[ecrea] CFP: Crises of the Liberal 'West'

CFP for an edited volume: CRISES OF THE LIBERAL ‘WEST’

Ever after the idea of “the Western civilization” was conceived, some 
intellectuals, politicians, and religious leaders have spelled doom for 
it. The “Western world” has been frequently embroiled in societal, 
ethical and economic crises, some of the most recent being war on 
terrorism, recession, and the influx of refugees. The rise of populist 
parties and inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the President of the 
United States have further fueled narratives of a crisis-ridden West. 
The themes and narratives of the Western crisis have been recycled 
habitually and have often been accompanied by, or at least addressed, 
the idea of the West as a globally triumphant entity with universally 
applicable values.  Currently, it seems, what is at stake is the 
“Western” liberal world-order. Recent political changes have created new 
challenges for liberal internationalism, and subsequently, crisis 
rhetoric has become a commonplace, but also controversial, part of 
narratives about the “liberal West” and its survival.

We are calling for articles for an edited volume focusing specifically 
on contemporary economic, ethnic, military, political, socio-cultural, 
and other crises that have emerged during the last decade, either in 
narrated or empirically lived reality. We especially encourage 
perspectives from political and social sciences, contemporary history, 
cultural studies, international relations, and geopolitics.

The articles should pay attention to the shifting meanings of the West. 
When people talk about crisis of “the liberal West”, how do they define 
the West? How is the West perceived to exist? What does a crisis of 
liberal world-order “tell” about the West? How does an anti-liberal (or 
neo/post-liberal) challenge change established conceptualizations of the 
West? How is the concept and idea of “liberal West” used as a 
(rhetoric/narrative) tool in politics and identity construction 
inside/outside of the so called Western countries, and what kind of 
narratives spawn from a crisis?

The main primary sources of the articles should entail explicit 
references to the concept of “the West”. In other words, the existence 
of the West or “Western society”, “Western culture, “Western countries” 
etc. should not be the premise of the article nor the construction of 
the writer, but literally observed/mentioned in the sources.

The “liberal West” may be examined in relation to, e.g., the following 
crises (imaginary or actual):

- Brexit, Trump presidency

- Deepening transatlantic rift; divisions and estrangement within Europe

- Rise of populism, xenophobia, racism

- Refugees, immigration

- Liberty versus security

- Political use of narratives about vanishing traditions; loss of 
values; religious fundamentalism/irreligiousness/atheism/secularism

- Neoliberalism, liberal democracy

- Global financial & economic crisis, overconsumption, environmental 
degradation, difficulty of forming a united front for finding solutions 
and compromises to global challenges

- Shifts in the economic and political world order: rising China, 
Putin’s Russia, extreme Islamism, narratives of a new Cold War, clash of 
civilizations

- West’s crises observed in the “non-West”

… and other perceived recent threats, perils, and menaces to “the 
liberal West”, from within and without.

Send your abstract, max 350 words to: jukka.jouhki[at]jyu.fi.

Deadline for abstracts: May 23, 2017.

The edited volume is planned to be published with a high-quality 
international academic publisher.

For more information, contact jukka.jouhki[at]jyu.fi.

Editors:

Jukka Jouhki, Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä.

Marko Lehti, The Tampere Peace Research Institute, University of Tampere.

Henna-Riikka Pennanen, The John Morton Center for North American 
Studies, University of Turku

The editors are members of the coordinating team of The West Network, an 
international interdisciplinary network of scholars. Visit us at 
https://thewestnetwork.org.

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