This panel reflects upon the dramatic recent increase of deaths in the Mediterranean and discusses the pressures that these deaths are exerting upon the concept and practice of collective responsibility in Europe. Crucial to the continent's own liberal self-description, the ethics of responsibility is today suspended between European democracies' moral imperative to save the lives of vulnerable others and an economy of indifference that, through denial and inaction in the sea, allows for the deaths of certain populations to take place without sanctions or repercussions. What does responsibility become, in the light of this ethical failure? What should it have become instead? How is it possible to imagine alternative conceptions of responsibility, in the midst of these new hierarchies of life and humanity?
Ruben Andersson is an anthropologist at LSE working on migration, borders and security. He is a postdoctoral research fellow at LSE’s Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, Department of International Development, and an associated researcher at Stockholm University’s Department of Anthropology. He is author of Illegality, Inc.: Clandestine migration and the business of bordering Europe.
Lilie Chouliaraki (@chouliaraki_l) is a Professor of Media and Communications at LSE and author of The Ironic Spectator: solidarity in the age of post-humanitarianism.
Myria Georgiou is Associate Professor and Deputy Head of the Dept of Media and Communications at LSE. Her research focusses on migration, identity, media, and the city. She is the author of Media and the City: Cosmopolitanism and Difference (Polity Press, 2013).
Pierluigi Musarò is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Business Law at the University of Bologna. He is President of refugee-related NGO YODA and Founder and Director of the Festival ITACA: Migrants and Travellers.
The Department of Media and Communications (@MediaLSE) undertakes outstanding and innovative research and provides excellent research-based graduate programmes for the study of media and communications. The Department was established in 2003 and in 2014 our research was ranked number 1 in the most recent UK research evaluation, with 91% of research outputs ranked world-leading or internationally excellent.
Update, Thursday 11 February: Marina Lewycka and Professor Elleka Boehmer are no longer able to take part in this discussion due to unforeseen circumstances.
This event forms part of the LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival 2016, taking place from Monday 22 - Saturday 27 February 2016, with the theme 'Utopias'.
Suggested hashtag for this event for Twitter users: #LSELitFest
Podcast
A podcast of this event is available to download from Uninvited Arrivals: refugees and the challenge of responsibility
Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.