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InfosCall for PapersLesbian Lives XIII: ‘Historicising the Lesbian’Friday 10 – Sunday 12 February 2006International, Interdisciplinary Conference to be heldat the Women’s Education, Research and ResourceCentre (WERRC), University College Dublin, IrelandProposals are welcomed on (though are by no meanslimited to) the following:Lesbian histories, Historiography, Biographies, HistoricalLiterature, Lesbian and Gay Liberation Movements,Oral Histories, Community and Social Activisms,Histories of Sexualities, Queer Readings of History.The conference organisers welcome proposals for(A) individual papers, (B) sessions, (C) round table discussions,and (D) workshops.E-mail proposals to lesbian.lives@ucd.ieLesbian Lives XIII:Women’s Education, Research and Resource Centre(WERRC)Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington Building,University College Dublin, Dublin 4, IrelandThe closing date for the submission of proposals isFriday 18 th November 2005http://www.ucd.ie/werrc/events for conferenceupdatesArbeitskreis Politik und Geschlecht in derDVPW/ Politics and Gender Section of theGerman Association for Political Science:Call for Papers für die DVPW Tagung „Staat undGesellschaft – fähig zur Reform?“, 25. – 29.September 2006, Münster, GermanyFeministische Perspektiven auf den Wandel von Staatlichkeitund Gesellschaft: zwischen globalen Exklusionsprozessenund TransnationalisierungThe transformation of state and society: Feministperspectives on processes of global exclusion andtransnationalisationIn the view of commentators, politicians and probablyof a majority of the public, Germany as well asother countries of the Global North go through a severeand multi-level „crisis“. Its most visible componentsare high – and rising – unemployment rates, increasingpublic budget deficits, and political reformsthat have profoundly transformed and even dismantledwelfare state structures. More generally speaking, socioeconomicand political transformations have resultedin processes of exclusion and have produced precariousliving conditions for a growing segment of thepopulation. „Precariousness“ („Prekarisierung“) in thiscontext means not only precarious forms of employment,but a general state of insecurity and vulnerabilityin all dimensions of life. The need to individual flexibility,mobility, and self-exploitation under conditionsof economic pressure and competitiveness has createda „non-class of the marginalized“ (Candeias) as well asthe figure of the „entreployee“ („Arbeitskraftunternehmer“),who bears individual responsibility for his/ hersocial status and personal development (Pongratz andVoß; Bröckling).These processes are embedded in and connected tointernational and global developments: the logic of globalfinancial markets and economic competition shapesthe conditions for employment and wage levels withinnation states. At the same time, the neoliberal notionof economics dominating politics has become a globalhegemonic scheme of interpreting society. ManyOECD states have intensified their security policies inresponse to a widespread feeling of insecurity amongthe population that predominantly results from politicaland economic de-regulation. This renaissance of nationalsecurity not only undermines an international orderbased on multilateralism, but also fosters the polarisationbetween „cultures“ and thus creates hostility onthe global scale. In particular, the construction of „Islam“as a potential threat to freedom and democracyhas created new mechanisms of exclusion for thosewho „look like terrorists“, and it has helped to legitimisethe subordination of individual rights under measuresdesigned to enhance national security.These processes of capitalist and nationalist exclusion,however, have also created international and transnationalreactions. International organizations – andthe United Nations in particular – provide a forum forthe debate on universal standards of human dignityand develop mechanisms for their implementation.Transnational activists often refer to these standardsto protest against inequalities and thus connect universalstandards with contextualised struggles for socialjustice.In our panels at the DVPW congress, we would liketo bring together gender-sensitive perspectives on thetransformation of state and society as well as reflectionsInfo 21.Jg./Nr.28/2004141