Interviews

Interview with Professor Marlies Glasius – Authoritarian Practices in a Global Age

Professor Marlies Glasius is a Professor of International Relations at the University of Amsterdam. Her research focuses on taxation policy, authoritarianism, global civil society, and international criminal justice. Between 2019 and 2022, Professor Glasius served as the Chair of the Politics Department at the University of Amsterdam. Professor Glasius led the ERC-funded project ‘Authoritarianism in a Global Age’ from 2013 to 2018. Her recent monograph Authoritarian Practices in a Global Age was published by Oxford University Press in 2022 and explores how authoritarian practices unfold within democracies and at the transnational level, highlighting the circumstances in which they thrive, and how they are best challenged.

In this interview we speak to Professor Glasius about Authoritarian Practices in a Global Age, delving into the book’s themes, the process of researching authoritarian practices and the methodological challenges associated with said research.

Interview with Thomas Risse – Effective Governance Under Anarchy

In this interview we speak to Professor Thomas Risse about his recent book titled Effective Governance Under Anarchy, co-authored with Tanja Börzel and published by Cambridge University Press. Focusing on the development and findings of a research project that spans over a decade, the interview explores the concept of statehood in international relations, challenging traditional understandings of the state and its role within the international system.

Professor Risse is a distinguished scholar and Professor of International Relations at the Free University of Berlin. He has held various academic positions, including serving as the former director of the Center for Transnational Relations, Foreign and Security Policy at the University. Professor Risse’s extensive teaching and research experience spans across renowned institutions such as the European University Institute’s Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, Stanford University, Harvard University, Cornell University, and the University of Wyoming. Professor Risse is the co-ordinator of the Research Centre 700 “Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Professor Risse’s exceptional scholarly achievements have garnered recognition, including his appointment as an associate editor of the esteemed journal International Organization as well as being awarded the Max Planck Research Prize for International Cooperation in 2003. Professor Risse has published multiple influential books, with his most recent being the subject of this interview.

 

“Citizens’ Empowerment in Global Perspectives” Interview Series

Interview with Dr Chunrong Liu – Citizen Empowerment, Spontaneous Order and Community Building in Post-Reform Urban China (Read more here)

This is Part 7 of a series of interviews for The Exeter-Fudan Global Thought Network’s first workshop on “Citizens’ Empowerment in Global Perspectives”, with Dr Chunrong Liu, an Associate Professor of political science at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs (SIRPA), Fudan University. He has recently published an article, “Preserving spontaneous order: A normative reflection of community building in post-reform China“, in Philosophy & Social Criticism. In this interview, Dr Chunrong Liu talks about the social transitions and local governance innovations in China since the 1990s and how these have triggered his research interests in the dynamics of state-society relations and civic participation, and sheds light on the new developments and challenges brought by demographic changes, social media and pandemic. Sharing his insights on a relational and collective concept of citizenship, he suggests that at the grassroots level, citizens are encouraged to maintain certain aspects of individual autonomy and pursue moral roles in social relations, public obligations and collective responsibility, and calls for a new approach to theorise the community governance in China with both a comparative perspective and close attention to its local variations.

Interview with Dr Catherine Owen – Citizens’ Empowerment in Global Perspectives, Part I

Part 1 of a series of interviews for The Exeter-Fudan Global Thought Network’s first workshop on “Citizens’ Empowerment in Global Perspectives”. The interviews discuss research done on organized forms and practices of citizens’ empowerment through participation, deliberation and protest in different state and political contexts. They delve into the experiences of academics producing knowledge across borders. This first interview is with Dr Catherine Owen of the University of Exeter, who is a founding member of the Exeter-Fudan Global Thought Network.

Interview with Dr Xuan Qin – Citizens’ Empowerment in Global Perspectives, Part II

Part 2 of a series of interviews for The Exeter-Fudan Global Thought Network’s first workshop on “Citizens’ Empowerment in Global Perspectives”. The interviews discuss research done on organized forms and practices of citizens’ empowerment through participation, deliberation and protest in different state and political contexts. They delve into the experiences of academics producing knowledge across borders. This second interview is with Dr Xuan Qin of Fudan University, who is a member of the Exeter-Fudan Global Thought Network.

Interview with Yuan Li – Citizens’ Empowerment in Global Perspectives, Part III

Part 3 of a series of interviews for The Exeter-Fudan Global Thought Network’s first workshop on “Citizens’ Empowerment in Global Perspectives”. The interviews discuss research done on forms and practices of citizens’ empowerment through participation, deliberation and protest in different state and political contexts. They delve into the experiences of academics producing knowledge across borders. This third interview in the series is with Yuan Li, who is a PhD student at Fudan University and a member of the Exeter-Fudan Global Thought Network.

Interview with Yanjun Zhu – Citizens’ Empowerment in Global Perspectives, Part IV

Part 4 of a series of interviews for The Exeter-Fudan Global Thought Network’s first workshop on “Citizens’ Empowerment in Global Perspectives”. The interviews discuss research done on organized forms and practices of citizens’ empowerment through participation, deliberation and protest in different state and political contexts. They delve into the experiences of academics producing knowledge across borders. This fourth interview is with Yanjun Zhu, who is a Masters student at Fudan University and a member of the Exeter-Fudan Global Thought Network.

Interview with Samuel Hayat – Citizens’ Empowerment, Representation and the Gilets Jaunes, Part V

Part 5 of a series of interviews for The Exeter-Fudan Global Thought Network’s first workshop on “Citizens’ Empowerment in Global Perspectives”. The interviews discuss research done on organized forms and practices of citizens’ empowerment through participation, deliberation and protest in different state and political contexts. They delve into the experiences of academics producing knowledge across borders. This interview is with Dr Samuel Hayat, a Researcher in Politics at the French National Centre for Scientific Research at Sciences Po (Paris), and is about his research on the Gilet Jaunes movement. He has recently published an article on the Gilet Jaunes: “Unrepresentative Claims: Speaking for Oneself in a Social Movement”, in the American Political Science Review. DOI.

© Photo by Cyril Michel

Interview with Dr Emilie Frenkiel – Citizens’ empowerment and knowledge across borders, Part VI

Part 6 of a series of interviews for The Exeter-Fudan Global Thought Network’s first workshop on “Citizens’ Empowerment in Global Perspectives”. The interviews discuss research done on organized forms and practices of citizens’ empowerment through participation, deliberation and protest in different state and political contexts. They delve into the experiences of academics producing knowledge across borders. This interview is with Dr Emilie Frenkiel, associate professor at the Université Paris Est Créteil, a researcher and vice-director of the LIPHA research institute. She is the author of two books: Conditional Democracy: The Contemporary Debate on Political Reform in Chinese Universities (ECPR press 2015), Parler politique en Chine (Presses Universitaires de France 2014), and the co-editor of La Chine en mouvements (Presses Universitaires de France 2013).

 

Interview with Dr Andrea Ghiselli – Chinese Academia, Foreign Policy, and BRI Research

In this interview with Dr Andrea Ghiselli, Assistant Professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University, we talked about his interests in Chinese foreign policy, his experience in Chinese academia, his book Protecting China’s Interests Oversea (Oxford University Press, 2021) and his new work on Belt and Road Initiative.