Eds. M. Biscuso and J. Mascat

The notion of emancipation conjures an heterogenous constellation of theoretical and political references that cross different areas of modern and contemporary critical philosophy.

However, it is through the marxist and post-marxist tradition that the notion of emancipation has gained its most salient features, defining its own physiognomy in regard to other classical concepts (such as alienation, exploitation, reification, domination etc.) and so providing political theory and praxis a fruitful tool to conceive the emergence of changes in society: from the articulation of democratic participation to the formulation of instances of equality, from the claim for group rights to the radical transformations of social relationships.

If 20th century has been in many ways the century of emancipation, it is worth investigating the role played by the notion of emancipation in the contemporary political lexicon, paying particular attention to the re-semantisation that it has undergone in the course of the last decades.

The next issue of the peer-reviewed journal Pólemos. Materiali di filosofia e critica sociale is devoted to the theme of emancipation and proposes to explore the genealogy, the validity and the current relevance of this crucial concept of the philosophico-political tradition. The aim of the issue is to contribute to an in-depth analysis of the multiple logics underlying the narrative of emancipation by reflecting, on the one hand, on the relationship between emancipation(s) and subjectivation(s) and, on the other hand, on the nexus between emancipation and political invention, namely the process by which novel and unexpected configurations of the social field are generated.

 Suggested topics for submission:

• The origin of a concept. Emancipation of the Ancients and the Moderns.
• Faith and Knowledge. The limits of secular emancipation.
• Individuals, rights and freedom. Emancipation in the age of neoliberal reason.
• Insubordination, insurrection, emancipation.
• Dialectic of emancipation: negation, particularity, universality. .
• Affect Theory: passions and emancipation.
• Strategies for contemporary emancipations.
• Around 1968: authority, power and emancipation.
• Feminist Genealogies .Toward, against and beyond emancipation.
• Unconscious, legami and emancipation.

• Submission Guidelines

Articles should not exceed 40.000 typewritten characters, including spaces. Authors must include an English abstract (1.000 characters). Manuscripts (.doc, .docx or .odt) should be submitted by the online submission form available on the website by November 15, or via the following e-mail address: cfp@rivistapolemos.it.

Please place papers and abstracts together in one document and ensure that it is suitable for anonymous review.

Papers in Italian, English, French, German and Spanish are accepted.