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Call for Papers
Special Issue of the Journal of Contemporary Thought
On
“Revisiting the Political”
Relatively few today would dissent or disagree with the view that uncertainty and ambiguity pervade the nature and implications of the terms “politics” and the “political. Since their primary conceptualizations in the thought and writings of the ancient Greek philosophers, these terms have remained shrouded by a conflicting multiplicity of meanings and usage. In fact one can seldom find a comprehensive understanding of the idea of the political which takes account of its changing and essentially contested nature.
The terms “politics” and “political” are most frequently used negatively to denote a space and/or an activity characterized by a mix of cynicism, manipulation, skepticism and even mistrust. Following this understanding is the suggestion that the political, whether symbolized through an institution, a person or a position, ought to be held with suspicion and desirously avoided.
Theoretically the most dominant understanding of the political and one which is mainly derived from the Aristotelian differentiation between the political (polis) and the private (oikos) has served to associate it with the clearly defined and delineated realm of a state and its government. The state, and thereby the political is then rendered distinct in terms of its sovereignty and its power to function as the guarantor of a good and a free life as well as the arbiter of just claims.
With the unfolding of reason and self-reflection as the twin defining attributes of the modern masculine self, the political acquired a nuance and perhaps somewhat sticky meaning even as its institutionalized, functional and sovereign existence was strengthened. Now, the political was conceptualized in terms of a force which directed and determined man’s behavior towards the realization of his individualized interest, which in turn set him apart from and against other self-realizing men. It was this Hobbesian “war of each against all” which necessitated a sustained self-construction and legitimation of a Leviathan responsible for introducing legislation and managing conflict. At once, the state, through its existence, presupposed the political as well as sought to erase it. Such presupposition and erasure continue to dominate the present day understanding of the state as the embodiment of a neutral, objective, secularized and scientific reason-based law, the territory of which is separate from the supposedly non-political private and ‘free’ space of religion, economics and ethics. The political was by this time both a disciplining force as well as a disciplinary formation.
Today especially with the suggested downfall of socialist politics, and the acclaimed triumph of liberal democratic politics propelled by a global capitalist economy, this equation of the state and/as politics confronts relentless criticism from different theoretical perspectives. This equation is critiqued, questioned and vehemently rejected for depoliticizing and dehumanizing society and for failing to recognize the democratic possibilities which emerge when society and state penetrate each other. It is challenged for denying just space to the other, the margin and the minor who are defined and constituted in terms of race, sex, culture and locale. The political, it is argued, is not just another separate realm of human activity parallel to ethics, economics and religion; rather it is an inquiry into the very order, nature and legitimacy of being human.
In place of its conceptualization as an institutionalized (read closed) space of order and control, the political is today understood as an open deliberative and essentially free space of negotiation between adversaries, between “a self and its significant others”. The attempt at such negotiation is guided by the impulse to be just and inclusive through a subversive exposure of and response to experiences of oppression, domination and violence. With this return of/to the political, as Chantal Mouffe labels it, the state can no longer simply presuppose the political or monopolize it, rather there now remains an excess of the political which the state, particularly in its institutionalized form, must fail to capture.
In its contemporary avatar, the idea of the political appears at once radically empowering and political rebellious. That which was once responsible for the construction of a stable almost Hegelian state has come to be employed today as the tool for radical and subversive prospects. Even as it promises to recognize the sovereignty of each body it seems to have lost the sovereignty of itself as a disciplined and concrete subject of study. This ‘loss’ opens of immense possibilities for contemporary political thought and practice.
In an attempt to unravel and understand the complexities, contestations and subversive possibilities of the political, the Forum on Contemporary Theory has announced the 28th issue of The Journal of Contemporary Thought to be published in winter 2008 as a special issue on “Revisiting the Political”. The Journal of Contemporary Thought as you may know is a referred journal on issues and concerns of contemporary conceptual relevance. It is published in collaboration with the College of Liberal Arts of the Louisiana State University in Shreveport, USA
As the guest editor of this special issue on “Revisiting the Political” I invite you to contribute an article, and would be very happy if you could accept this invitation. You may choose to write on the following themes:
- Conceptual complexities of the political
- The modern and the political
- The political and/as the state
- The political in its relationship with the cultural/sexual
- Ethics and politics
- The just and democratic possibilities of the political
The last date for submission is 30th August 2008, as the issue would be published by December 2008.
Editor
Lajwanti Chatani