Call for proposals for a special issue of Culture, Theory and Critique

Call for proposals for a special issue of Culture, Theory and Critique“Theorizing Special Territorial Status and Extraterritoriality”

Deadline: October 25, 2019

 Edited by: Zachary T. Androus (Florence Ethnographic Field School), Magdalena Stawkowski (Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina) and Robert Kopack (Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto)

We are seeking article proposals for a planned special issue of the journal Culture, Theory and Critique. We aim to explore “extraterritoriality” beyond its traditional juridico-legal domain by focusing on special territorial designations in ways that reconsider normative ideas about state spaces, economics, and social practices. Conventionally, extraterritoriality refers either to the status of being exempt from the laws of the territory in which one is physically present, as in the cases of certain military or diplomatic installations and personnel, or to a government extending the reach of its laws beyond its own borders, as in the cases of cybercrime, terrorism, and drug trafficking (Colangelo 2013; Gann 1987). This is consistent with the premise that territorially-based sovereign states are the basic, fundamental units of the international political world system. Yet, while they are powerful, even dominant, forces in global institutions of governance, the world is also replete with cases that defy the presumed logic of territorial state sovereignty. Such exceptional forms of political, legal, and existential status frequently index colonial, postcolonial, and neocolonial relations, in addition to military, economic, and geopolitical interests (Agamben 1998; Brown 2018; Ferguson 1994; Fessel 2012; Hecht 2011; Kopack 2019; Painter 2010; Vogel and Raeymaekers 2016; Watts and Peluso 2001).

The articles collected in this volume will ask how these conventional understanding of extraterritoriality can be expanded to account for the range of protectorates, realms, dominions, and overseas territories; self-governing autonomies, reservations, reserves, and lands held in trust; free-trade zones, export processing zones, and exclusive economic zones; parks, monuments, memorials, and heritage sites; military installations, no-fly zones, and occupied or otherwise contested areas. We invite theoretically innovative contributions based on original research that push our understanding of the relationships between territory, autonomy, and governance during the era of late capitalist neoliberalism by expanding the traditional concept of extraterritoriality to address special territorial designations. We encourage submissions that challenge conventional understandings of state power through progressive and unorthodox approaches that are grounded in original research and richly informed by theoretical sophistication. Proposals addressing any region of the world as well as innovative perspectives that highlight the complex intersections of state and non-state actors with multiple peoples, places, and polities, are welcome. Submissions from members of historically excluded or underrepresented groups are especially encouraged.

Please submit an abstract of 150 words by Friday October 25, 2019 to prof.androus@florencefieldschool.com. Abstracts will be reviewed by the special issue editors and notifications will be sent by November 15, 2019.

Full manuscripts (7000 words) will be due to the special issue editors by February 28, 2020 for preliminary review. Manuscripts will be submitted to Culture, Theory and Critiquefor double-blind peer review on June 1, 2020, with final revisions due by September 1, 2020 and publication scheduled for early 2021.

All manuscripts will be subject to the journal’s ordinary review process, so acceptance by the special issue editors does not guarantee eventual acceptance by Culture, Theory and Critique. Potential authors are strongly encouraged to familiarize themselves with information about the journal available here: www.tandfonline.com/toc/rctc20/current. For any questions, please contact one of the special issue editors:

 

Zachary T. Androus, Florence Ethnographic Field School
prof.androus@florencefieldschool.com

Magdalena Stawkowski, Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina
stawkows@mailbox.sc.edu

Robert Kopack, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto
robert.kopack@mail.utoronto.ca
References.

Agamben G (1998 [1995]) Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life(trans D Heller-Roazen). Stanford: Stanford University Press

Brown M (2018) The $15 Wage Movement Moves South: Politics of Region in Labor Union Campaigns. Antipode50(4):846 863

Colangelo A (2013) What is Extraterritorial Jurisdiction. Cornell Law Review99(6):1303 1352

Ferguson J (1990) The Anti Politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press

Fessel M (2012) The Extraterritoriality Nexus: Manifestation of Extraterritoriality as Natural Phenomenon in Urban Context. Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development9(1):123 131

Gann P (1987) Forward: Issues in Extraterritoriality. Law and Contemporary Problems50(3):1 10

Hecht G (2011) Entangled Geographies: Empire and Technopolitics in the Global Cold War. Cambridge: The MIT Press

Kopack R (2019) Rocket Wastelands in Kazakhstan: Scientific Authoritarianism and the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Annals of the American Association of Geographers109(2):556-567

Painter J (2010) Rethinking Territory. Antipode42(5):1090 1118

Peluso N and Watts M (2001) Violent Environments. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Vogel C and Raymaekers T (2016) Terr(it)or(ies) of Peace? The Congolese Mining Frontier and the Fight Against “Conflict Minerals.” Antipode48(4):1102 1121