[aaus-list] CfP: Postsocialism & Gender, "Gender" 28.2.10

[Andreas Umland]

Call for Papers: "Postsocialism, Transformation and Gender" (Issue 3/10)

9 November 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin
Wall, the historical starting point of the political and social
transformation of the former socialist societies in Eastern and Central
Eastern Europe, and the starting point for the German re-unification in
1990. While in the (early) 1990s, the discussion was still intense on
the unification of two patriarchal systems and the alleged lead in
gender equality in Eastern and Central European countries /vis à vis/
the Western neighbours, it seems to have become somewhat more quiet in
the perspective of women and gender studies regarding state and
consequences of transformation and respective gender effects. By now,
from a gender perspective, the historical importance of the rivalry of
the systems and the post-socialist constellations in East and West are
hardly understood. At the same time the question arises what effects the
new political situations have on politics of equality and gender
relations -- in Germany the current strengthening of the left on the far
side of the Social Democrats, and in some transformation states like
Poland and Hungary a strengthening of the political right.

The new German journal/ GENDER. Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und
Gesellschaft/ that also publishes English contributions, dedicates the
issue "Postsocialism, Transformation and Gender" (vol 3/2010) to these
correlations and is asking for original contributions from the social
sciences and humanities not yet published.


/Contributions may, for example, deal with the following issues:/**

§  What influence did the fall of the Berlin Wall have on gender
relations in politics, economy and society and the conditions of real
life in East and West?

§  What does the alleged lead in gender equality mean for women in
Central and Eastern European countries, twenty years after? Did anything
remain?

§  How may the transformation of post-socialist societies in East and
West be evaluated with special emphasis on gender politics?

§  What is the value of politics of equality in the political and social
transformation of the post-socialist countries in Europe?

§  In what sense are the re-awakening political powers on the left and
on the right influential concerning the transformation of gender
relations? What does this mean, i.e., for a (new?) left feminism? What
does it mean for a de- or re-traditionalisation of gender constructions?

§  Is there an interdependence between low birth rates in all Eastern
and Central European transformation countries and the post-socialist
gender arrangements at work? How can this interedependence be understood?

§  Are globalisation of labour and related migratory processes markedly
gender related (i.e., migration related to house work and care,
migration of young women from East to West)?

§  Is the politically demanded and promoted dual-earner model a
continuation of the socialist gender arrangement?

§  How can emerging post-socialist concepts of masculinity be characterised?

§  What gender theoretical concepts are available for the description of
post-socialist constellations?

§  How important are east-west-differences (still) in the current gender
theoretical diagnoses of the time? How can this importance be understood
in a context of a widening debate on intersectionality? And how can it
be grasped methodologically/methodically?


Please, send your one to two page abstract of your projected
contribution via email to *Dr. Heike Kahlert
(**heike.kahlert at uni-rostock.de
<mailto:sabine.schaefer at uni-dortmund.de>**) and Dr. Sabine Schäfer
(**sabine.schaefer at uni-bielefeld.de
<mailto:sabine.schaefer at uni-bielefeld.de>**) *by 30 November 2009. An
invitation to hand in your contribution will be sent out before
Christmas. Deadline for the complete contribution of some 7,500 words is
28 February 2010. Abstracts and contributions in English are, of course,
welcome.

*About /Gender. /**/Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft/***

/ GENDER. Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft/ as a
newly founded journal on women and gender studies presents a forum for
academic debate as well as discourse between academics and practitioners.

The range of the journal extends from social to cultural topics --
sociopolitical issues on equality and justice are addressed as well as
issues of the orchestration and cultural interpretation of gender. The
journal aims at a broad range of topics and academic disciplines, in
which women, men, and gender issues are reflected. Following the
multi-disciplinary setting of the journal, analyses are welcome from,
i.e., sociology, pedagogy, political science, cultural science and
history, which are adept to the interdisciplinary approach of gender
studies. Furthermore, the analyses of local, regional and global impacts
on gender relations are of interest.

/GENDER. Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft /is
published three times per annum, each with a thematic focus, and some
480 pages per year. Apart from the usual procedure of double-blind peer
review, contributions within the thematic focus and a rubric of open
contributions, contributions are also published regularly under the
rubric of "From research, politics and practitioners" as well as
proceedings and book reviews. We have started the processes of being
listed in the international citation indexes. The journal is edited by
Prof. Dr. Ruth Becker, Dr. Heike Kahlert, Prof. Dr. Sigrid Metz-Göckel,
Dr. Beate Kortendiek and Dr. Sabine Schäfer and published by Barbara
Budrich Publishers.

*Further queries?*
For further information, please contact the editors in chief of the
issue "Postsocialism, Transformation and Gender", Dr. Heike Kahlert
(heike.kahlert at uni-rostock.de <mailto:heike.kahlert at uni-rostock.de>) and
Dr. Sabine Schäfer (sabine.schaefer at uni-bielefeld.de). You can find our
style sheets at http://gender-zeitschrift.de/pages/manuskripte.php (This
is in German at the moment, an English version will be available shortly.)


Katja M. Guenther
Assistant Professor of Sociology
University of California, Riverside
katja at ucr.edu
http://faculty.ucr.edu/~katja/