CFP for special issue: "Emergenc(i)es" (submissions due 1 June 2023)

In this special issue of SITES, due for publication in December 2023, we invite submissions on the theme of  “Emergenc(i)es.”

We are interested in submissions that raise and address questions around varied emergent forms, including methodologies and research practices; ways of thinking, being, and working; fears and realities; rituals and routines; subjectivities; vulnerabilities and injustices; practices of care and solidarity; and social relations and political positionings, especially those which are generated under conditions of emergency and crisis.

One emergent theme includes the critical opportunity for scholarship that emphasises both the boundaries and relational spaces that exist between constraint and freedom. For example, the nature of disaster management and the resilience of communities has come sharply into focus, providing opportunities for understanding whose vision for a post-disaster Pacific holds primacy, and why.

Such emergencies make power both more tangible and elusive, and the place of states/systems ‘harder’. Throughout the Pacific, moments of dislocation and alienation from emergencies might be addressed, as well as the consequences of disrupted relationships, between people and otherwise.

Paper topics might, then, expand on these subjects by addressing issues such as:

• Disaster management, government and medical responses and outcomes;
• Community continuity and resilience;
• Post-emergences;
• Social and emotional tension as an effect of Covid impacts;
• What it means to be a post-disaster citizen, especially as the world attempts to ‘move on’ from questions and consequences that remain unresolved.
• Lived realities of the relationships that citizens have with the state, society, their communities, and their families;
• Challenges such as the current economic and cost of living, especially when located within wider socio-cultural emergenc(i)es.

Finally, this CFP calls for submissions which highlight and reflect the ingenious evolutions of fieldwork, methodologies and practices which continue to emerge as creative encounters from, within, around and beyond field sites impacted by post-pandemic conditions and necessities. For example, digital and distanced approaches have been utilised in novel ways which build on established scholarship (of, for example, Daniel Miller’s Digital Anthropology) and reveal new and exciting potentials for future research as alternative routes to participant and collaborator engagement. Sharing approaches taken during this particular emergency through the medium of this Special Issue will provide a valuable resource to scholars should they a) wish to reflect on the past for the future; and b) encounter a future covid-style or similar disruption that requires socially distanced research in the future.

About the journal:

Sites: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal dedicated to publishing scholarly papers which explore aspects of Pacific societies and cultures. We define the Pacific in its widest possible sense to include the Pacific Rim, Oceania, New Zealand and the diasporas of people outwards from these regions. We welcome original papers focused on empirical studies or theoretical, methodological or pedagogical topics which fall within this broad purview. Our journal is trans- and multidisciplinary and we invite submissions from scholars from a diverse array of disciplinary traditions.

Submissions:

We invite papers of 6,000—8,000  words to be submitted no later than 1 June, 2023. Author guidelines are available at https://sites.otago.ac.nz/Sites/about/submissions

Contact:

For further information, please contact:

Cameron Dickie: cameron_dickie@hotmail.com

Amy Whitehead: a.r.whitehead@massey.ac.nz