CALL FOR PAPERS

Issue 39 / “On resistance: Discussions in International Relations”

To be published in October 2018

At the beginning of the 20th Century, Gandhi’s concept of ‘non-violence’ (satyagraha, that is, active non-violence) broke strongly into the social sciences at the time of the decolonisation process in India.  During and after the Second World War, the term ‘resistance’ became more prominent on the international stage thanks to national forces in opposition to the german occupation of Europe.  Later, the anti-colonial nationalisms and the subsequent violent de-colonisation processes in the asian and african continents, together with other political debates in european society which revolved around the events of May 1968 in France, established this as a permanent political agenda.  In dialogue with this, the social sciences tackled the category of resistance through Michel Foucault’s work on power and his conception of resistance practices in relation to the new social movements (which other theorists such as Bourdieu, Rancière, Touraine and Giroux, among others, would continue).  Despite the existence of a certain ‘tradition’ of the category of resistance in the human sciences, its definition is still contested from different angles.  This edition proposes to explore how the notion of resistance has been theorised and questioned, and as a consequence, we invite researchers to reflect on and to apply the concept of resistance within the discipline of International Relations.

From the writings of Michel Foucault, the definition of a positive and coextensive resistance to power transformed the work that had been carried out till that point.  The theorisation of the dichotomy power/resistance as synchronic processes assigned a novel character to resistance, which is productive, creative and transformative of a social reality in constant flux.  From another point of view, James Scott started from an interest in different forms domination, like slavery or the caste system.  For Scott, the more marked that power relations were, the greater the divergences between what he called ‘secret discourse’ and ‘public discourse’.  By way of a synthesis of the different studies on resistance, Howard Caygill analysed a group of theories in light of Clausewitz in his book On Resistance: A Philosophy of Defiance, carrying out also an important contribution to the creation of a general theory of resistance in political philosophy.  From the field of decolonial studies, the concept of resistance has constituted a starting point, giving rise to new debates from an anti-hegemonic theoretical position.  In addition, feminist theories, like those developed by Joan Scott, Judith Butler or Elizabeth Souza Lobo, highlight gender relations and incorporate forms of resistance to a masculine hegemonic power in their proposals.  They are theoretical approaches that try, in a different way, to understand politics as precisely resistance, as opposed to liberal conceptions that consider politics to be merely technical. 

However, and despite the importance of all this, the advances in the discipline of International Relations have been modest and authors have been wary about using this concept for international analysis.  Some studies that have demonstrated the possibilities for International Relations in this area have been recent proposals that integrate feminist methodologies, like the work of Cynthia Cockburn, Rebecca Grant and Kathleen Newland.  Other research, from a post and decolonial perspective, has seen contributions developed by the Modernity/Coloniality group, formed by amongst others, Aníbal Quijano and Enrique Dussel.  Likewise, a significant current exists that, from existential and agonistic realism, calls for new political practices in opposition to liberal projects, like the approaches of Chantal Mouffe.  Naomi Klein, as far as she is concerned, has developed one of the main ecologist proposals from the anti-globalisation currents.  The emergence of this new literature is reflective of a prevailing sensitivity amongst some I.R researchers. 

In this sense, we want to broaden the scope of the category of resistance to give more prominence to the different actors and different theoretical perspectives.  Despite there being nuances among the different meanings of resistance, we start from a broad conception of resistance that houses forms of opposition, dissidence and non-conformity, as well as less prominent forms of daily and even silent resistance.  In accordance with Wendy Brown, silence can function as a form of resistance and a can have political value a lot of the time.  In addition, resistance can be deployed both ‘from inside’ institutionalised structures and ‘from outside’.  Specifically, it is necessary to consider the possibility that dominant groups can articulate new dissident mechanisms from within official spheres.

This plurality of approaches shows us that different lines of investigation exist within studies on resistance.  With this in mind, we want to dedicate this edition to furthering the dialogue established between International Relations and the political character of the concept of resistance.  We would be pleased to receive any contributions that develop the following areas of research

• Resistance to neoliberalism
• Ecology, the anti-globalisation movement and resistance
• Resistance as counter-hegemonic identity
• Feminism, gender resistance and I.R
• Queer resistance
• Indigenous and black movements
• Decolonial resistance
• Youth resistance
• Social media and digital resistance
• Democracy and resistance
• Violent (political violence) and peaceful resistance
• NGOs and internal mechanisms of resistance

While these research lines will be prioritized, the acceptance of contributions will not be exclusively limited to the previous explicit axes.

 

DUE DATE:

Abstracts:
Abstracts (max. 250 words) should be sent via email no later than December 15th 2017to this e-mail address:

• diego.crescentino@uam.es (Diego Crescentino)
• gabrielalimagrecco@gmail.com (Gabriela de Lima Grecco)

Notification of acceptance or refusal will be sent along the week following this deadline. 

 

Articles: 
Accepted ARTICLES must be sent and abide by our journal’s Style Guide (in Spanish, Manual de Estilo) for submission to a double blind peer-review no later than February1st 2018.

The articles must be uploaded on the Relaciones Internacionales website https://revistas.uam.es/rrii/user/register, after registering as an author. 

For more information, please contact: 
diego.crescentino@uam.es orgabrielalimagrecco@gmail.com

 

LANGUAGES: 

Articles in Spanish, English, Portuguese and French will be accepted, but the articles will be translated into Spanish for publication. Whenever possible, the authors themselves will translate the articles into Spanish.