CFP: "Facing Global Crises After Europe: Between Philosophy and Politics"

Submission deadline: December 28, 2015

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One cannot escape the refrain that Europe today is facing global and continental crises: economic, social, geopolitical and environmental. Yet there is no consensus on what defines these crises. Even the meaning of the subject, "Europe", is a matter of contention. Is it a subject that shall face these crises, or is it only subjected to them? Over the last few years many attempts have been made by philosophers and intellectuals to write petitions and manifestos, in order to provide answers to the lack of clarity on the same notion of Europe and the possible outcomes of its crises; there is indeed widespread confusion and doubt not only among Europe’s political, economic and cultural elites, but also among its citizens.

This Thematic Issue of Metodo aims to address the concept of “crisis” from different angles. Our main contention is, indeed, that an analysis of the crisis concept, and in particular of the kind of crises which are currently affecting Europe, necessarily requires a philosophical insight open to multidisciplinary hybridisations into the problem. These range from philosophy to political theory, economy to law, from science and technology studies, and from social sciences to humanities. We therefore strongly encourage the submission of papers which would contribute to widening this debate, by providing analyses of the global crises Europe is facing, and also suggesting possible ways out.

Are the phenomenological methods and the various traditions of phenomenological philosophy helpful in understanding the current crises in their intertwined social, political and economic global dimensions? To answer these questions we propose a twofold approach: firstly, philosophical statements and suggested methods have to be contextualised in their historical context and brought back to their leading intuitions, then they can be tentatively applied to contemporary issues. We ask the contributors to reflect both on their methods and on their presuppositions in critical terms.

In order to give a clearer definition of our intent, see below a non-exhaustive series of issues we are aiming to deal with:

- Europe and the chance for a cosmopolitan community: Habermas’ idea of cosmopolitanism has become an object of contention within political theory. Alternative models have been proposed, such as that of “demoicracy”, according to which the European Union should be considered as the result of a synergy between its peoples, and not as a monolithic demos. But who are the “peoples” of Europe? Is it its modern nations or its subnational entities such as homogenous regions, or maybe its cities with their historical stratification of transnational encounters? On the contrary, other attempts focus on the role of European Citizenship as a concrete means of political struggle. What we are aiming for is a further clarification of these different communitarian issues, and of the viability of a reform of the ideas of community, citizenship and democracy.

-  Europe and the financial crisis: philosophy cannot neglect that the current crisis, in all the different forms currently experienced, finds its roots in a crisis of the global economic and financial system. In the European context, this situation takes the shape of a fundamental crisis of the constitution of the economic and monetary union, with all the political repercussions that this phenomenon may cause. What can philosophy say about the role that finance and economics have acquired within society, from epistemological and political perspectives?

-  Europe and its critical borders: by looking at Europe from the disenchanted view or its “post-”, namely giving up any idea of strong political, economic, or cultural identity, as Jan Patocka theorized in the 1970s, it might become possible to recognise the permeability of both its internal and external borders. Post-colonialism and immigration revealed the criticality of these borders in the twentieth century, as well as the violent conflicts this situation caused, both in Europe and outside of it.

- Europe and the crisis of religions: for a long time during the twentieth century religiousness was ignored and considered under the paradigm of secularisation. The rise of many religious renewal movements as well as political and terroristic fundamentalisms in the last decades has brought into question the paradigm of secularisation and academics speak now of “post-secularisation”. But are we experiencing a pause or an arrest of secularisation, or simply realizing that the paradigm itself was scientifically flawed?

- Finally, what if the “crisis” discourse was a dispositive that by suggesting the gravity of our times of emergencies might impose legal states of exceptions as “policies without alternatives”, as Agamben suggests? If this was the case, how could a philosophical diagnosis of crises escape this dispositive? How can empirical studies discern between “real” crises and “performative” crises?

Abstracts and Papers should be submitted online: (http://www.metodo-

rivista.eu/index.php/metodo/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions).

Submitted papers (in English, German, French, Spanish, or Italian) must be in accordance with the basic principles of Metodo (http://metodo-rivista.eu/var/Metodo_presentation.pdf), and follow the Author Guidelines (http://www.metodo-rivista.eu/var/Author_Guidelines.pdf).

All contributions will be peer-reviewed by two anonymous referees. The editorial board advises the authors writing articles in foreign languages (not native speakers) to have their texts proofread and revised prior to submission.

Deadline for submissions: December 28th, 2015 Contact: [email protected] 

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