I’m not sure what I’d write but I’d really like to contribute to this:
Critical Realism, Gender and Feminism
Special Issue of the Journal of Critical Realism (15:5, 2016)
Edited by Angela Martínez Dy, Lena Gunnarsson and Michiel van Ingen
Email: lena.gunnarsson@oru.se
An increasing number of gender scholars have become familiar with critical realism, finding it a robust alternative to the poststructuralist perspectives that currently dominate gender studies and feminism. This trend has coincided with an increased interest among feminist theorists in the issues of ontology, materiality and nature, which have always been at the heart of critical realist interventions. However, despite these thematic alignments, and despite the fact that both critical realism and feminist theory are inherently critical-emancipatory, the critical realist approach continues to occupy a marginal role within both feminist and gender studies debates. Concurrently, the field of critical realism is decidedly ‘masculine’ in nature, both in the sense that men dominate the field, and in terms of the issues with which critical realists have most commonly concerned themselves. Recent critical realist feminist work, the International Association of Critical Realism’s adoption of a proactive policy to enhance the representation of women in its organs and activities, and the growing critical realist preoccupation (particularly in Bhaskar’s philosophy of metaReality) with historically ‘feminine’ topics such as love, mark a potential shift away from these unfortunate trends.
In order to encourage the development of this emerging field of critical realist feminism and gender studies, as well as critical exchanges between the respective branches of critical realism (including dialectical critical realism and metaRealism) and feminist theory/gender studies, we are happy to invite submissions for a special issue ofJournal of Critical Realism on Critical Realism, Gender and Feminism. We welcome not only contributions that draw on critical realism in studying gender relations and/or engaging with feminist concerns but also critiques of critical realism from feminist or gender-based points of view.
Topics of interest include, but are by no means limited to, the following:
- Critical realism and poststructuralist feminism/gender studies
- Critical realism and socialist/eco/radical/black/postcolonial feminism
- Critical realism and the ontological/materialist/naturalistic turn in feminist theory
- Critical realism and intersectionality
- Critical realism, metaRealism, love and gender
- Critiques/auto-critiques of existing critical realist work from a feminist/gender studies perspective
- Feminist epistemology, standpoint theory and critical realism
- Critical realism and feminist critiques of (social) science
- Examinations/critiques of feminist taboos on realism, nature and causality
- Critical realism and post-feminist culture
- Critical realism, dialectics and feminist deconstruction
- Revitalizing the explanatory feminist tradition: what is patriarchy?
- Critical realism and sexuality
- Critical realism and queer studies
- Critical realism and men/masculinity studies
- Critical realism, sex and gender identity
- Critical realism and gendered/sexual violence
- Critical realism, feminism, gender studies and war/conflict
- Critical realism and feminist ethics
- Critical realism and pornography
- Critical realism and feminist methods/methodology
- Agency, gender and critical realism
- Critical realism and feminist activism/politics
- Feminism, gender studies, critical realism and other realisms (Barad’s agential realism, post-positivist realism etc.)
- Critical realism as underlabourer for applied work in feminism/gender studies
- Critical realism, interdisciplinarity, gender and feminism
- Feminist spirituality and metaRealism
- Critical realism and feminist economics
Instructions for authors
Papers should be no more than 8,000 words (not inclusive of references). In all other respects, our instructions for authors apply. Please consult these at www.maneyonline.com/ifa/rea or use one of our recently published articles as a guide in setting out your work. Articles (as distinct from pieces for our Perspective and Debate sections) will be subject to external peer review.
Submissions need not be exclusively concerned with critical realism or its critique, but should relate their arguments in some significant way to critical realism. For instance, the main focus of an article could be Karen Barad’s feminist appropriation of Bohr’s agential realism, but it should include consideration of critical realism.
Important dates
October 1, 2015: deadline for first drafts
February 26, 2016: reviewers’ reports and editors’ decision provided
May 23, 2016: deadline for final drafts
June 30, 2016: final copy due with the publisher
October 2016: publication of the special issue online and print
Enquiries and submissions
Please send any enquiries to lena.gunnarsson@oru.se Please upload articles for peer review to our online system, http://www.editorialmanager.com/rea/default.asp. When uploading you will be asked if your paper is for a themed issue. Please answer ‘Yes, the special issue on Critical Realism, Gender and Feminism’. If your paper is accepted but not included in the special issue, it will appear in a subsequent issue. Please send any other material for the special issue to lena.gunnarsson@oru.se.
About the Journal
Journal of Critical Realism is the journal of the International Association for Critical Realism (IACR), established in 1997 to foster the discussion, propagation and development of critical realist approaches to understanding and changing the world. It provides a forum for scholars wishing to promote realist emancipatory philosophy, social theory and science on an interdisciplinary and international basis, and for those who wish to engage with such an approach.
Mark Carrigan 