[ecrea] CFP: Youth Resistance Culture - Critical Arts

*CALL FOR PAPERS*

*/CRITICAL ARTS Special Issue/*

*/ /*

*_Contemporary Youth Resistance Culture: Viability, Relevancy, and 
Pragmatism_*

*/ /*

*Theme Editor: *

*Clive W. Kronenberg*

Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Mowbray Campus, Cape Town* *

* *

*September 2011*

In 2011 Chile saw its largest student mobilisation since the US-backed 
military coup that brought Pinochet to power in 1973. Some 600,000 
public and private school students declared a strike against the 
government, staging marches in all the main cities of the country. 
Meanwhile the Nigerian youth arguably face far greater troubles. In 
recent months the Niger Delta crude oil flow was disrupted by youths in 
protest against a multi-national oil company operating in the area. This 
well-known company - the target of sabotage attacks and protests for 
decades - has been operating onshore in Africa's most populous nation 
longer than any other foreign energy power. On the whole, however, the 
overwhelming majority of that country’s citizens, some 158 million 
people, continue live in unspeakable poverty and misery. Per capita GDP 
in the country is lower today than in 1960 when independence was 
declared. Approximately 57 percent of the population live on less than 
US$1 per day, whereas overall life expectancy is 49.5 years. When we 
turn our attention further north, the gargantuan challenges made against 
the ruling establishments of Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, can never be 
ignored. Here, too, we found the youth being integral to the popular 
uprisings against traditional, undemocratic ruling systems. While the 
outcomes of these developments remain open to conjecture, the youth of 
England, likewise, found themselves engaged in a major skirmish against 
the powers of the day. Barely a few weeks prior to this, hundreds of 
thousands of young people in Portugal, Spain, and especially Greece, 
joined groups hostile to the austerity measures inaugurated to ‘save’ 
the capitalist economies from total ruin. The coming to power of 
America’s first ever black president (perceived by many as a ‘victim of 
oppression’, and thus, a ‘messenger of hope’) has hardly assured the 
tranquillity and happiness of those people, let alone the young. The 
latter part of 2011 witnessed the intensification of wars on foreign 
soil, accompanied by the mobilisation of mass rallies and marches 
against drastic cuts in social spending. Against this backdrop, the rise 
of America’s disfavoured youths against the status quo appears to loom 
larger and larger. On home soil, South African public students (most of 
whom lack basic skills in reading, writing, and calculating) have vented 
their anger and frustration mainly against education authorities, in 
their endeavour to secure basic teaching amenities, such as libraries, 
in their schools. The fact that some 40% of young people in this country 
are currently redundant, immediately evokes memories of the country’s 
prolonged period of struggle against unutterable human affliction, 
marked by the dominant presence and participation during the 1970s to 
the 1980s of non other than the youth themselves.

Whilst there certainly are many other situations that can attest to 
heightened levels of rebelliousness and militancy amongst youths from 
all over the world today, the distressing fact is that in most, if not 
all such cases, this ‘culture of contestation’ has by and large been 
unrewarding, as a result of deepened repression and deception on the 
part of existing power systems, illusory decorative changes, or the 
capitulation or betrayal of those in the forefront of struggle, while 
the root sources of the present order have remained largely uncontaminated.

This Call for Papers is concerned predominantly, though not exclusively, 
with the theoretical substructures that inform and underpin this 
prevailing universal ‘youth resistance culture’. The fact that youths 
from different parts of the world, on arguably all continents, and 
almost simultaneously, find themselves entangled in their own, 
idiosyncratic ‘mode of contestation’, does suggest the presence of a 
common set of problems and aspirations, one which traverses human, 
social, cultural, political, and territorial boundaries. Accordingly, 
the call is made on writers, teachers, analysts, scholars, researchers, 
and commentators, to submit transdisciplinary, erudite, bold 
perspectives that explore and dissect the conjectural frameworks of this 
modern, yet by no means rare combative cultural trend amongst the 
world’s younger generations. In particular, submissions are called for 
that critically evaluate the significance, worthiness, promise, or 
potential impact, of these agendas. Of special import, then, is the 
opportunity for contributors to evaluate not merely the substance, but 
the viability, relevancy, or pragmatism, of this ‘critical culture’ that 
distinguishes young people’s lives in the current epoch of human 
existence. Insofar as contributors are at liberty to focus on specific 
cases in point, perspectives on the global situation, and thus the 
broader context of such paradigms, would especially be appreciated.

As a special edition of /Critical Arts/, full-length academic papers are 
limited to 5000 words, while specialist commentaries, not exceeding 2000 
words, are also welcome.

• Deadlines for Abstracts (200 words): 20 January 2012

• Deadline for Submissions: 20 June 2012

• Submissions, including Abstract, Biographical Note, Key Words, End 
Notes, and References, in MS Word Format, to be sent via email to The 
Guest Editor: Critical Arts: Dr Clive W. Kronenberg 
((_kronenbergc /at/ cput.ac).za_); Research Fellow: Critical Thinking Group, 
Education & Social Sciences Faculty, Cape Peninsula University of 
Technology, Mowbray Campus, Cape Town, 7700, South Africa

• Guidelines for Authors: Refer to /Critical Arts/ homepage, below. 
/Critical Arts/ uses the Chicago manual of style

• /Critical Arts/ homepage: 
http://ccms.ukzn.ac.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=151&Itemid=87 
<http://ccms.ukzn.ac.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=151&Itemid=87>

• Notes for authors: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/rcrcauth.asp

• eJournals Archive (1980-1992): 
http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/africanjournals/

* *Critical Arts/ is now ISI indexed/*//