[ecrea] CFP, "Gender, Development, Resistance" / Journal of Resistance Studies

*Gender, Development, Resistance*

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*A special issue for the /Journal of Resistance Studies/*

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*Editors: Tiina Seppälä and Sara C. Motta*

See http://resistance-journal.org

Women are increasingly important actors in a broad spectrum of
contemporary struggles and social movements in the so-called “global
South”. The often cited feminization of poverty in which racialized
subaltern women were framed as merely victims of contemporary
neoliberalism is being reframed in practice by the emergence of a
multiplicity of female political subjectivities and a marked
feminization of resistance (Motta, 2013). Women’s political engagement
is varied and complex – some fight against neoliberal development
projects that displace thousands of poor people, whilst others contest
new forms of colonialism that have resulted in conflicts over land,
forests and water, causing displacement and forced migration on a
massive scale. Many movements work broadly for causes of social justice,
equality and dignity. Some concentrate particularly on women’s rights,
and struggle against patriarchal capitalist coloniality, sexism and
heteronormativity. Importantly, as noted by postcolonial feminists (e.g.
Mohanty, 2003; Motta, 2013), racialized subaltern women who
simultaneously face multiple oppressions are in a position to create and
experiment with new political subjectivities, re-imagine emancipatory
politics, and  produce and embody multiple grounds of epistemological
difference and becoming. Viewed from this perspective, the emergence of
female political subjectivities and the feminization of resistance raise
many important epistemological and political questions.

The increasing engagement of women in social movements in the “global
South”, together with the growing role of feminist movements is not,
however, a development celebrated by all. In many countries it has been
met by a sharp increase in government intimidation and state
surveillance. Social movements and activists are disciplined and
punished, and represented as being against “progress” and “development”
(Roy, 2009). Direct violence is used regularly for silencing female
activists – they are raped, kidnapped, tortured and abused. In other
words, the dark side of feminization of resistance manifests itself in
giving birth to new technologies of rule, governance, and domination
over feminized and raced bodies. However, as Odysseos (2011) argues,
political subjects are always governed, also when they are resisting.
There exists a complex interplay between governance and resistance,
which means that besides different forms of resistance, attention needs
to be paid to governance of resistance, as well as governance /through/
resistance.

Due to ever-growing skepticism towards mainstream politics controlled by
political and economic elites, the idea of autonomous resistance has
become increasingly popular among social movements. These movements
often politicize the everyday and seek to create horizontal forms of
political power, disalienated subjectivities as well as collective and
collaborative forms of social reproduction. As women are at the heart of
community they also tend to be key thinkers, doers and organizers within
these movements. While some of the movements are local, others are
transnationally oriented. Feminist scholars from the “global North” are
usually welcomed to study and take part in these struggles but – as
postcolonial feminists and activists have significantly pointed out –
hegemonic Western feminist approaches are problematic in many ways.
Western feminism has been criticized, for example, for its tendency to
conceptualize not only oppression but also women’s resistance from a
Eurocentric perspective, as well as for not taking economic issues and
structural violence caused by neoliberalism and/or neocolonialism
sufficiently into account. Another point of criticism is that Western
feminists do not always realize that their own interests and the
interests of racialized subaltern women and feminized communities in the
“global South” are often in tension (Lugones, 2010; Mohanty, 2003).
Moreover, in this context the categories of “global South” and “global
North” are problematic if understood in the traditional, geographical
sense, and not as positions in relation to capitalist power, as
suggested by Mohanty, for global South can exist in the global North
through the racialized underclass subjects such as refugees, and vice
versa, global North can exist in the global South through the
transnational and local elites, both economic and political.

These critiques are highly important as the position of a Western
researcher, whether a feminist scholar or not, is made possible because
of the existing structural differences and hierarchies that are often
difficult to challenge and transform. As argued by Motta (2011),
researchers need to “unlearn” their academic privileges in order to
widen their understanding of movement-relevant research, learn from the
practices of social movements, and reorient their own practices.
According to her, theory can be produced immanently and collectively
“via reflection, within political struggle, based upon the lived
experiences and struggles of excluded and marginalized communities” and
consequently, research that is done /in solidarity/ must involve /mutual
learning/ connected to lived experience and practices of everyday life
(ibid., 194–196). Similarly, many postcolonial activists emphasize the
importance of “ideological solidarity” between different groups of women
when engaging in a broader project of constructing decolonizing forms of
feminist solidarity in their resistance (cf. Mohanty, 2003).

