[Commlist] imagojournal.it > call for papers on imaginaries of contemporary capitalism

*Call for papers n.16 (December 2020) *
*Imaginaries of **contemporary capitalism *
*(*Editors: Vincenzo Mele / Antonio Tramontana)

At least since the subprime mortgage crisis in 2007, the term 
“capitalism” has once again emerged in the public, scientific and media 
debate. In the field of the social sciences, there was the need to 
return to thinking again about “capitalism” after the words of reference 
had been for years “postmodern”, “complexity” and “globalization. Even 
Socialism – the revolutionary or reformist alternative to capitalism at 
least up to the fall of the Berlin wall in the 1989 – re-emerged timidly 
in the political debate in USA. This change raises scientific, 
political, and cultural questions. Is capitalism still a useful concept 
for analyzing the social changes and the economic and symbolic processes 
we are going through? In which way the recent “material” transformations 
are symbolically represented in the popular culture and mass products?

 From a scientific point of view, the return of reflection on 
capitalism has the advantage to reconnecting - revisiting it – the 
reflection of the classics, avoiding the not always fruitful 
introduction of a new often pleonastic and misleading terminology. 
According to the classic and contemporary authors of sociology, 
capitalism and its link with the imaginary - understood in a broad sense 
as a set of symbolic representations of material reality - is out of the 
question. It is possible to think about the representations of the 
collective consciousness in Durkheim, the concept of the “spirit of the 
capitalism” (/Geist des Kapitalismus/) in Weber, the concept of 
commodity fetishism (or more generally of “ideology” as “socially 
necessary false conscience”) or the /finish in consumption/ in Marx, to 
the concept of "money" in Simmel (understood as a symbolic form of the 
Modernity). Not all Classics of sociology theorize the concept of 
“capitalism” (some of them prefer to say “division of labour” or 
“monetary economy”, and this lexical and conceptual choice is obviously 
not random and of no relevance in their theoretical elaboration), but in 
all of them there is an analysis of the symbolic dimension, consequent 
and/or coexisting, when not primary, with respect to the modern economic 
dimension. In all cases - with significant differences in concept, 
cultural tradition and historical context- is questioned the 
relationship between the body and its representation, the sphere of the 
"physical-material environment" and the "imaginary" sphere, the realm of 
necessity and freedom.

The theme “imaginaries of contemporary capitalism” is therefore topical. 
On the basis of these points of reflection, the next issue of im@go aims 
to publish both theoretical and empirical analysis that make an original 
contribution to the knowledge of the images, symbols and cultures of 
contemporary capitalism:

Themes of possible interest:
-   Rethinking the sociology of the imaginary/capitalism through the 
classics;
-   Rethinking the relationship between economics and the imaginary from 
a theoretical point of view;
-   Analysis of the contemporary cultural industry (television series, 
films, literature);
-   Analysis of contemporary material culture (objects, fashion, design);
-   Imaginary as a place of domination and critical theory of capitalism;
-   Is the concept of capitalism still useful today? How can the 
perspective of sociology of the imaginary contribute to a sociological 
theory of capitalism?

The proposals can be submitted in Italian, English, French and Spanish. 
They must be accompanied by a short abstract (max 100 words) and a short 
biographical note (max 50 words) and sent simultaneously to: 
(rivistaimago /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(rivistaimago /at/ gmail.com)>; 
(tramontanaantonio /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(tramontanaantonio /at/ gmail.com)>; 
(vincenzo.mele /at/ unipi.it) <mailto:(vincenzo.mele /at/ unipi.it)>.

Deadline for the submission: 30th March 2020 <x-apple-data-detectors://4>
Notification of acceptance: 15th April 2020 <x-apple-data-detectors://5>
Notification of reviews: 25th May 2020 <x-apple-data-detectors://6>
Revised peer- reviews papers to the editors: Date on 27th July 2020 
<x-apple-data-detectors://7>
Publication: December 2020


Im@go is an international journal for interdisciplinary research on the 
Social Imaginary. Double-blind refereed and indexed by the main 
international databases, it publishes theoretical, descriptive and 
applied studies on the Social Imaginary pertaining to a wide range of 
fields of knowledge. No APCs are required. See www.imagojournal.it.

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