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[ecrea] cfp: akademisk kvarter/ academic quarter Volume 15 1

Wed Apr 20 21:50:20 GMT 2016


*Call for papers*

**

*akademisk kvarter/ academic quarter Volume 15 1  deadline May 15th, 2016*

*Network *

Throughout the past decades the idea that the world is made up of networks consisting of human, animal, material and immaterial items and phenomena has been a much used analytical perspective within the humanities and social sciences. The network theory and methodology have been interpreted as a reaction against the focus of structuralism on the interplay between individuals, groups and societal structures. The structure-agent model brought with it attention to the importance of studying the world from below, but it has been attacked for hiding the mechanisms that through time lead to changes of societal and individual realities. These mechanisms and the connections that they are constructed by represent the core field of interest within studies that use a network approach. The idea of perceiving the world as made up of networks is often attributed to the philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995), who in his works destabilized the existing (Marxist) understanding of categories like society, power and individual and introduced the idea of the rhizome. Mitchell (1969) and Boissevain (1973) both worked with analyzing social networks during the 1970s. A decisive breakthrough for analyses based on the idea of networks is, however, often assigned to the formation of the actor-network theory (ANT) during the 1990s. Two of the most formative works within this branch of network theory and analyses were Bruno Latour’s Nous n’avons jamais été modernes from 1991 and Manuel Castells’ The Rise of the Network Society from 1996. Latour has focused on the relationship between technology and society. In his main work The Pasteurization of France, he uses descriptions of the work, network and surroundings of Louis Pasteur to focus on how scientific knowledge comes into being and breaks through at a given time and place. Not as a causal effect of the genius of a single individual, but rather as the result of a chain of past and present relationships, material and immaterial connections. Where Latour analyses the breakthrough of historical knowledge, Castells uses history to explain how the onset of the information society changed the global economy. He mainly works with sociological investigations and comparisons through which he identifies how the global economy, production and consumption are created through networks that cannot be isolated geographically, but that envelop and shape the entire world. Both have been important co-creators of an awareness of the importance of studying immaterial connections and the agency of material matter. The significance of materiality has been investigated by the sociologist Tim Dant, and in the Danish context in the works included in the anthology Materialiseringer by Tine Damsholt, Dorthe Gert Simonsen and Camilla Mordhorst. However, since the creation of ANT it has been a disputed idea, which is regarded as burdened by inherent challenges not only by critics, but also by its founding fathers (Latour 1999, Law 1999). In spite of this critique, it is beyond doubt that new types of analyses and changed perceptions of agency within the global research community have been made possible by the concept of network and its extension ANT. It has influenced a wide range of thematic research fields such as food and sustainability studies. In spite of great heterogeneity in approach and subject, these analyses often share the desire to employ the idea of network as an analytical tool to gain insights into the connections and processes that throughout history have connected the local and individual with the global and the collective.

This special issue wishes to contribute to the debate about the continued usefulness of the actor-network approach. Does it still increase our knowledge about the ways of the world? Does it still contribute with new knowledge? How? And what do we miss by focusing on the concept of network? The idea of this special issue is thereby not only to encourage new network analyses, even though these are very welcome, but also to invite contributions that have a critical stance towards the idea of network theory as such. We invite contributions from all traditions within humanities and social sciences. The articles can be mono- multi-, inter- or trans-disciplinary.

Articles can, but are by no means limited to deal with:

• Esthetic and abstract networks: Formation or development of taste, schools, styles, transformations of ideas and concepts. Networks in literature or film (e.g. institutions such as DSL, networks within the film industry, or literary and filmic representations of networks). Networks within production e.g. in creative industries: the media and the internet (including the Deep Web).

• Societal networks: Industry networks, e.g. pharmaceutical-, food-, clothing- industry. Political, interpersonal or institutional networks (e.g. lobbying, NGOs, inter-party conflicts and debates), Material and logistic networks (e.g. city planning, shipping, buildings, infrastructure, geographic).

• Social networks: family, community, reciprocal or emotional networks.

• Analyses of the relationship between different types of networks are also very welcome.

The articles can focus on large or small scale networks going from local phenomena to intangible global occurrences or debates. They can focus on the importance of a single actor or plural agencies. However, it is important that they all reflect critically about the continued usefulness of the idea of network – as an analytic tool or theory.

*Suggestions for Articles *

The first step is to submit an abstract of about 150 words to be mailed to guest editors Tenna Jensen ((tennaje /at/ hum.ku.dk)), Kamilla Nørtoft (ka¬(milla.nortoft /at/ hum.ku.dk)) and Astrid Pernille Jespersen (apj@hum. ku.dk) no later than May 15th, 2016. The articles should be written in Scandinavian languages or in English. Accepted articles – using the Chicago System Style Sheet (http://www.akademiskkvarter. hum.aau.dk/pdf/AK_word_template.docx) – should be e-mailed to the editors no later than August 15th, 2016. Articles will then be reviewed anonymously in a double, blind peer review process. The final version of the articles must be submitted by December 1, 2016. The articles should be around 15,000-25,000 keystrokes (around 3,500 words) and adhere to the Chicago System Style Sheet . The issue will be published in February 2017.

Academic Quarter has been approved according to the Danish bibliometrical system for 2011 and forward, and the journal is subsidized by Det Frie Forskningsråd | Kultur og Kommunikation.

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