CALL FOR PAPERS NEW CONCEPTUALISATIONS OF COSMOPOLITANISM

CALL FOR PAPERS

NEW CONCEPTUALISATIONS OF COSMOPOLITANISM

6-7 May 2023, 7-11pm AEST (UTC 9am-1pm)

This online conference, organised by the Editorial Board of Cosmopolitan Civil Societies, reassesses debates about civil society and cosmopolitanisms at the current juncture. Interested scholars should submit an abstract addressing one of the themes by 15 February 2023. If accepted (28 February 2023), they will be expected to send a draft paper to the editorial convenors, by 28 April 2023, to enable active feedback at the sessions from the editors and other participants. The conference is composed of two aspects – invited keynote sessions and thematic paper sessions. Presenters will be invited to submit papers for a special issue of the CCS journal.

The world is reeling from global crises. It is three years since the onset of global COVID, and a year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the following energy crisis. Governments are grappling with the onset of economic instability, overlaid with growing effects of climate change. Global crises require global solutions, yet the last decade is marked by a growth in military and geopolitical tensions, with governments choosing national chauvinism over global problem-solving. While elite governance is increasingly inadequate, multiple social transitions produce new agendas and possibilities in local and trans-local contexts, beyond disaggregation or division. Social and political movements, for instance for human rights and social solidarity, can find new traction, sometimes with wide cross-sectoral and cross-national scope. New ‘glocal’ relations may be emerging that require new perspectives on the ways societies deal with alternated migration and mobility trajectories 

How do new and diverse forms of cosmopolitanism emerge in civil societies, and what do they look like? Are they co-opted to the national imaginary? Do they become counter-narratives, generating new agendas and options? Or are they an irrelevance, at best in abeyance, sub-narratives waiting to surface? Where, in the current context, are cosmopolitan perspectives being mobilised on the ground, and what answers can they offer? To address these issues, as members of the Editorial Board of Cosmopolitan Civil Societies, we propose a cross-national process of drawing together new conceptualisations of cosmopolitanism on four themes: Gender and Cosmopolitanism; Rights and Cosmopolitanism; Transforming Local/Global Relations; Social Movements and Ethno-nationalisms.

We seek contributions from all social science fields on the theme of developing cosmopolitan agendas within civil societies that may meet the challenges of our times. Conceptualisations may be experiential or local, even inter-personal, as much as inter-national or trans-national. The main goal is to correlate conceptual understandings, and move to a clearer strategic understanding of the possibilities in play, both for today and for future projections.

Please send abstracts of 500 words to ccsjournal@uts.edu.au by 15 February 2023.

Decisions on acceptance will be made by 28 February 2023. Draft paper to be submitted by 28 April 2023.