CFP: Special Issue on Mutual Aid, Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal

The Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal (KIEJ) is an interdisciplinary journal, publishing papers that explore ethical and social issues in ways that are at once practically engaged and conceptually rich. 

KIEJ invites submissions on the topic of Mutual Aid. Mutual Aid refers to a network of community members who seek to improve the living conditions of one another via the exchange of goods, services, wealth, and social support. Historically, Mutual Aid has its roots in anarchist praxis (see Peter Kropotkin), however, recent authors (such as Dean Spade) have distanced Mutual Aid from Anarchism, focusing on the role of “survival work” in a pandemic and post-pandemic world. Mutual Aid has been described as “solidarity, not charity,” due to its emphasis on horizontal networks of aid, reciprocity, and community advocacy. 

We seek contributions involving or addressing ethical or philosophical considerations of Mutual Aid, including but not limited to: 

• Accounts of solidarity, community partiality, or community organizing with respect to mutual aid
• Addressing the limitations of mutual aid
• Discussions of Indigenous philosophy through the lens of mutual aid
• Identifying characteristics of mutual aid
• Anarchist, marxist, or socialist analysis of mutual aid
• Considering intersectional identities and/or marginalized persons and their experiences with Mutual Aid (e.g. queer communities, disability communities, BIPOC)
• Philosophical arguments regarding cooperative economics  
• Mutual aid as direct action to leverage material and political change

Practical Information: 

Papers are limited to 10,000 words. 

Submissions are due January 1, 2023 to https://kiej.georgetown.edu/submit/. When submitting, please mark your submission as for the special issue on Mutual Aid. Questions regarding this issue can be directed to [email protected].