of political populism puts under pressure

media work in many countries. The introduction of AI not only changes the everyday of journalists but deepens the risks of tendencies such as shrinking of the advertisement market, or disinformation. The panel discusses the latest trends and tendencies in media communication as risks and opportunities in the contemporary media ecosystem of protecting media freedom without limiting freedom of expression.

MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC INSTRUMENTS IN SUSTAINABLE PROTECTION AGAINST HARD AND SOFT SECURITY CRISES IN NATO AND THE EUROPEAN UNION. Co-conveners: Assoc. Prof. Māris Andžāns & Assoc. Prof. Kārlis Bukovskis

In most of the world countries Russia was not seen as an immediate military threat until 2014 or even 2022. In some it still is not considered as such. Diplomatic instruments and economic engagement were seen as sufficient instruments to deter Russia from violent revision of the international multilateral rule-of-law based global order. Russia’s full-scale attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty has led to accelerated emergence of new dividing lines in the world and thus new global balance of power. It is the aim of this conference section to address the outcomes of the post-2022 world order and the military and diplomatic instruments that are and still need to be applied in securing freedom for the European Union and NATO societies and their democratic partners.

AUTONOMY, BODILY AGENCY AND THE COLLECTIVE GOOD: PERSPECTIVES FROM MEDICAL HUMANITIES. Convener: Asst. Prof. Māra Grīnfelde

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the tension between individual freedoms and collective security, raising both ethical questions regarding individual autonomy versus collective well-being and conceptual questions about the understanding of individual autonomy and the role that bodily agency plays in it. This panel aims to address both conceptual issues connected to the understanding of autonomy and concrete examples from health care, public health policy, and biomedical research where the tension between autonomy and security (individual or collective) emerges. The possible topics include but are not limited to: the problematization of the concept of autonomy; the role of patient autonomy in health crises; the impact of new medical technologies on individual autonomy; privacy concerns related to the use of health data and surveillance technologies; the balancing of individual rights and mandatory health measures. The panel invites interdisciplinary discussions that address these issues from philosophical, ethical, sociological, and medical perspectives

HOW TO ENSURE FREEDOM WITHOUT LOSING SECURITY—LEGAL ASPECTS AND PRACTICAL PROBLEMS. Convener: Assoc. Prof. Inga Kudeikina

In contemporary society, a crucial challenge exists - balancing individual freedom with the need to ensure security. Increasingly, we encounter situations where legal solutions are sought to

protect individual rights while simultaneously guaranteeing the security of the state and society. The conference will feature leading experts from various fields, including legal science, internal security, human rights, and technology. Our discussion aims are to:

Explore the legal frameworks that regulate freedom and security;
Analyze the practical problems arising from the implementation of security measures;
Discuss best practices and innovative solutions to ensure compliance with rights and freedoms;
Promote international cooperation and exchange of experiences

ALIGNING MICRO- AND MACRO-LEVEL EXPECTATIONS TOWARDS FOOD. Convener: Prof. Dr. soc. Miķelis Grīviņš

Food intertwines with our daily lives in multiple ways: it is linked to health, culture, economic activity, the environment surrounding us, recreational activities, comfort, security, and many other domains. Food links deep individual experiences (such as social bounds created by shared memories of dishes or care expressed through sharing of self-grown veggies, etc.) with impactful macro-level processes (such as the growing spread of non-communicable diseases facilitated by unbalanced diets, rapid biodiversity loss caused by unsustainable farming practices, etc.). Thus, local and global food systems are a crucial part of the well-being of society.

It can be expected that during the next decades, countless changes will be introduced in the ways we produce, distribute and consume food. Having a better understanding of micro, mezzo and macro processes taking place in the food systems and the ways food systems are linked to local contexts is crucial to ensure that different roles of food production and consumption are considered when governing these changes. This section of the PLACES conference will debate different aspects of food production and consumption, including:

The cultural roles of food production and consumption;
The diverse interlinkages between social structures, health, environment, economy, and consumption practices;
The challenges and opportunities faced by local and global food systems;
New governance models and policy interventions supporting more responsible food circulation.

POPULIST ENCOUNTERS: TRACING POPULIST EFFECTS IN NON-TRADITIONAL POLITICAL SPACES. Convener: Prof. Rico Isaacs, Visiting Professor and Leader of the Populist Encounters research group at Rigā Stradinš University

Populism has long migrated from political science debates into mass media and everyday discourses. In the age of digitalisation and mass communications, populist parties, politicians and activists have a greater appeal than ever before in human history. Populism has also become a “fuzzy” term, which often lacks clarity. In the most basic sense, populism refers to ideologies, discourses and practices that frame social interaction in divisive terms as “us”, the people, and them, the corrupt elites.
This panel will seek to explore how populism shapes and informs social relations across a range of political, environmental and cultural fields. While the study of populism has long been siloed within the political sciences, Populist Encounters, seeks to explore fresh interdisciplinary approaches to understand the effects of populism in different political, environmental and cultural sites and therefore would be keen to attract scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds within the social sciences and humanities to understand the far-reaching effects of populism beyond traditional ‘political’ sites.

International Scientific Committee