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Centre for Asia Pacific Social Transformation Studies (CAPSTRANS)

Citizens, States and Power

Convenor: Richard Howson and Charles Hawksley
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CSP explores the construction of citizenship, statehood and power in the Asia Pacific region and beyond. It focuses on the critical understanding of the actions, interactions and conflicts between individuals, states, non-state actors and other social groups.

Traditionally the analysis of such interactions have been constructed in terms of the rather static labels "citizen", "state" and "civil society", where each concept operates somewhat separately from the other. CSP’s emphasis is on the interactions and transformations that produce relations of power, and our theoretical engagement acknowledges the contested and changing nature of each of these categories, along with their different roles in the development of political and social theory.

CSP brings together active researchers, HDR students and ECRs working on critical exploration of these dynamics in the Asia Pacific, including Australia, and around the world. The unifying theme of CSP is a critical analysis of the workings of social and political power. CSP researchers use contemporary social, historical, political and ethical theory to explore the following themes:

• hegemony (political economy; states; national and international order; resistance; activism)
• social and political violence (armed conflict; ethics of war; gender; reconciliation)
• public policy and public reason (governments and power; public discourse; citizens’ rights)