Call for Papers: Special Issue of Journal of Critical Realism


Engaging Postcolonialism

Critical Realism, Marxism and Other Realisms



Journal of Critical Realism 9 (3) 2010

Guest editor: Radha D'Souza

General editor: Mervyn Hartwig



Submission deadline: 30 November 2009



http://www.equinoxjournals.com/ojs/index.php/JCR







CALL FOR PAPERS



Beginning as an off-shoot of poststructuralism, profoundly influenced
by the so-called 'cultural turn' in social theory, postcolonialism has
been characterized as the 'Third World' equivalent of postmodernism by
scholars such as Arif Dirlik and remains influential in cultural and
literary theory as well as sociological and political economy
critique. This special issue of Journal of Critical Realism is devoted
to promoting a theoretical engagement of postcolonialism from Marxist
and critical realist perspectives as well as realist perspectives from
non-European philosophical traditions, and vice versa: critiques of
realism(s) from a postcolonial perspective would be very welcome.



Postcolonialism raises a number of challenges for critical realism and
for Marxism, which arguably has a special affinity with critical
realism, as well as for non-European realist traditions. How do the
ontological claims of critical realism help to understand societies
with colonial histories? How is postcolonialism best characterised
from realist and Marxist perspectives: as an irrealist project? as the
inevitable logic of culturalism and utopianism? as an ideology of
'Third World' diasporas, of a class formed by colonialism? How should
we evaluate postcolonialism's claims to transcend Eurocentrism? Is
'postcolonial reason' another type of reason? How do critical realists
and Marxists respond to Spivak's claim that decoding 'Three Wise Men
of Continental Europe (Kant-Hegel-Marx)' points to the 'foreclosure of
the native informant'? On what grounds can critical realist and
Marxist claims to being non-Eurocentric be accepted in so far as both
theories are located unambiguously in Greco-Roman intellectual
traditions? Can critical realism and Marxism provide a way out of
modernity for oppressed nations without being trapped into dualist
categories that dog modernist discourse on the one hand, and the
unconstrained deconstructionism of postmodernism on the other, which
impede the development of a political programme of emancipation?



We invite submissions from all disciplines at any level of
abstraction. More specifically, contributors may wish to (a) present
an analysis of specific problems in postcolonial theory from realist
perspectives; (b) critique specific works, or sets of works,
influential in postcolonial thought; (c) present sociological,
anthropological and historical critique of postcolonial theory; or (d)
develop any other type of analysis that engages postcolonialism from
realist perspectives. Alternatively, postcolonial scholars may wish to
engage with realism in any of these ways.






SUBMISSIONS


Submissions should be made on-line at http://www.equinoxjournals.com/ojs/index.php/JCR
(After registering and logging in, please click on For Authors, then
Online Submissions and follow the instructions. Include a Comment for
the Editor that the submission is for the special issue on causal
powers.)


INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

Papers should be no more than 7,000 words. In all other respects, our
Author Guidelines apply. Please consult these at http://www.equinoxjournals.com/ojs/index.php/JCR
  (after clicking on For Authors, click on Author Guidelines).

Papers will be subject to both internal and external peer review.


IMPORTANT DATES

30 November 2009: submission deadline


1 July 2010: final revision deadline

November 2010: publication



ABOUT JCR


Journal of Critical Realism (JCR) is the journal of the International
Association for Critical Realism (IACR), established in 1997 to foster
the discussion, propagation and  development of critical realist
approaches to understanding and changing the world. It provides a
forum for scholars wishing to promote realist emancipatory philosophy,
social theory and science on an interdisciplinary and international
basis, and for those who wish to engage with such an approach.



CONTACT

Special issue guest editor: Radha D'Souza [log in to unmask]



General editor: Mervyn Hartwig [log in to unmask]