In this special issue of /Journal of Resistance Studies /we seek to
explore the above discussed, and related, themes and problematiques from
different perspectives across the disciplines. We are especially
interested in critical understandings of feminized resistance
strategies, discourses, tactics, effects, causes, contexts and
experiences. In line with the journal’s main aim, we want to advance an
understanding of how resistances and emancipatory practices – and in
this context, especially /feminized/ resistances and emancipatory
practices – might undermine repression, injustices and domination of any
kind, as well as how such resistance might nurture autonomous
subjectivity, as e.g. constructive work, alternative communities, and
oppositional ways of thinking, being, doing and loving. We invite texts
with critical reflections, evaluations, theoretical developments and/or
more empirical based analysis, encouraging a broad and critical
discussion on the possibilities, forms, conditions, as well as
problematics of /feminized resistances and political subjectivities/.

In the context of the theme of the special issue, suggested paper themes
include, but are not restricted to:

· Feminization of resistance

· Women in movement, women’s movements and feminist politics

· Feminized protest, rebellion, contention, disengagement, disobedience

· Women’s rights

· Politics of sexuality, sex and reproductive autonomy

· The politics of the body/embodied

· Politicization of social reproduction and everyday life

· The role of power/knowledge in the production, containment and/or
nurturing of feminized resistances and political subjectivities

· The role of radical traditions of education in the creation of new
forms of feminist and/or feminized emancipatory horizons and projects

· Decolonizing and queering feminism, emancipation and resistance

· Emancipation as healing

· Feminist/feminized radical spirituality and emancipation

· Politics of feminist solidarity across borders

In addition to academic articles (up to 12000 words), we welcome other
contributions, such as book reviews (3000 words) and comments columns
(5000 words) that relate to the topics of this issue. For author
instructions on submissions, see http://resistance-journal.org

Please send preliminary abstracts (max 500 words), together with a short
bio, to *both* special issue editors, Tiina Seppälä
<tiina.seppala(at)ulapland.fi <mailto:tiina.seppala(at)ulapland.fi>> and
Sara C. Motta <sara.c.motta(at)newcastle.edu.au
<mailto:(sara.c.motta /at/ newcastle.edu.au)>> *by 15 December 2015*. All
questions regarding the special issue should be directed to the issue
editors. The submission deadline for the final article manuscripts is
*15 March 2016.*

*Important Dates and Deadlines*

Abstracts: 15 December 2015

Notification of acceptance: 15 January 2016

Submission of final papers: 15 March 2016

Referee reviews: 15 April–1 June 2016

Submission of revised papers: 30 July 2016

Copy-editing finished: 1 November 2016

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*References*

Lugones, Maria. 2010. Towards a Decolonial Feminism. /Hypatia: The
Journal of Feminist Philosophy/, 25(4):742–759.

Mohanty, Chandra T. 2003. “Under Western Eyes” Revisited: Feminist
Solidarity through Anticapitalist Struggles. In C. T. Mohanty (Ed.)
/Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity/,
pp. 221–251. Durham: Duke University Press.

Motta, Sara C. 2011. Notes Towards Prefigurative Epistemologies. In S.
C. Motta & A. G. Nilsen (Eds.) /Social Movements in the Global South:
Dispossession, Development and Resistance in the Global South/, pp.
178–199. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.

Motta, Sara C. 2013. ''We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For'': The
Feminization of Resistance in Venezuela. /Latin American Perspectives/,
40(4): 35–54.

Odysseos, Louiza. 2011. Governing Dissent in the Central Kalahari Game
Reserve: “Development”, Govermentality, and Subjectification amongs
Botswana’s Bushmen. /Globalizations/, 8(4): 439–455.

Roy, Arundhati. 2009. /Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on
Democracy/. New Delhi: Penguin Books India.




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Tiina Seppälä

Dr.Soc.Sci. (Ph.D.)

Post-Doctoral Researcher

International Relations

Faculty of Social Sciences

University of Lapland

P.O. Box 122, 96101 Rovaniemi

FINLAND

+358-40-7262687

(tiina.seppala /at/ ulapland.fi) <mailto:(tiina.seppala /at/ ulapland.fi)>

http://www.ulapland.fi/?deptid=18557

https://ulapland.academia.edu/TiinaSeppälä;
<https://ulapland.academia.edu/TiinaSepp%C3%A4l%C3%A4>


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