Despite scholars’ predictions that identity politics were a dying phenomenon, it now appears that these ways of political thinking, once thought to be redundant, have been resurrected in new forms. The nationalist ideologies of the twentieth century have been displaced not by an era of co-operation and harmony but by new identity clashes. Across the world, nations and groups are increasingly defining their politics by ‘who they are’ rather than ‘what they want’. At the international level, meanwhile, nations and groups are progressively organizing and identifying on a regional basis – sparking fierce debate as to how regions can be defined – who belongs and who does not. Indeed, it would seem that the quest for identity and belonging in a globalized world is one of the most important themes of the current global political arena – dictating policies, alliances, patterns of conflict and co-operation, and the relationship between the twenty first century individual and the world they inhabit.
STAIR, Oxford’s peer-reviewed inter-disciplinary journal of global affairs, is issuing a
themed section to foster critical debate about identity politics by inviting theoretical and empirical contributions from a range of disciplines including International Relations, Political Philosophy, Political Science, Area Studies, Law, Sociology, History, Anthropology, Gender and Critical Studies and from policy perspectives. STAIR welcomes insightful submissions focusing on one or more interrelated dimensions of this topic.
- What explains the resurgence of identity politics in different national and regional contexts?
- How has the international face of identity politics changed in recent years? Whose political identities have changed and why?
- What is the role of identity in international relations in the 21st century?
- What is the relationship between identity politics and contemporary democracy?
- What are the implications of the resurgence of identity politics for the future of global co-operation?
- How are the negative consequences of the current political focus on identity best combated?
- What is the relationship between identity and regionalism in global politics?
- Has the relevance of identity to modern political thought been overstated?
Abstracts due: May 1 2014
Papers due: September 1 2014
Maximum length of articles: 6000 words
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