Workshop with Elena Ziliotti

«How to Theorise for Contemporary ‘Non-Western’ Life-Words? Normative Hybridity as Methodological Approach for Political Theory Building»

About the Workshop:
How to develop normative political models for contemporary ‘non-Western’ societies while avoiding coloniality and Eurocentrism? This critical question will be addressed by Elena Ziliotti, Assistant Professor of Ethics and Political Philosophy at TU Delft. European-derived norms and practices have influenced ‘non-Western’ societies so profoundly that they have irreversibly altered their ways of life. This has created unique forms of cultural hybridity, new intellectual and cultural practices incommensurable to both Western and pre-modern indigenous traditions.

Elena Ziliotti argues that the incommensurability of contemporary ‘non-Western’ life-worlds poses a methodological challenge for theory building. On the one hand, political theorists must avoid reproducing Eurocentrism. Still, they cannot refuse to engage with the Western-originated concepts and ways of thinking that have become fundamental in local public culture. On the other hand, pre-modern indigenous intellectual resources are a distinctive aspect of ‘non-Western’ contemporary societies, but their conceptual and epistemic retrieval alone is inadequate to ground contemporary theory.  Zoliotti will discuss how we can overcome this two-fold methodological problem by adopting ‘normative hybridity’ as methodological footing.

About the Speaker:
Elena Ziliotti is an Assistant Professor of Ethics and Political Philosophy at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). In her research, she focuses on contemporary Western and Confucian democratic theories, with a strong interest in the concepts of political meritocracy, leadership, equality, and good governance.

No registration necessary.

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