Practices of Order: Colonial and Imperial Projects

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Conference on practices developed by colonial states and empires in order to govern the behavior of their subject populations. 28-30 January 2015, Udvalgsværelse 3, Nørregade 10, Copenhagen. Open keynote lectures: the rest of the conference is restricted for registered participants.

Practices of order

By evoking the concept practices of order the conference seeks to highlight the complexities of colonial power relations and political processes. These practices were not only utilized by colonial authorities to secure social control, but were also essential in establishing abstract visions of colonies as ordered and governed spaces. 

The practice of governing entails processes of thinking about governmental strategies and planning for order as well as efforts to effectuate ordering programs. Contributors to the conference will investigate the different ways in which colonial space and subjects were rendered calculable and governable and how these abstractions were in turn invested in interventional programs of order.

Keynote lectures

  • Wednesday 28 January 2015, 12.30-13.30
    George Steinmetz: The Colonial Situation and Modern Social Science: French and British Sociology in the Colonies, 1940s-1960s

  • Wednesday 28 January 2015, 15.15-16.15: 
    Mariana Valverde: The ‘Honour of the Crown’ Doctrine and the Blackboxing of Empire in Current Canadian Aboriginal Law

  • Thursday 29 January 2015, 13.00-14.00: 
    Stephen Legg: Empirical and Analytical Subaltern Space? Ashrams, Brothels and Trafficking in Colonial Delhi

Keynote lectures are open to the public (first come first served).

Please note that the programme may be adjusted before the conference.