Call for papers «Acronia» 4/2024
Decolonizing the History of Anarchism and Radical Movements
Editor: Pietro Di Paola (University of Lincoln, UK)
Deadline for submission of the abstract (not more than 1000-1500 words and a short bio of the author): February 15th, 2021.
The ongoing debates and controversies surrounding the cultural and hegemonic legacies of colonization have emphasized the necessity of re-evaluating the history of labor movements from perspectives that challenge the West's centrality. In recent years, a growing body of scholarship –stimulated by the transnational turn and driven by decolonization and Indigenous movements – has begun to critique and revise the Eurocentric paradigm that has long shaped the historical narrative of anarchism. This research has opened new and promising avenues of inquiry, prompting a reconceptualization of anarchism and the broader libertarian movement traditionally viewed as an intrinsically Western phenomenon rooted in the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. An expanding body of research focusing on the Global South (among the others those by Benedict Anderson, Maia Ramnath, Ciccariello-Maher, Ole Laursen, Lucien van der Walt, Steven J Hirsch) has provided alternative perspectives to the dominant view that anarchism in these regions was simply an "imported" ideology from the West, passively adopted by local populations. In contrast, these recent studies highlight the originality of anarchist movements beyond Europe, while simultaneously exposing some contradictions within the Western anarchist movements, particularly their occasional alignments with colonialist attitudes and hegemonic cultural frameworks in their interactions with native populations.
A decolonial perspective, therefore, holds the potential to challenge established paradigms and offer a fundamental re-interpretation of the history of anarchist and radical movements on a global scale, while simultaneously raising critical theoretical, methodological, and empirical questions.
The editorial board of Acronia: History of Anarchism and Radical Movements is pleased to announce a call for submissions for its upcoming issue on the theme: Decolonizing the History of the Anarchist and radical movements. Contributions are invited in Italian and/or English and may explore any aspect of decolonizing anarchist and radical movements. Submissions may engage with theoretical debates, historiographical analyses, reconstructions of specific historical experiences, or examinations of cultural productions.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- The experiences of anarchist and radical movements in the Global South
- Theoretical reinterpretations of anarchism from a decolonial perspective
- Anarchy and Indigenous movements
- Interactions between European anarchist refugees and local populations
- The role of anarchists within or in relation to national independence and decolonization movements
- Anarchists as carriers of colonizing cultural ideas and practices
- The intersections of anarchism and racial issues
- Anarchism and Orientalism
- Critique and opposition (or complicity?) of Western anarchisms toward the colonialism of their respective countries.
The editorial board welcomes submissions that contribute to broadening and diversifying the understanding of anarchist history through innovative and critical approaches.
For any inquiries, please contact the following address: acronia@mimesis-group.com
For authors: criteri editoriali
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Call for Papers «Acronia» 1/2021
Spaces, borders and anarchy
Guest editors
Elena Bignami (Independent Researcher)
Roberto Carocci (Roma Tre University, IT)
Pietro Di Paola (University of Lincoln, UK)
Deadline for submission of the abstract (not more than 1000-1500 words and a short bio of the autor): January 15th, 2021
Notification of acceptance of the abstract: January 29th, 2021
Studies in the history of anarchism have seen the emergence in recent years of new generations of scholars who have transformed this field of research. Their novel contributions have shown that the history of anarchism and of radical movements is far from being marginal, and indeed is a rich source of themes to explore or refine, and of disciplinary and methodological approaches to engage with.
The history of the anarchist movement and of its influence in its various manifestations – ideological, political, social, cultural, gendered etc. – is in large part yet to be thoroughly investigated.
The online review «Acronia. Studies in the history of anarchism and of radical movements» is designed to open up a space for historiographical debate and innovative interpretation, promoting original investigations in fields such as transnationalism, gender studies, post-colonial studies, labour history, global history, history of emotions, and history of mentalities, in the context of the self-fashioning of modernity and of the drawing of comparisons with radical movements.
Anarchism has always brought into question and sought to enlarge the spaces of its activity, and to break down every kind of boundary and constriction, be it political, cultural, legislative, or relating to gender, etc. «Acronia» is informed by the same spirit, and therefore welcomes contributions from historians of anarchism prepared to venture into other thematic areas, and from historians within other disciplines who are willing to address the history of anarchism.
For the launch of its first issue in the Spring of 2021, the editorial team of the review «Acronia. History of anarchism and of radical movements» invites contributions in Italian and/or in English on the theme: Spaces, borders, and anarchy. Spaces and borders are to be understood in the broadest possible sense.
Without ruling out other lines of enquiry, possible areas to explore would include:
Spaces and borders of research concerning the anarchist movement and radical movements: anarchism as a transnational movement, the relationship between the transnational and the translocal dimension, anarchism and nationalism, a putative non-eurocentric account of the history of anarchism, anarchism and post-colonialism.
Restriction upon spaces and the imposition of borders for containment and/or repression: courts, prisons, psychiatric institutions, house arrest, confinement, concentration camps, censorship, systems of political surveillance.
Spaces and gendered borders: anarchism and feminism, anarchist women, anarchism and the LGBTQ+ movement, sexual liberation.
Spaces, emotional borders and borders in relationships: the expression of sentiments: theatre, novels, songs, chants, poetry, autobiographies. Familial and affective relationships, intergenerational relationships, personal polemics, friendships.
Disruption of, and liberation from spaces and borders: attempted insurrections, protest movements, occupations, antimilitarism, national liberation movements.
Borders of politics: the controversial question of institutions, political and anti-political goals, relationships with, contamination by, continuities and breaches with the so-called allied/kindred parties and with the Risorgimento tradition.
For all queries, please send an email to the following addresses: acronia@mimesis-group.com
Download the instructions for authors and the editorial rules