Economics and SF
How does SF represent and reflect on economic life?
How do finance, value, exchange, production, and the everyday economic reality of people’s lives appear in SF? How might SF contribute to the ongoing evolution of economics? And what might creators of science fiction, as custodians of radical visions of social organisation, learn from economics at this critical moment?
Vector is pleased to invite proposals for short articles (2,000-4,000 words) exploring science fiction in relation to any and all themes related to economics, as well as economic history, economic sociology, economic anthropology, economic humanities, finance, political economy, IPE, and other adjacent disciplines and fields.
Please submit abstracts of 200-400 words to vector.submissions@gmail.com by 31 March 2018.
We particularly welcome proposals to explore women's writing and/or writing by BAME authors. As well as articles, we would also be interested in hearing ideas for unusual and/or innovative forms of contribution, and other informal thoughts and queries.
Here are just a few texts which may be worthy of consideration:
- Margaret Atwood, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth
- Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower
- Cory Doctorow, Walkaway
- Ursula K Le Guin, The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
- Karen Lord, Galaxy Game
- Kim Stanley Robinson, Mars Trilogy
- Lionel Shriver, The Mandibles
- Charles Stross, Neptune's Brood
- Starhawk, The Fifth Sacred Thing
- Nalo Hopkinson, 'Money Tree'
- Tim Maughan, ‘Zero Hours’
- Michael Swanwick. 'From Babel's Fall'n Glory We Fled...'
- Frederik Pohl, 'The Midas Plague'
- Jo Walton, ‘The Panda Coin’
Although issue's focus will mainly be science fiction, we are also open to other genre works, e.g. Max Gladstone's Craft series, Anne McCaffrey's Pern, Sherwood Smith’s King’s Shield, Terry Pratchett's Making Money, Karina Sumner-Smith's Towers trilogy, and themes such as magic and economics, economies of honour in epic fantasy, etc.
Is mainstream economics in crisis? The discipline is interrogating its own foundations with increasing ferocity. Pressure is growing, from inside economics, and especially from without, to diversify methods and perspectives -- and perhaps even to think thoughts that economics has traditionally deemed unthinkable. In this connection, we would also love to see proposals from contributors from a wide variety of disciplinary backgrounds -- including, of course, economists -- as well as interdisciplinary collaborative work.
Vector is the critical journal of the BSFA. It is edited by Polina Levontin and Jo Lindsay Walton. Please direct submissions to vector.submissions@gmail.com, and queries to vector.editors@gmail.com.