Call for papers - Tsantsa 13.2008, the review of the Swiss Anthropological Society

Relations of Power

Abstract deadline : May 1st, 2007

Leadership, religion, kinship, warfare, exchange, ancestors - in all of the areas
that anthropology has traditionally taken as its object, power and the people who
hold it have been central themes for study. However, power took on a new relevance
in the wake of the social movements that emerged in the 1960s and '70s in the United
States and Europe (feminism, the civil rights movement, gay rights, etc.) and
through the processes leading to and following decolonization in other parts of the
world, as reflected in new forms of interdisciplinary scholarship such as Gender
Studies, Cultural Studies, Post-Colonial Studies, etc. These new theoretical
paradigms emphasized pop and popular cultures, history from below, subaltern
positionings and resistance in the context of colonial or male domination, cultural
minorities, in short all those social actors forgotten or silenced by traditional
social scientific analysis. These approaches have rendered these subjects
legitimate objects of study and find a large echo in anthropology today. In so
doing, they have also directed our attention to the biases that structure much
scientific discourse (Eurocentrism, androcentrism, etc.), bringing power and
critical reflections thereon to the very heart of our discipline.

This issue of Tsantsa seeks contributions (in English, German or French) aiming to
deepen our understanding of what we mean by « relations of power ». What more
specifically do we mean by this phrase ? What in particular does anthropology have
to offer in studying power ? How can we identify and describe power with an eye not
only to its effects but to its dynamics ? What have the various social movements
mentioned above brought to anthropology (new tools ? new perspectives ? other forms
of bias ?) ? In particular, we seek contributions that combine some or all of these
theoretical questionings with empirical studies based on fieldwork.

Please send your 600-1000 word abstracts to Séverine Rey (Severine.Rey@unil.ch),
along with a short biographical note, by May 1st, 2007.

The final versions of the paper are due at the 30th of September 2007. They will be
submitted to a double assessment (internal and external).

For further information regarding Tsantsa, the review of the Swiss Anthropological
Society, as well as for more details on our publishing policy, please go to:
http://www.seg-sse.ch/pdf/Instructions_Tsantsa.pdf