CALL FOR PAPERS

Issue 49 / "Critical feminisms in international relations:
New theories, methodologies and research agendas"

Publication: February 2022

The call for papers of the 49th edition of the journal has the objective of showing the theoretical richness of the new theories, methodologies and research agendas that have been flourishing during the last decade within the so-called critical feminism approaches in the discipline of international relations.

In spite of the blindness and huge resistance to the analysis of gender that has characterized, and continues to characterize the discipline, studies of feminism have been establishing themselves as one of the most important and varied schools of thought. Throughout this process of consolidation, and as a consequence of both of the resistance from other schools and the plurality of perspectives and approaches that characterizes feminist studies, its development has been accompanied by meta-theoretical discussions around its positioning and relation to the discipline. Moreover, this has concerned the best way of systematising its great diversity, meaning that, oftentimes, the actual content of the research on the international reality has not been taken into account enough.

The objective of this edition, therefore, is that of paying attention to the most recent and novel contributions surrounding the heterogeneity of theories, methodologies and research agendas that, at present, the feminist studies in international relations conform to. The aim of this is to show the pertinence and relevance of their research on the role that questions of gender, amongst others, play in each international phenomenon. Especially, contributions are sought from the so-called critical feminisms, understood in a wide sense as those theoretical approaches that reflect on the legitimacy of the prevailing sex/gender system. This will also include the international structures which, in an uncritical way, the international gender agenda has been inserted into. Contributions that relate to the following themes are also of special interest, although the list is not exclusive:

• Intersectionality: those contributions that delve into the theoretical and methodological debate around the application of an intersectional approach in studies of the international, as well as those that effectively apply such an approach in the analysis of some concrete aspect of international relations. That is, analyses that take into account the constitutive, and not merely accumulative, relationship of the different axes of domination and oppression that constitute and articulate the international reality, such as gender, race, social class, sexuality, age, functional diversity, etc. In this sense, within this axis, papers from postcolonial and decolonial feminism are especially significant.
  
  
• Queer Theory: Particularly welcome will be contributions that tackle the role of sexuality in international relations theory, methodology and practice, as well as the impact that the diverse expressions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex (and others) have both on international practice and on the theory of international relations.
  
  
• New Masculinities: In previous decades a novel line of investigation has been developing around hegemonic masculinities, understood as the culture or normativity that legitimates power and political, economic, cultural and social hegemony of (some, heterosexual) men over women, and other men with dissident masculinities, as well as those who form part of discriminated groups. Because of that, for this edition, theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions are sought that delve into, on the one hand, the analysis of the central role which this dominant culture plays both in the discipline and in the international reality, as well as those that focus on the study and development of new masculinities, counter-hegemonic masculinities, capable of questioning the prevailing masculinity and contributing to the legitimization of more egalitarian relations in the international sphere.
  
  
• New Materialism: Another of the novel feminist lines of investigation inserts itself into the theoretical debates that, in the last decade, have taken place around the ontology of international relations. In light of the ideational turn promoted by postpositive approaches and, especially, constructivism and poststructuralism, a new concern for the ‘material’ has emerged facing the ‘ideational’ and ‘discursive.’ This is a concern advanced by ‘postmarxist’ approaches and marked, likewise, by the political and socioeconomic phenomena experienced at the global level in the first decades of the 21st Century. The stake for ‘materiality’ made by the these ‘new materialisms’ has taken place through a relational, plural, open, complex, unequal and contingent ontology that questions the reification of the division between subject and object that crosses the dualist borders between a ‘natural’ and ‘social’ world. Hence, they have been denominated post-humanist and post-anthropocentric approaches, as they displace the central focus of attention in social investigation from human beings. This ontological shift does not only emancipate affective capacities of the non-human; rather, it advocates an ethics that is committed both to the ‘human’ and the rest of the living beings and the ‘natural’ environment. It maintains, thus, evident connections with the ontological debates that have taken place within feminist studies. For that, in this edition, contributions are sought that analyse the connections between both debates or tackle, from feminist and intersectional approaches, the new forms of ‘materiality’ and ‘material inequality’ in relation to the international.
  
