Annual Conference 2022: Reimagining Social Contracts
News
We're going hybrid again! On 20 October, 2022, we are thrilled to be able to welcome our participants in-person at a beautiful venue, the Louwman Museum, in The Hague, as well as online through our virtual venue.
Click here to view this year's program.
Click here to view this year's Program Timetable.
Click here to check out the virtual venue that we built last year.
Click here to view this year's Concept Note.
About the Conference
The Knowledge Platform Annual Conference #KPAC22 is the Platform's signature event that brings together our vibrant community for thought-provoking discussions. This year will be our 10th Annual Conference, and as in previous years, we invite representatives from national and international governments and policy organs, think-thanks, journalists, INGO practitioners, activists, diplomats, and field researchers from around the globe to join us. These diverse actors assemble each year with a singular aim: to present their latest projects and freshest ideas, and engage their peers to learn and improve security and justice policy and programs.
This year's theme is Reimagining Social Contracts. What is the glue that holds societies together? In the Western tradition of political thought, the answer is often the ‘social contract’: citizens giving up part of their freedom in exchange for a stake in society and collective services. That contract is a fiction; there is no such document, and every societal arrangement has its own history and form. Humans were never free and unbound in the state of nature. However, it is a useful fiction. It provides us with a common language for the ‘bigger picture’ of what is fair and just; who gets what and who provides it.
Using this fiction, we see how many countries struggle in coming to inclusive, legitimate and sustainable societal arrangements. Simultaneously, we see that international interveners struggle to achieve their aims because of factors linked to broader societal arrangements or due to the application of Western ideas in societies with different a ideological background, culture or history.
Reflecting on this, the Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law (KPSRL) community indicated the need to Reimagine Social Contracts. This means supporting indigenous solutions and community responses to Security & Rule of Law (SRoL) arrangements and reflecting on the role Western actors play in doing so.
Our use of the verb ‘reimagining’ includes a series of interconnected moments and actions, although in practice never chronological nor separate. Three key points of reimagining are envisioned to constitute the ‘flow of the day’ for KPAC22 and are thus central in our call for contributions: Reinvent, Rearrange & Renegotiate. Please read the full Concept Note to learn more.
Attention all artists, artivists, creatives, dreamers: we are calling on you to share creative expressions of - or contributions towards - reimagining social contracts.
In the lead up to the big day, we are unpacking what social contracts actually are and what reimagining can look like. One of the ways we are doing this is through a this call for contributions to artistically interpret what Reimagining Social Contracts can mean.
There are two ways to respond to this call: 1) sharing an art piece that you created yourself; 2) sharing an art piece made by someone else that you appreciate and resonate with, that inspired you or others to reimagine social arrangements and relations. For example, think of a song that became an anthem of a protest, a street art that connected conflicted communities, a poem about security or performance for reconciliation.
To submit a piece, you should simply share your post on LinkedIn or Twitter (Instagram coming soon), tagging us along with the hashtag: #InspiREimagine. If the piece you’re sharing is your original, please add the 2nd hashtag: #MyLens. Artwork submitted by 30 September will be displayed and shared at our Annual Conference, and the original art piece that generates the most likes on social media during the voting period 1-10 October will win a small prize.
We encourage you to explore all different kinds of mediums: audio, visual, movement, and more. Our Secretariat team will also be sharing some of our own ideas and interpretations – so be sure to follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter (Instagram coming soon)!
Please help us disseminate this call and… let’s get creative!