Five types of contestations of the liberal script

• Department of Political and Social Sciences

This session of the International Relations Working Group features a presentation by Professor Michael Zürn (WZB).

The synthesis research project aims to survey and categorise contestations of the liberal script, which vary globally in both type and underlying purpose. To properly understand the contestations and their causes and consequences, a useful typology needs to be developed. The project aims at a categorisation of the contestants based on their normativity, epistemology as well as the emotions, strategies and identities used in pursuing their goals.

This typology of contestations of the liberal script is part of the bigger SCRIPTS research program, which investigates contemporary controversies about the model of liberal democracy and the market economy. The term "liberal script" relates to a set of ideas and institutional prescriptions about how society is organised based on the core principle of individual self-determination. The main purpose of SCRIPTS is to understand why the liberal model of order has fallen into crisis despite its political, economic, and social achievement.

Speaker bio:

Michael Zürn is the Director of the research unit Global Governance at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, a Professor of International Relations at the Free University Berlin, and the Co-spokesperson of the Cluster of Excellence Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS).

The Zoom link will be sent upon registration.