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CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Feminist perspectives in political sciences in Central and Eastern Europe
The journal Political Sciences announces a call for abstracts for a special issue Feminist perspectives in political sciences in Central and Eastern Europe edited by guest editors Oľga Gyárfášová, Pavol Hardoš, Veronika Valkovičová (Faculty for Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava) and the Editor-in-Chief Jaroslav Ušiak (Matej Bel University).
Central and Eastern Europe is currently discussed mostly in relation to populist and far right political tendencies, democratic backsliding, and the attacks on gender equality. At the same time, CEE countries have experienced mass civic mobilisations against restrictions of human rights, women’s rights, corruption, and social insecurities. Some of these issues were exacerbated by the COVID 19 pandemic, which also reopened questions about the global dimension of healthcare and social systems, as well as the uneven relations within/among European countries, seeing the precarious conditions of workers migrating from the East to the West and political responses to this situation.
This special issue invites explorations of the complex political and social development in CEE from a gender perspective. While acknowledging the “liminality of the differentiation of the East/West nexus” (Barát & Annus, 2012, p. 121) and multidirectional connections between different political spaces, we also consider CEE a rich and unexplored sphere of research in gender and politics (Popa & Krizsan, 2016).
Feminist research of politics from CEE often interrogates East/West relations and the relevance of Western concepts and theories for understanding specific realities, however, it often remains absent from Anglo-Saxon and continental research (Popa & Krizsan, 2016). Therefore, the special issue aims to showcase the variety of feminist scholarship of politics, polity, and policymaking.
We are interested in theoretical, empirical, and comparative contributions which apply feminist perspectives in political sciences via the considerations of ontology, epistemology, or methodology.
Therefore, we suggest a number of areas which potential authors can consider:
Feminist and gender perspectives on current political development
● Crisis of care, pandemic and pending economic crisis, environmental crisis, racial and social injustice, security issues, “migration crisis”
● Political and policy responses to current crises
● Populist and far right politics, democratic backsliding, left-wing politics in CEE
● Changing image of civil society, feminist and women’s activism, civic mobilisations
● Gendering political (symbolic and substantial) representation – women in party politics, bureaucratic and decision-making positions, civil society and social movements, diplomacy and policymaking
Policies of (gender) equality
● Feminist perspectives in public policy analysis
● Study of policies tackling (gender) inequalities – emphasis on policies tackling violence against women
● National and international (gender) equality policymaking
● Urban and municipal policymaking tackling gender inequalities
● Developmental policies and gender equality
Feminist ontologies and epistemologies in political sciences in CEE
● Postcolonial perspectives
● Queer perspectives
● Theorizing the East/West divide in a current context
● Local and transnational perspectives in feminist thinking and practice
● Feminist considerations of knowledge production in CEE
● Intersectionality: failed attempt or promising tool of politics and policymaking
Submissions
If you are interested in publishing a paper in the forthcoming special issue, please submit your abstract (max. 250 words) by 31 October 2020 to ceefeministpolsci@gmail.com or to the address of the guest editor: veronika.valkovicova@fses.uniba.sk. Please write ‘feminist perspectives in PS’ in the subject line of your email. Should you have any inquiries, do not hesitate to contact Veronika Valkovičová.
Abstracts and articles will be accepted only in English. Authors of the accepted abstracts will be notified no later than by the end of November 2020. First drafts of manuscripts are expected to be delivered by the end of June 2021; the special issue will be published in winter 2021.
Papers will then be peer-reviewed. The issue also welcomes book reviews and conference reports and relevant news on the topic of ‘feminist perspectives in CEE political sciences’.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available online.