Call for Papers

Utopia, Modernity, Postmodernity

P.O.I. – Points of Interest, No. 11 (December 2022)

Submissions Deadline (abstracts): September 1st

 

The bi-annual journal P.O.I. – Points of Interest invites submissions for its forthcoming issue. Submissions should address the issue’s theme, on the basis of one or more of the topics proposed below, and should conform to the stipulated criteria and terms, as indicated below.

 

Constant reference to the utopian dimension has been one of the most relevant characteristics of modernity, which seemed to have been set aside definitively at the end of the last century, and which is now pressing for a reemergence. To the two main explications for the relation between utopia and modernity – the fascination with the rational that informed social and political life, or, on the contrary, the reactionary refusal of complexity and the refuge in an elsewhere crystallized as perfect – a third seems to be offered: utopia as foundational element of the political sphere as affirmation of the desiring nature of the subject.

The challenges posed to the political establishment by contemporaneity are characterized as new and global: if the climate crisis – after having been underestimated for some time – has finally been revealed in all its gravity, the Covid-19 pandemic took the better part of governmental and scientific communities by surprise, directly attacking a lifestyle based on the fast-paced, global circulation of goods and people, and revealing the fragility of an economy centered on consumerism and the superfluous. Nevertheless, the normalization of environmental criticism, the Green New Deal, green capitalism, and, at the level of the pandemic, the repeated slogan of wanting to return, as soon as possible, to “business as usual,” have been the main solutions that have emerged from international public debates, indicating a managerial-type solution internal to a political system rather than a radical rethinking of the latter and of its priorities. Space thereby opens for rethinking utopia: as escape – not as an escape from the present and its complexity, but rather as a prospective ‘vanishing point’ that directs political action beyond the mere practice of administration.

 

The following is a list of possible themes:

 

  • Utopia as denouncement of the present and announcement of the future;
  • The literary tradition of utopia, its promise and relevance;
  • What postmodern space is possible for utopia?
  • Utopia as a tool for understanding the challenges of the present;
  • Utopia and the challenges of theories of complexity.

 

 

Guidelines and terms for submission:

 

  • Submissions should be preceded by an abstract(max. 2,000 characters [approx., 350-400 words], including spaces), which will be pre-screened for relevance to the CfP by the editorial staff.
  • The deadline for receipt of abstracts is September 1st, 2022. Decisions regarding the outcome of abstract submissions will be communicated following that date.
  • The deadline for submission of full papers (20,000-60,000 characters [approx., 3,500-10,500 words], including spaces) is October 30th, 2022.
  • Contributions must be of original, unpublished work, and must notbe under consideration by other journals.
  • Submissions in the following languages are accepted and will be considered: Italian, English, French, German, Spanish.
  • The journal employs a double-blind peer review process; therefore, the author’s name and any affiliation must appear only once in the paper (under the title). The full version of the paper should include an abstract in English(of max. 1,500 characters [approx., 250 words], spaces included), and 5 keywords in English.

 

 

Editorial guidelines can be found at the following webpage: http://poireview.com/en/editorial-guidelines/

 

Submissions should be sent to the following address: redazione@poireview.com