Special Thematic Section on "Rethinking Prefigurative Politics"

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all for Submissions - due 31 October 2014

Journal of Social and Political Psychology, Special Thematic Section on
"Rethinking Prefigurative Politics"

Guest Editors: Jan Haaken, Flora Cornish, Catherine Campbell, Sharon
Jackson, Liora Moskovitz

The early 21st century proliferation of small-scale social movements in the
Global North and South provides the context for this special section.
'Prefigurative politics' emerged in the 1970s as a term that expressed the
ethos of creating alternative communities – fostering small-scale
experiments in modes of living and working that realize in the present the
values of an anticipated better society. The term has gained new interest in
recent years to understand an upsurge of movements, including, for example,
the Occupy movement, intentional communities, workers' cooperatives, direct
democracy initiatives, Transition Towns, timebanks, eco-villages, citizens'
municipal budgeting, community gardening, reclamation of urban spaces for
social use, health cooperatives, participatory economics, permaculture,
restorative justice, food sovereignty, and the open-source movement.

Considerable thinking remains to be done on the relations between such
prefigurative practices and broad-based social change. The landscape has
changed since the 1970s, with global inequalities further entrenched, global
politics less organised by a Left-Right divide, and concepts of localism
co-opted into political and corporate agendas. Psychological processes are
crucial to understanding the emergence, development and dissipation of such
small, face-to-face communities. The dynamics of communication, action,
coalition-building, and achievement deserve further attention. Issues of
group cohesion/conflict, as well as individual/collective change and
thinking/feeling capacities are some of the psychological themes that arise.

We welcome submissions on these and other topics that can contribute to
'rethinking prefigurative politics'. Manuscripts can be original research
reports, case studies, theoretical articles, review articles, reflective
pieces, or commentaries.

A two-round process of review will take place. Please submit long abstracts
(1000 words) by 31 October 2014 to Jan Haaken (haakenj@pdx.edu) and Flora
Cornish (f.cornish@lse.ac.uk). Following review, selected authors will be
invited to submit full papers by 9 March 2015 for peer review. The special
section will be published in 2016. Queries may be directed to Jan Haaken or
Flora Cornish.

See also http://jspp.psychopen.eu/announcement/view/10
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Journal of Social and Political Psychology
http://jspp.psychopen.eu