CALL FOR PAPERS

FOR A PROPOSED EDITED COLLECTION OF ESSAYS ON: ANARCHISM AND UTOPIANISM

We extend this call for papers to authors from all disciplines interested in
exploring the relationship between anarchism and utopianism.
The history of the relationship between anarchism and utopianism is marked
by ambivalence. On the one hand, many classical anarchist thinkers such as
Bakunin and Kropotkin repeatedly emphasized the "scientific" character of
their social philosophy in an effort to distance themselves from the charge
of utopianism. Likewise, most utopian authors have tended to emulate the
state-centred utopian model propagated by Plato and More rather than the
more libertarian example of de Foigny, Diderot, and Morris. On the other
hand, a number of more contemporary anarchist utopian writers have
explicitly questioned the mutual exclusivity of anarchism and utopianism.
Herbert Read, for example, vigorously defended libertarian utopian thinking
in his book *Anarchy and Order*, Paul Goodman consistently championed a
pragmatic form of utopianism that had a tremendous influence on the
counter-culture of the 1960s, and Ursula K. Le Guin published in 1974 the
first anarchist utopia. Far from being merely of literary or historical
interest, related elements of both the anarchist and utopian traditions have
continued to inspire and inform a range of contemporary radical social
movements, including global anti-capitalism, ecologism, feminism, pacifism,
post-colonialism, and black, gay, and indigenous liberation.

In *Anarchism and Utopianism*, the first ever collection of original essays
devoted to an assessment of the relationship between these two important
traditions, we aim to fill a significant gap in the scholarly literature and
to encourage further reflection on the as yet untapped revolutionary
potential of anarchist utopianism. We welcome papers that address any aspect
of the subject, whether the focus is philosophical (for example, to what
extent and in what precise ways are anarchist and utopian ideas
compatible?), literary (anarchism and utopianism in the work of Morris,
Wilde, or Le Guin, for instance; what might an anarchist society look and
feel like?), historical (the legacy of anarchist utopianism in the Paris
Commune, the Spanish Revolution, the May 1968 uprisings, etc.), sociological
(anarchist utopian perspectives on work, consumerism, war, gender,
sexuality, race, education, art, spirituality, technology, and ecology),
anthropological (what can anarchist utopians learn from actually existing
stateless and marketless societies? does the idea of primitivism have a role
to play in the construction of anarchist utopias?), or political (the
relationship of means to ends, and anarchist utopianism as revolutionary
practice and vital response to some of the most pressing problems of the
contemporary world).

If you are interested in contributing to the volume, please e-mail to both
of the editors by January 7, 2006 an essay title, c. 500-word proposal, and
a very brief list of your relevant publications. Note that contributors to
the collection may also have the opportunity - subject to the final approval
of the USSE conference programme chair - to present their work at the
Seventh Annual Conference of the Utopian Studies Society Europe, to be held
in July 2006 in the historical port city of Tarragona, Spain.

Dr. Laurence Davis
Laurence Davis has taught political theory at Oxford University and
University College Dublin, and is the editor (with Peter Stillman) of *The
New Utopian Politics of Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed* (Lexington
Books, 2005).
E-mail: ldavis_at_oceanfree.net

Dr. Ruth Kinna
Ruth Kinna, Senior Lecturer in Politics at Loughborough University, UK, is
the author of *Anarchism: A Beginner's Guide* (Oneworld, 2005).
E-mail: r.e.kinna_at_lboro.ac.uk

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Received on Sat Oct 29 2005 - 14:48:42 EDT