Call for Papers

CFP AFFINITIES #4 ? ?WHAT IS RADICAL IMAGINATION: HORIZONS BEYOND ?THE CRISIS?
Edited by Alex Khasnabish and Max Haiven
The social crises of neoliberalism, so evident and provocative
throughout the rest of the world, have finally come "home" to the
global North in the form of a cataclysmic financial crisis wreaking
havoc on the lives of people, workers and communities, intensifying
already intolerable injustices and inequalities and justifying the
intensification of surveillance, policing and militarization.
However, we have yet to see here the rise of radical mass political
activity that has marked the landscape of political contention and
alternative-building in the global South. From the Zapatista uprising
to water and AIDS activism in sub-Saharan and southern Africa to
general strikes in Korea to the Bolivarian revolution, the last 15
years has seen radical mass mobilizations animated (if not caused) by
concrete and radical hope for a globalization from below. Yet in the
North the question that has plagued Left scholars since the 60s has
taken on new salience and urgency: why, in the face of increasing
inequality, precariousness and exploitation, in the face, even, of
imminent ecological collapse, do North American elites and governments
enjoy reckless accumulation untroubled by mass movements demanding
radical social and political change?
This issue of Affinities focuses on the importance of radical
imagination to radical social change. On the one hand, imagination
brings to mind utopian fancy, a dangerous and demobilizing escapism,
and forms of collective or subjective delusion which perpetuate the
status-quo. Yet on the other, the ability to imagine the world, social
institutions and human (and non-human) relationships otherwise is
vital to any radical project. Indeed, as numerous commentators and
theorists point out, we can?t do without the radical imagination, both
on the level of our movements and on the level of our everyday lives.
This issue approaches imagination as a process by which we
collectively map ?what is,? narrate it as the result of ?what was,?
and speculate on what ?might be.? And while it is a terrain of
political struggle it is not merely ?ideology,? a term haunted by its
dubious political legacies. Rather imagination represents a more rich,
agentful, complex and ongoing working-out of affinity, of the
fundamentally political and always collective (though rarely
autonomous) labour of reweaving the social world. This issue, then
takes up the question of the radical imagination as horizons of
socio-political possibility, dynamic and shared visions animating and
animated by individuals and collectives in struggle which guide their
movements toward and create new social worlds.
In a moment where the neoliberal doctrine of ?the end of history? and
the mantra ?there is no alternative? stumble over massive financial
crisis (over the chasm of even more profound social and ecological
crises), what are the possibilities and perils of the radical
imagination? What is this mysterious thing, so often spoken of or
gestured towards but so seldom analyzed? What is the relation of
radical imagination to radical practice? To radical thought and
criticism? To radical forms of and experiments in affinity, solidarity
and activism? How and where is the radical imagination manifest? Are
there criteria by which we can evaluate acts and expressions of the
radical imagination? (i.e. is it always a good thing? What makes it
?radical?? When?
Where? How?) In a moment when elites have turned to hollow invocations
of hope, imagination, and possibility, how is the (radical)
imagination being colonized by the cultural and everyday matrixes of
power relations? By the media? By racism? By patriarchy? By
colonialism? By capitalism? How can this colonization be fought? At a
time when most of the Left seems all too eager to sacrifice it on the
altar of a ubiquitous and tepid neo-Keynesianism, how can radical
imagination be shared, taught, learned or written? Is radical
imagination worth talking about at all?
At risk of demystifying a term whose mystique may be worth defending
this themed issue asks contributors to grapple with the radical
imagination by bringing the concept into dialogue with struggles (or
their absences), past or present primarily though not exclusively in
the global ?North.? More than just an itinerary of examples of radical
imagination, this issue asks contributors to reflect critically on
these examples towards a better understanding of what radical
imagination might be.
We invite contributions which contribute to the discussion of ?what is
the radical imagination? by focusing on concrete sites of struggle,
particularly (but not exclusively) in the global North. Of particular
interest are:
?
Indigenous and anti-colonial struggles
?
Migrant and migrant workers' struggles
?
New forms and spaces of affinity and autonomy, temporary or permanent
?
New directions in peace, anti-war, anti-militarism and anti-Empire organizing
?
New forms of labour organizing (Workers' centres, radical workers'
networks, the IWW resurgence, etc.)
?
New forms of feminist (anti-)globalization
?
Emergent or resurgent anti-capitalist tendencies
?
New anarchist(ic) initiatives
?
New forms of Queer and trans- organizing
?
Radical cultural, social or literary practices/interventions
We encourage and anticipate a wide variety of disciplinary,
theoretical and methodological approaches and especially encourages
contributions from those outside academe. In this vein, the editors
look forward to receiving
?
Essays of 8,000 words or less (to be forwarded for blind peer review -
please remove all identifying marks and include a 150 word abstract)
?
Interviews with activists, writers or others of between 1,000-8,000 words
?
750-1,500 word pungent interventions
?
Creative and non-traditional offerings (please keep in mind the limits
of Affinities? web-based format)
Contributors should consult the Affinities style guide at
http://affinitiesjournal.org/index.php/affinities/about/submissions#authorGuidelines
The deadline for submissions is December 1, 2009. Submissions can be
made via the journal website at www.affinitiesjournal.org. Information
on the submission process and formatting requirements is available on
the site.
Please do not hesitate to direct inquires or pitch ideas to the issue
editors at:
Alex Khasnabish: Alex.Khasnabish@msvu.ca and
Max Haiven: haivenmf@mcmaster.ca
For more information about Affinities, visit http://affinitiesjournal.org/