From June 10 to 11, 2016, an authors’ workshop took place in the main building of the SFB 700 for a planned special issue on legitimacy and governance in areas of limited statehood.

Using the title “Legitimacy and Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives,” Cord Schmelzle and Eric Stollenwerk, editors of the planned volume, invited its authors to the workshop. More than fifteen German and international legitimacy experts participated and discussed the various texts, which approached the topic from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective. Contributions ranged from conceptual meditations on the definition of state and non-state legitimacy to empirical examinations of state legitimacy in Sri Lanka or the legitimacy of external actors in Afghanistan, for example. Central aspects of the workshop were the exploration of legitimacy itself and the consequences of legitimacy in areas of limited statehood. Over the course of ten sessions, the authors introduced their chapters in brief presentations; two designated participants then discussed each contribution intensively before opening the floor to the rest of the group.

The next workshop on this publication is set to take place in early 2017.

An overview of the workshop program is available here.