Submissions Due: 30 September 2021
The last two decades have witnessed increasing political fragmentation and polarization that have challenged the principles of an open society in the West. Amidst concerns about political extremism, religious fanaticism, populist challenges to democracy, and, arguably, the crisis of liberalism in Europe and North America, moderation has, in some quarters, been invoked as a panacea for overcoming polarisation through a politics of compassion and compromise. At the same time, in other quarters, moderates have been charged with indecision and indifference, while their alleged pragmatism has been equated with a cowardly defence of the status quo.
We are looking for papers that examine moderation as a social practice, as an intellectual sensibility, as well as a political way of life, and hope to illuminate the moral, epistemological and cultural complex which underpins contemporary views of moderation in the West.
We invite submissions from scholars working in disciplines across the humanities and social sciences. Submissions could address various aspects of moderation, including but not limited to:
– The history of moderation in European history from 1500s to the present
– The relationship between religion and moderation
– The relationship between moderation and democracy
– The limits and critics of moderation
– Moderation and the rise of political ideologies (liberalism, conservatism, social-democracy, etc.)
SUBMISSIONS GUIDELINES:
Length: 8,000-10,000 words (including endnotes and bibliography)
Manuscripts, typed double-spaced, should be submitted to the three Guest Editors as e-mail attachments (with “For special issue on moderation” in the subject line). The author’s full address should be supplied in the e-mail message. Each submission should have an abstract and a list of key words. Authors may wish to submit an abstract for their paper to the editors in the first instance, or to discuss their prospective submission with the editors beforehand.
We look forward to your submissions!
Nicholas Mithen (Department of History, University of Newcastle, UK), nicholas.mithen@newcastle.ac.uk
Aurelian Craiutu (Department of Political Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA), acraiutu@indiana.edu
Alexander Smith (Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, UK), alexander.smith@warwick.ac.uk