Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 09:47:24 +1000
Subject: SPOON-ANN: Contretemps 4: Revised Call for Papers - Security and Risk


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REVISED CALL FOR PAPERS

Contretemps: An Online Journal of Philosophy

http://www.usyd.edu.au/contretemps

Contretemps: An Online Journal of Philosophy, invites submissions for the
next issue (Contretemps 4) on the theme of ‘Security and
Risk’.

Deadline for Submissions: 30 November 2003


Themes of security and risk play a decisive role in discourses of
free-market capitalism.  Recently, these themes have exceeded their
economic boundaries. The global neo-liberal revolution in politics and
economics, and the consequent retreat of the state with respect to the
welfare of its citizens, has served to privatise the element of risk.
 While individuals are encouraged to assume an entrepreneurial outlook
and take responsibility for their lives, a rising tide of
neo-conservatism calls for more police, more prisons, and increased
security on all fronts.  When security becomes the basic principle of
state activity, a critical stance toward issues of security and risk must
itself take a risk.  At play is the event of decision: who (or what)
decides the place and limits of "security" and "risk"?

What is philosophically at issue with respect to security and risk?  What
assumptions and interests lie hidden in the appeal to security, and what
motivations underwrite the assignment of risk? What are the conditions
and consequences of contemporary risk society, and how do we measure its
effects? How does the appeal to security itself constitute a risk?  When
world leaders propose the incalculable risk of a military escalation
without end, the difference between security and risk becomes
undecidable. Is it possible that the political rhetoric of security and
risk masks a fundamental loss of the right to decision — a loss
that must remain hidden if the state is to retain its sovereign
legitimacy?

Contributors are asked to submit manuscripts of 6000 words on the
following possible themes:

The state and globalization
Terrorism, “War on Terror”
Sovereignty and state responsibility
Ideology and propaganda
Media and spectacle

Interdisciplinary papers are welcome.

Deadline for Submissions: November 30

Please visit Contretemps at http:www.usyd.edu.au/contretemps for
submission guidelines.

Submissions are to be sent electronically as an e-mail attachment in
Microsoft Word format to the following address.

contretemps-AT-mail.usyd.edu.au

Contretemps editorial board

Esther Anatolits
Mran-Maree Campbell
John Dalton
Tim Rayner
Peter Schmiedgen
Justin Tauber