CALL FOR PAPERS
Special Issue GWO: Feminist Solidarity: Collective Resistance and Radical Politics
Deadline: September 30th 2019.
Editors:
Alice Wickström, Aalto University, Finland. [Email: alice.wickstrom@aalto.fi]
Rebecca Lund, University of Tampere, Finland [Email: rebecca.lund@uta.fi]
Susan Meriläinen, University of Lapland, Finland. [Email: susan.merilainen@ulapland.fi]
Siri Øyslebø Sørensen, NTNU, Norway, [Email: siri.sorensen@ntnu.no]
Sheena J. Vachhani, University of Bristol, UK. [Email: s.vachhani@bristol.ac.uk]
Alison Pullen, Macquarie University, Australia [Email: alison.pullen@mq.edu.au]
With this special issue, we seek to create a space for scholarship centralizing feminist organizing for, and through, solidarity. Solidarity as a form of feminist organizing envisages a shared responsibility for the lives of others, working with care and intimacy, resistance against socio-economic inequalities and patriarchal power, and the possibility of social transformations through 'democratic engagement' (Segal, 2017: 228). We see this as key for fostering resistance towards capitalist and neoliberal regimes that tend to reinforce systems of demarcation based on gender, income, class and race, and reduce collectivity, connection and possibilities for joint action (McRobbie, 2009; Rottenberg, 2017). This necessitates a further refusal of prevailing forms of sexism; the exploitation of labor, emotions and bodies; violence towards marginalized groups; inequalities within organizational life and entrenched gender pay disparities (Hemmings, 2012; hooks, 1986; Mohanty, 2003, Segal, 2013). We thus ask, how can corporate and neoliberal attacks on feminist solidarity be challenged? Further, how can feminists refocus attention on non-corporate-friendly-issues such as domestic violence, reproductive rights, denial of welfare, healthcare, housing, childcare, and education without creating new structures of power?
As noted by hooks (1994, p.67), feminist solidarity based on progressive politics 'must include a space for rigorous critique, for dissent, or we are doomed to reproduce in progressive communities the very forms of domination we seek to oppose'. As part of this, the problematization of identity politics and the politics of experiences (Phipps, 2016) have been at the forefront of questioning what feminist, political and affective solidarity could mean in the context of increasing individualization, privatization and corporatization of public life (Mohanty, 2003). Here, Hemmings (2012: 150) raises the question '[h]ow we move from affective dissonance to affective solidarity', with particular emphasis on transforming individual experiences into vibrant, collective capacities for change. Solidary then becomes a means of feminist organizing that bridges the personal and the collective and strives towards the creation of new ethico-political futures (Vachhani and Pullen, 2019). In the light of this, we wish to open up for discussions regarding historical movements that relied on solidarity, the role of solidarity in contemporary struggles, and how collective forms of thinking, organizing and action can challenge prevailing regimes of power. We invite contributions that elaborate on how we might successfully practice feminist solidarity, and subvert existing hegemonic and symbolic orders, academically, practically and politically. These reflections may be methodological, theoretical and/or empirical in nature. Further avenues for potential exploration are:
- What constitutes feminist solidarity in lived experience and practice?
- How might we explore feminist solidarity in its many forms (e.g., transnational, intergenerational or non-class based) to foster its political and ethical potential?
- What are the problems, dilemmas and paradoxes of solidarity practices?
- What forms of feminist resistance are necessary in the context of capitalist and neoliberal regimes?
- What lies behind the discrepancies in corporate support for gender equality initiatives and failures in addressing their own violence toward marginalized groups?
- How can organizations work with tackling social problems facing marginalized groups such as domestic violence, homelessness etc.?
- How is feminist solidarity enacted in informal and emerging forms of organizing (such as social movements and online platforms)?
- What can we learn from feminist alliances and social movements in terms of creating alternative forms of organizing?
- How are social movements developing to foster, sustain or even disrupt forms of feminist solidarity?
- How can we use our differences to build solidarity and community?
- How might we produce knowledge differently through modes of solidarity, and/or feminist sociality, in ways that do not reproduce individualized ideals within and outside of our own work?
Articles should be submitted online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/gwoand conform to the author guidelines of Gender, Work and Organization.
For special issue enquiries please contact Alice Wickström: alice.wickstrom@aalto.fi
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Alison Pullen
Full Professor
Macquarie University
Sydney
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