  
• Feminism and the Environment: In the current context and in light of the environmental challenges which we face at the global level, we consider especially interesting the contributions that are being carried out from some feminist perspectives (and other critical theories) on the environment. This includes, especially, the theoretical contributions from (amongst others) African ecofeminism and the theories of Abya Yala, from concepts like Buen vivir or Terricidio. Such contributions are fundamental for the composition of new feminist research agendas and political praxis, particularly with regards to the defence of the territories in the countries that suffered colonial processes. Likewise, categories like anthropocentrism, the Anthropocene, or sustainable development are acquiring greater theoretical relevance within international relations, although they still require greater development within feminist studies.

Although these lines of investigation will be prioritized, the acceptance of contributions won’t be exclusively limited to the axes previously indicated.

The issue 49 of Relaciones Internacionales will be published in February 2022; the Editorial Team and the Coordination of the volume have established the following dates:

 

DUE DATE

ARTICLES:
The full text of the article shall be sent by the authors to the coordinators before 15th of September of 2021. The article must conform wholly and meticulously to the Style Manual of the Relaciones Internacionales journal.

The delivery of the article should be made on the web site of the journal, through its administration platform OJS (Open Journal System), so it will be essential that the authors —all of them, in the event that there is more than one— are registered on the web by completing the requested data on the platform registration page with the highest level of detail and updating:
https://revistas.uam.es/relacionesinternacionales

EVALUATION process:
Once the article is sent correctly through the website platform, the double-blind evaluation process begins, which will take between three and six months, depending on the case, which could include the return of the text to the authors for revision or correction in accordance with the changes and suggestions made by the anonymous reviewers. During the evaluation process, the reviewers will be tasked with certifying the quality of the work of the authors, as well as the adequacy of the definitive texts for the topic proposed in the Call for Papers.

• IMPORTANT NOTICE: suggestions of possible reviewers by the authors are allowed to evaluate their texts. With the abstract of your proposal, you can send us by email the names of academics with extensive knowledge about the aspects researched in your work; if the Coordination team considers it appropriate, they will contact these reviewers.

DEFINITIVE ACCEPTANCE:
Throughout the evaluation process (between October 2021-February 2022), those authors whose text receives the complete approval of the assigned reviewers will be notified of the definitive acceptance of their article, the moment in which they will have absolute certainty that it will be published in the journal. The article will be published in the volume of February 2022 as is scheduled —and not in a prior issue— is subject to the complete confirmation of the text to the instructions indicated in the Style Manual of the journal, or any other eventualities that will be duly communicated to the authors.

EDITING process:
During the month of January 2022 the journal will proceed to the definitive editing of the text to be published in February 2022. The obligatory nature of fulfilling thoroughly the indications in the Style Manual of the journal should be stressed again, with a view to avoiding delays that could postpone the publication of the text to a later volume.

PUBLICATION OF THE VOLUME:
Throughout the months of February, issue 49 of the journal Relaciones Internacionales will be published in digital format, online, open, and free, carrying the title “Critical feminisms in international relations: New theories, methodologies and research agendas”. All of the articles that have fulfilled the requirements of the stages indicated above will be included.

LANGUAGES:

Proposals in Spanish, Portuguese and English will be accepted, but the articles will be translated into Spanish for publication. Whenever possible, it will be the authors themselves who send the translated articles in Spanish; the journal does not guarantee the translation of all texts.

COORDINATION OF THE ISSUE

Itziar RUIZ-GIMÉNEZ ARRIETA – itziar.ruiz-gimenez@uam.es
Lucrecia RUBIO GRUNDELL – lucrecia.rubio.grundell@gmail.com
Gabriela DE LIMA GRECCO – gabrielalimagrecco@gmail.com