Call for Papers
"Immigration Against Empire"
pro/visions: beyond the crisis
Vol. 1, Issue 1
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Recently the political theory regarding (global) capitalism,
nation-states and international organizations has been
re-conceptualized. Most notably, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's
"Empire" (2000), "Multitude" (2004) and "Commonwealth" (2009) have
reshaped traditional views concerning the relationships between the
local, political and global institutions of power. Because the late
20th and early 21st century has ushered in supra-, trans- and
inter-national organizations that in some instances supersede
nation-states, Hardt/Negri conceptualize contemporary issues of
power, democracy and war in their term "Empire." Whereas
nation-states were defined by both an exterior (war with other
nation-states) and an interior (citizenry, democracy), Empire has no
exterior since it is international and global. Thus, Hardt/Negri see
war as completely civil, within Empire, and democracy is suspended
nevertheless (Hardt/Negri, 2004:iii-15). In Multitude, the authors
describe how notions of democracy were suspended within a
nation-state whenever that government went to war with other
nation-states. They simultaneously, and some critics would say too
optimistically, propose their concept of the "Multitude — created by
the global system of capital and its constant state of flux — a
revolutionary, immanent and collective subject.
This issue situates immigration (and other forms of nomadism) as a
possible disruptive event against Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's
concept of Empire. We are interested in different perspectives that
view or do not view immigration as a tool for combating Empire in
different social arenas (social, political, economical, etc.). If we
view the world with the author's concept of Empire, how do we situate
different forms of movement, both literally (immigration) and
metaphorically (ontological, cultural change), within a global
interior with no outside or other? Also of interest, how might other
conceptualizations of global capitalism be used in regards to
immigration? How do our conceptual frameworks enhance or inhibit
action?
In light of Arizona's new immigration law in the United States, it
would seem that as the "Third World" pops up in the "First World"
neo-liberal policing comes into view of the Global North. In light
of the various reactions to these events, responses from the radical
Left, in and outside of academia, need to be formulated in order to
map resistances and the role of the immigrant and the exile within
the Empire. Thus we are seeking essays that describe both (1)
different forms of nomadism and/or immigration that present possible
disruptions within the global Empire and (2) the converse of the
aforementioned, simply: immigration as a part of Empire's global
assemblage of power.
Articles could be in relation to but not necessarily strictly
involving any one or more of the following topics:
- Specific case scenarios of immigration in and between geopolitical
regions around the globe
- Legal, ethical and political controversy/ies concerning immigration
policy
- The political role of the undocumented worker within U.S. and
global paradigms
- Underground immigrant support networks and their clashes with the
"minutemen"
- Conceptions of identity in relation to immigration
- Spanglish (or other creoles) as political act
- Non-material forms of immigration (ontological, cultural) that
do/do not combat Empire
- Strategies for immigrant solidarity, locally and globally
- Immigration as a response to neo-liberal forces
- Illegal immigration as a form of resistance to politics and ideology
- Systems of race, gender and other social norms within nomadism
Abstracts due: August 1, 2010.
Final submissions due: October 1, 2010.
Contact:
Andrew Dornon
pro/visions: beyond the crisis
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://pro-visions.org/call_for_essays.html
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