Call for Papers
Present and Future Revolutions. Social movements and political subjects in the 21st century
P.O.I. – Points of Interest, 15, II/2024
Abstract submission deadline: 31st August 2024
The six-month journal “P.O.I. – Points of Interest” invites you to contribute to the issue I/2024, developing the theme presented according to the following terms, and considering the reflections proposed here as a starting point.
The 19th century was the age of political revolutions and the first attempts at ‘social revolutions’; the 20th century opens with great revolutionary shocks – from Turkey to Mexico to Russia in 1917 –, which are channelled into the opposition between a decadent West and new emerging powers, and then close with new national and capitalist revolutions in the major Empires that arose from the previous revolutionary cycle, the USSR. But what has happened since the fall of the Berlin Wall until today? Several revolutionary cycles can be counted, from the ‘rainbow revolutions’ of the countries of the East to the ‘Arab Spring’, to which must be added the wars of national liberation or emancipation of oppressed ethnic groups, in particular in Palestine. Yet, all these figures of the revolutionary dimension are ambiguous, marked by a large presence of the supranational media dimension and, more concretely, of the games of interest between the great powers. The latter obviously have always existed and have often counted even in the ‘classic’ revolutions, but today this international dimension seems overwhelming precisely because the political subjects of the revolutions of the 21st century are weak, fragile, ambiguous, lacking in an internationalization of their own and not mediatic. To some extent, they are still children of the false promises of globalization that, from the end of the 20th century to the dawn of the new one, had presented the West and capitalism as the inevitable form of progress, the ‘end of history’. The concern surrounding today’s revolutions – revolutions without a subject or with ‘fluid’ subjects – has two fundamental aspects. One is philosophical, concerning the fate of the notion of ‘political subject’. Is this a worn-out notion? Can it be replaced by a purely multitude-related conception of political subjectivity? Or can we think of a more robust form of political body that unifies the struggles of the oppressed, the exploited and the dispossessed? The second question, more broadly socio-political, concerns the themes of the varied mass struggles, ranging from the environmental issue to the national dimension of territorial control. Are there any more comprehensive ways to ask these questions? Or are they so influenced by the media and dominant cultures that they cannot develop in a non-toxic way in the long run? In short, what claims for today’s uprisings?
Among the possible themes that this issue aims to accommodate:
- Post-classical theories of political subjectivity in the late 20th and 21st centuries, from Negri to Butler;
- Phenomenology of today’s mass movements from 2008 until today;
- The role of the media in today’s mass movements;
- The demands of gender and human respect and socio-environmental demands: lines of continuity and lines of possible opposition in the experiences of contemporary struggle.
For submitting papers, please note the following terms and conditions.
The response to this CFP must be preceded by the submission of an abstract, which will be submitted to prior evaluation by the editorial staff, on the basis of its relevance to the theme, as it has been listed in the Call.
Final deadline for sending the abstract (approximately 2000 characters, spaces included): 31st August 2024. The outcome of the assessment will be transmitted after the expiry of the time limit.
Final deadline for sending the full paper (20,000 – 60,000 characters, spaces included): 31st October 2024.
Contributions should be unpublished and must not be simultaneously undergoing evaluation on the behalf of other journals.
Languages accepted: Italian, English, French, German, Spanish.
The journal uses a double blind peer-review system; therefore, the author’s name and membership, if any, must appear only once, under the title of the article. Papers, in full, must be complete with an abstract in English (max. 1500 characters, including spaces) and 5 keywords in English.
Editorial rules can be found here: https://poireview.com/norme-editoriali/.
Submissions should be sent to the email address: redazione@poireview.com