[OPE] Science & Society / Call for Papers

Dear OPE comrades,
I am passing along this Call, which will actually not appear until the
July issue of S&S (snail's pace of hard-copy publishing).
All best,
David
====================================================

CALL FOR PAPERS
MARXISM AND CRISIS IN 21ST-CENTURY CAPITALISM

The recent collapse of financial markets, housing, commodity prices, and
employment has shattered the myths of neoliberalism and market
fundamentalism. But conventional accounts of the crisis, focused on the
role of subprime mortgage lending, complex mortgage-backed securities,
derivatives, "shadow" banking, deleveraging, and widespread fraud leaves
the deeper structural issues of capital accumulation, class relations,
and systemic evolution out of the picture. How should the current crisis
be understood in light of Marxist theoretical conceptions of capitalist
dynamics?
The current economic collapse has brought forth many questions. Is the
ongoing crisis an event that is bringing about a new phase of
capitalism? Will the crisis, and the responses to it, shift or disperse
the geographic foci of capitalism? How do current theories of
accumulation and the stages of capitalism hold up under recent events?
How will the crisis affect the globalization of capitalist power; will
it reinforce or damage it? What specific role will the state play in
attempting to preserve capitalist accumulation? Is a new round of
nationalization and decommodification on the agenda? If so, how
extensive is this likely to be? What are the probable effects of the
crisis, and of governmental responses to the crisis, on the working and
living conditions of workers and on their political self-organization?
How will women and minorities be affected? What is the future of
relations among different sectors of the international working class,
particularly between richer and poorer countries? As financial markets
recoil, what direction will the economy take when a system that appeared
to be invulnerable has failed? What will be the policy direction of the
new rising economic powers, in particular the BRIC countries? What can
be said about the current potential for revolutionary change? How will
the recent attempts at social change in Latin America weather the
international crisis? What are the consequences of the crisis for
imperialism? Environmental crisis and capitalist accumulation are
intertwined; in what new ways must existing theories of capitalist
dynamics be altered to understand environmental degradation along with
economic crisis?
Science & Society encourages a diversity of views, and we do not expect
any sort of convergence to settled conclusions. We are, however, hoping
to focus on fundamental aspects of capital accumulation and crises in
21st-century capitalism from a Marxist standpoint, rather than on
current developments and reportage belonging in publications that appear
more frequently. Papers should not exceed 4,500 words in length. We will
ask contributors to comment on each other’s work, with eventual
responses to the comments, in what will emerge as a dialog format. The
deadline for the first-round papers is September 1, 2009.
The Guest Editors for the issue are Dr. Julio Huato (Department of
Economics, St. Francis College), and Dr. Justin Holt (The Gallatin
School, New York University), both of whom are members of the Science &
Society Editorial Board. Potential contributors should contact, and
contributions be sent directly to, the guest editors at
juliohuato@gmail.com, and jh129@ny.edu.
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Received on Mon Feb 2 16:10:47 2009