Inaugural Lecture - Professor Emile Chabal: Age of identity: Democracy and difference in contemporary Europe

Professor Emile Chabal gives his inaugural lecture at Playfair Library Hall on Wednesday 4 November, from 5:15pm to 6:30pm. It's organised by the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, and the talk is titled Age of identity: Democracy and difference in contemporary Europe.

Chabal takes identity politics in Europe as his subject. He starts with the 1970s, when social movements based on race, gender, religion, language and sexuality began to challenge political structures, parties and movements. Since then, the debate has split: some see identity politics as giving citizens new ways to participate in democracy, while others argue it damages democratic politics by pitting groups against each other.

Rather than sticking to that polemic, Chabal steps back to look at the history of identity politics in Europe and reads these new forms of political mobilisation within the wider transformation of European democracy since the 1970s. It's a long-view approach to a subject that usually gets reduced to the latest headline.

The talk is free, and there's a drinks reception afterwards, so you can hang around and chat about it. The lecture runs from 5:15pm to 6:30pm at Playfair Library Hall, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh EH8 9YL.