Presentation Schedule
Forging the Polis: Archaic Greek State-Formation as a Model for Global Citizenship (104052)
Session Chair: Christo Swart
Saturday, 18 April 2026 12:40
Session: Session 2
Room: Room 144C (1F)
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
Contemporary scholarship in sociology and political science grapples persistently with the challenges of forging cohesive identity, cultivating community, and defining “global citizenship.” Yet these ostensibly modern problems find their earliest and most consequential laboratory in the emergence of the Greek polis during the Archaic period (c. 800–480 BCE). This era of radical social transformation saw disparate tribes and villages deliberately engineer a revolutionary political identity: the citizen (politēs).
Employing an interdisciplinary framework that draws on social history, archaeology, and political philosophy, this paper investigates the polis not as an inevitable historical outcome but as a contingent and dynamic social project, an “imagined community” actively constructed through identifiable tools and strategies. The analysis centers on three core mechanisms of civic integration: first, the creation of communal law and public ethical frameworks, which speak directly to the conference theme of ethics, second, the role of shared public spaces, the agora and religious sanctuaries, in cultivating a collective sense of humanity, and third, the development of political institutions that educated individuals into new forms of civic participation.
Drawing on textual evidence ranging from Hesiod to early inscribed law codes, and on recent archaeological data, this study demonstrates how Archaic Greeks constructed a durable civic identity from the ground up. In doing so, it recovers a foundational model for political integration and identity-building, one that offers a classical framework for understanding the enduring challenges of creating cohesive, peaceful, and functional communities. The paper engages directly with the conference’s themes of leadership, education for peace, and the construction of citizenship itself.
Authors:
Peiyao Guo, Duke University, United States
About the Presenter(s)
Peiyao Guo is a Bridge Fellow in Classical Studies at Duke University, USA.
Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/peiyao-guo-93b353294
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