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Call for Publications Theme: Theorising Race Subtitle: Imagining Possibilities Publication: Theoria. A Journal of Social and Political Theory Deadline: 30.11.2012 __________________________________________________ This call for papers asks participants to take a step back from the question of why race matters, for clearly it does, in everyday inequalities and in broader discriminatory racist abuse of relations of power. We ask theorists to shift their focus to what lies behind race. In 1989 Kwame Anthony Appiah wrote in his article ‘The Conservation of “Race”’ that ‘the existence of racism does not require the existence of races’. The large majority of current social analysis and enquiry is in agreement with this, if we are to read correctly the often stated clause that race is a social construct, and that there is no ’truth’ to the existence of race. Whilst the recognition of race in social theory is more often motivated by reparative than punitive objectives, such recognition often fails to account for the difficulty involved in the messy practical process of identifying participants or making claims about ‘blacks’, ‘indians’, ‘coloured’ or ‘whites’ (to use apartheid racial classification categories). Without critically assessing these difficulties academic debates may also problematically utilise racial categories as representing existing groups bound together by some form of unexplained, yet seemingly obvious, racial thread or totalising experience. For instance, some of the current debates around ‘whiteness’ in South Africa fail to see that if there is something worth examining here it is not about being white, it is about being thought of as white (to follow Vron Ware’s argument in ‘Beyond the Pale, White Women, Racism and History’). This small, yet necessary, shift in focus on to the classificatory practice of race thinking is crucial if we are to begin to critically bridge an epistemological divide, between theoretical reflection, writing and teaching on race, and practical emancipatory engagement with racialised and racist societies at an everyday level. Social theory and political philosophy can do more than point to the social construction of race, it can explore and understand its function. From the examination of racial phenomena to urgent critical inquiry into the socio-economic, cultural and intellectual determination of race thinking, we need to probe what ‘race’ is a signifier for. Appiah’s statement is worth revisiting. It is true that the question of the existence of races is immaterial to racism and indeed racialism (the view that humans can be separated into racial groups, and not just that they are so categorised), but we need to go deeper, to examine the ontological principles at the basis of racial thinking, discriminatory or not. For example, the acceptance of race has historically been based on a premise of biological difference, since refuted; it survives more successfully through ideas of cultural distinctions. Each of these racial ontologies are constructed within particular historical contexts and are shaped to suit specific agendas of privilege and oppression, if only by reaffirming predominant commonsense explanations for the status quo in everyday life. Some of these foundations are still found in contemporary race thinking, whilst others have been challenged and partially undermined; yet what is clear is that an ontological framework remains which enables race to continue to function as a substantive term of difference, as a separator and as a classificatory tool that is applicable to everyday practices. This edition intends to ask what types of theoretical underpinnings exist in the continued practices of racialising, within different contexts, and why? And more importantly how do we start to theorise race in as other a way as possible? In short, we seek to disrupt what Appiah calls the ‘conceptual economy of race’ by inviting critical evaluations of theoretical constructions of race which pay particular attention to the dilemmas and implications of social constructivism in various socio-economic, historical, political and cultural contexts. This is also a call to begin to imagine alternative ways of conceptualising issues of power, justice, democracy and equality, identity, difference, class (and capitalism), that help begin to derail the problematic continuum of race thinking. Contributors may wish to address the following important questions concerning the conceptualization of race in social and political theory: - How can theoretical reflections on the concept of race assist in tackling the dilemma of researching/writing about race? - How can a socially and economically grounded critical race theory offer more nuanced understandings of social identities in general? - What tools do an intellectual history of race theory offer, across various contexts, for new imaginings that might help to free us from the inevitable use of racial categories in everyday life and academic research? - How could theorising about power in society, both contemporary and historical, open up new spaces for rethinking/dismantling classificatory practices? - How could alternative imaginings of race help reshape ideas of justice, reparation and equality in society? In summary, contributors are asked to think about how a different framework might be put in place, or how a different set of ontological principles and practices might be identified, by which human beings could begin to live post-racialist lives. Contributors from various disciplines are encouraged to consider these questions, and indeed any further issues that arise from this outline. While empirical evidence is welcome, the focus is to be on theoretical insights and arguments. Contributors are encouraged to think about how abstract, theoretical attention to race and racialism requires practical recognition of changing power relations, both globally and in the local South African context. In particular, contributors are asked to imagine what a just and fair society would look like if we were to take seriously the possibility of shaking the ontological foundation of race-thinking in different societies. Two versions of your submission must be sent in MSWord format to the Managing Editor, Ms Sherran Clarence ([email protected]) on or before the 30th November 2012. One copy must be the full version, complete with bibliographical and contact details, and one must be fully prepared for blind peer review. Please consult the notes for contributors about the journal’s style before submitting at: http://journals.berghahnbooks.com/th/ __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org __________________________________________________
