call for papers sspt

CALL FOR PAPERS SSPT18 (Autumn/Winter) – Utopia, Dystopia and Critical
Theory We invite submissions for the next issue of SSPT linked to the theme
of Utopia, Dystopia and Critical Theory. In a period of geo-political,
ecological and e…conomic turmoil, we find ourselves in the midst of a
crisis of legitimation with respect to the dominant post-Cold War neoliberal
economic and political doctrine of unfettered market-led growth,
de-regulation and privatization of national resources and public services,
and total sovereignty of private ownership and capital over all spheres of
life. With a deepening crisis of the neoliberal political economy, it is
clear that mere economic functionalism is redundant. Now is a time for a
critical reappraisal of the frameworks and structures that continue to be
applied to a highly conflicted and unsustainable political and economic
system. Such projects will need to engage with debates over utopia/dystopia,
for any consideration of transformation in the present entails a complex yet
inextricable orientation towards the future.
Please send your articles of 5000-6500 words (in .doc format) via email to
sspt@sussex.ac.uk Accepted articles will be published alongside a selection
of papers on the same theme from this year’s SSPT Conference (held in May
2010). The deadline for submissions is 31 August 2010.
Possible topics include: -
• Science Fiction, Cultural Politics, the Political Imagination
• Crisis (of Capitalism, Feminism, the State, Marxism, Critical Theory) •
Ends (of History, Ideology, Capitalism, Communism, Neo-liberalism,
Postcoloniality)
• Immanent and Transcendent Criticism
• Environment, Catastrophe, Risk
• Futures (of Critical Theory, Political Economy, Postmodernity, Europe,
Islam, Secular Humanism, Globalisation, Feminism)
• Representations of Transcendence, Utopia/Dystopia, Apocalypse,
NegativeTheology
• Iconography, Idolatory and Ideology Critique.