[Commlist] Call for Papers: Chaos (Excursions Journal)

Call for Papers - Excursions 10.2: Chaos

"There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for 
silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is 
how civilizations heal. I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and 
though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to 
refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains 
information that can lead to knowledge — even wisdom." (Toni Morrison, 
The Nation, 2015)

Classical and early modern philosophy widely privileged the “logos” i.e. 
the logical, organized view of the universe, which still has 
considerable influence on the popular as well as the scientific 
perception of the world through the binary “order vs. disorder.” 
However, modern scholarship has long ago destabilized this false 
dichotomy, and chaos has captured the imagination of philosophers, 
scientists and artists alike for many generations. Mathematicians 
proposed a theory of chaos which accounts for the unpredictable 
character of deterministic systems; quantum physicists have established 
the fundamental uncertainty inherent to the structure of matter; and 
postmodernist scholars in the humanities and social sciences are arguing 
for the acceptance of the ambiguity, fluidity and fragmentation of the 
human condition.

Concurrently, environmental and social disasters, economical and 
political crisis, violent and unceasing conflicts inhabit our 
imaginaries as chaotic aspects of our daily lives. The climate 
emergency, the migration crisis, and the general turmoil of contemporary 
cities have been framed as chaos. The demands of an overgrowing market 
of consumption, the fluctuating network of algorithms and data, and the 
fluidity of the line between private and public can lead to chaos. 
Likewise, chaos can be found in messy teenagers’ bedrooms, non-linear 
thought processes, and even your own set of chaotic data.

Within this scenario, Excursions invites researchers to embrace chaos 
and investigate the complexities of society, nature, science and being 
human. Is chaos a natural, universal phenomenon of "disorder" or a 
perspective-bound construct? What meanings and functions can we 
attribute to chaos in theory and practice? How can chaos aid 
contemporary scholarship in its quest to understand the complexity of 
our lived experience?

In this issue, Excursions seeks to assemble a collection of 
interdisciplinary articles (Media and Communications scholars are more 
than welcome!) that reflect on the concept of chaos, whether as a 
natural phenomenon in an objective reality or as a socially-constructed 
subjective phenomenon. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Chaos as a metaphysical concept or theory
- Chaos as a process in the biological, physical and social world
- Chaos as a theme in popular culture and political discourse
- Chaos as fuel to incite change
- Chaos as a source of creativity
- Chaos as constructed by ideology and epistemology
- Chaos as part of a research method

Please submit your paper by 17 February 2020 via our website: 
https://excursions-journal.sussex.ac.uk/. If you have trouble with our 
submission system, please email us at 
(enquiries /at/ excursions-journal.org.uk) 
<mailto:(enquiries /at/ excursions-journal.org.uk)>.

Manuscripts should be no longer than 5,000 words, with citations and 
bibliography in Harvard style. More information about Author Guidelines 
can be found here. Alongside traditional academic articles, we also 
consider alternative ways of communicating research (please contact the 
editorial staff prior to submission). We encourage submission as soon as 
possible, as we accept and publish articles on a rolling basis. 
Excursions is an Open Access Publication and there are no processing or 
publication charges.

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