Reset DOC

January

2025

Rome, Italy

This international conference will address the critical challenges facing liberal democracies. It will explore their failure to respond effectively to the anxieties and needs of citizens grappling with globalization, precarious employment, demographic changes, and social dislocation. These issues, amplified by populist rhetoric and the perceived indifference of liberal elites, have led to growing polarization, weakened societal cohesion, and ideological stagnation in politics.

December

2024

Online

Is Donald Trump’s electoral success a sign of authoritarian decline in American democracy, or is it a response to the Democratic Party’s failure to deliver on its promises? Daron Acemoglu recently argued the latter, suggesting the Left has focused too narrowly on cultural recognition at the expense of material protections. This neglect of the social order’s material foundations has deepened tensions, fueling “culture wars.” Shifting focus away from these conflicts toward social protections to tackle global crises is a compelling idea—but is it feasible, and how might it be achieved?

October

2024

Boston College

The Clough Center for Constitutional Democracy at Boston College is screening, for the first time, two short documentaries by Reset DOC on the role of religion in reconciliation and peacebuilding. 1. Religion and Reconciliation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and hte Balkans and 2. The Case of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict and the Role of the Orthodox Church. Directed by Filippo Macelloni, these timely 25-minute films analyze the role of religion in peace-making efforts in the context of the wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Ukraine-Russia. Historical background and expert interviews are interwoven in an informative and engaging viewing experience.

Analyses

Yassin al-Haj Saleh, born in 1961, is one of Syria’s foremost intellectuals and a long-standing dissident against the Assad regime. He spent sixteen years in prison for “political reasons,” including time in the maximum-security facility of Tadmur, also known as Palmyra. With the onset of the Syrian Spring, he immediately emerged as an opponent of the regime.

Publications

From poetry to cinema, from microblogging to theater, from literature to journalism, arts and media are always a fertile ground for experimentation and imagination, creativity and political dissent. That is the case across Arab and Muslim societies, too. The output of the 2021 edition of the Carthage Seminars, this e-book strives to shed light on those very intellectual resources – often neglected, at times repressed – to unpack the complexity of societies and cultural experiences across the MENA region. A specific focus is provided, in the second part, on the social and cultural ferment in Tunisia, a particularly interesting reality, that deserves special attention in this season of great political and democratic uncertainty.

Our Initiatives

The Dublin Seminars, in partnership with Boston College Ireland and Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, have kicked out in 2023 to establish as a remarkable cultural appointment, able to promote and consolidate a network of cultural, intellectual and academic relationships among senior and junior scholars in the social sciences, political theory, sociology, legal and religious studies. Thanks to its cross-cultural inspiration, the Dublin Seminars function as an original think tank for a thorough understanding of the challenges facing democracy, politics and international relations in the 21st-century world.

The project “Theologies and practices of religious pluralism” investigates current debates and issues on pluralism within and across religious traditions and how some of these debates are reshaping the status of religion in different public spaces. These adaptations have a profound impact on international relations and daily life in every society, across cultural, ethnic, racial divides. This project is jointly promoted by Reset DOC (Italy), Reset Dialogues (US) the University of Birmingham (UK), the Berkeley Center at Georgetown University (US), the Foundation for Religious Sciences in Bologna and Palermo (Italy) and the Haifa Laboratory for Religious Studies (Israel).

Illiberal trend

Riccardo Cristiano interviews for Reset DOC political scientist Cengiz Aktar on the Turkish nationalist-authoritarian shift. A 360 degrees picture of Turkish society and its relationship with politics, religion and the Kurdish question.