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

*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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