[csaa-forum] Democracy Under Fire: Extension to call for abstracts: Transformations

Warwick Mules w.mules at cqu.edu.au
Thu Jul 26 08:46:29 CST 2007


To all CSAA members

The deadline for the submission of abstracts for the ŒDemocracy Under Fire:
the uses and abuses of democracy in the public sphere¹ has been extended to

25 August 2007


Details below:

Transformations is calling for papers for its next issue to be published in
early 2008. 
For full detailed please visit our website at:

http://transformationsjournal.org/journal/calls_for_papers.shtml





DEMOCRACY UNDER FIRE: THE USES AND ABUSES OF DEMOCRACY IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE

Democracy is big business. Western governments are today exporting
democracy, by force or persuasion, to nations without a democratic
tradition, with the purported aim of liberating individuals and modernising
societies to make them more suited to the economic and political demands of
a globalising world. The advent of democracy in such nations is not without
conflict, however; democracy is installed only under covering fire, and it
comes under fire from forces opposed to its blanket installation.

At the same time, democracy in the democratic nations is anything but
stable; rather, it is a constantly negotiated notion that sits at the centre
of ongoing sorties by factions that span the political spectrum. Here, too,
democracy is under fire, as it suffers the slings and arrows of what passes
for contemporary debate. In the hands of conservative critics, columnists
and ³shock-jocks², democracy is a neo-liberal system of representative
government, hampered by ³Totalitarian² left-wing ideologues who seek to
undermine it with postmodern relativism and by pandering to ³special
interest groups². In the hands of more left-leaning commentators and
intellectuals, democracy is a broad and ongoing project in which it is
always possible to question and refashion dominant power relations.

The idea of democracy is a fundamental motivator of political desire in
Western culture. It draws from the ancient Greek notions of demos or the
people as constitutive of the political state (the polis), as well as
eighteenth century Enlightenment ideals of universal rationality and civil
society. In his famous essay What is Enlightenment? Immanuel Kant argued
that Enlightenment was perpetual critique. He challenged us to use the power
of reason even against itself, to ³dare to know² as opposed to an idle
acceptance of the already known. The spirit of Enlightenment dares us to
challenge the idea of democracy, to submit its rationality to critique,
thereby opening up new ways of thinking about democracy. In his book
Spectres of Marx, Jacques Derrida poses such a challenge. He asks that we
think of democracy as an ongoing project whose time never arrives but is
always ³to come².

When an event such as the recent Virginia Tech massacre can produce two
diametrically opposed responses ­ one from the NRA lobby calling for further
relaxation of gun laws, and one from gun control advocates calling for
stricter gun controls ­ that are both uttered in the name of democratic
ideals, what does this say about the state and status of democracy today?

Transformations is seeking abstracts for papers that examine the contested
state and status of democracy as an idea whose time has yet to arrive. In
particular we are seeking engagements with current debates around the ideas
of democracy, justice, ethical and political practice as they are played out
in the public sphere.


Call for abstracts: abstracts of 500 words due by July 15 2007 [now 25
August]

Papers due: 15 December 2007

Publication: early 2008

Submissions:
Submissions should be sent to the General Editor, Transformations
Warwick Mules at w.mules at cqu.edu.au




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Dr. Warwick Mules
Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Education
Central Queensland University
Bundaberg Campus

General Editor, Transformations     http://transformationsjournal.org/

Adjunct Senior Lecturer
School of English, Media and Art History
Faculty of Arts
University of Queensland
Australia

Phone: + 61 7 41507142
Fax: + 61 7 41507090
Mobile: 0447 152087
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