The Politics of Boycotts
Issue number 134 (May 2019)
Abstract Deadline: September 1, 2017
Issue editors: E. Natalie Rothman and Andrew Zimmerman
This issue of the Radical History Review seeks to contribute historical depth and comparative breadth to recent discussions around the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in support of Palestine. Our aim is to create a broad basis for historical and strategic discussion by exploring a variety of spatio-temporal scales of political action opened up by boycott campaigns, from visions of global solidarity to hyper localized social movements, and from the strategic deployment of historical comparisons to claims of singularity. We recognize that not all boycotts are progressive, and that as a tactic they have been used by different groups for a variety of political ends. We therefore welcome studies that challenge conventional ideas of what a boycott is as well as historical case studies of boycott campaigns from around the globe such as the eponymous campaign during the Irish Land War, the abolitionist boycott of sugar, the non-cooperation movement in colonial India, the anti-Nazi boycott, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the international cultural and academic boycott of Apartheid South Africa. We seek studies that would be useful to activists as well as theoretical or comparative reflections on the present and future of boycotts as a form of nonviolent political action.
Topics may include but are not limited to:
- The history of specific boycott campaigns and their varied local articulations, including boycott organizing before the twentieth century
- The forms of solidarity and geopolitical visions generated by boycott campaigns
- The entangled relationship between boycotts and other political strategies
- Transnational dimensions of boycott organizing and solidarity work
- Social dynamics between organizers/activists, unions, political parties, and the perceived beneficiaries of specific boycott campaigns
- The “afterlives” of boycotted commodities, companies, and institutions in the wake of successful campaigns
- The role of media (including social media) in boycott campaigns
- Failed boycott campaigns
- Opposition to boycott campaigns
The RHR publishes material in a variety of forms. Potential contributors are encouraged to look at recent issues for examples of both conventional and non-conventional forms of scholarship. We are especially interested in submissions that use images as well as texts and encourage materials with strong visual content. In addition to monographic articles based on archival research, we encourage submissions to our various departments, including:
- Historians at Work (reflective essays by practitioners in academic and non-academic settings that engage with questions of professional practice)
- Teaching Radical History (syllabi and commentary on teaching)
- Public History (essays on historical commemoration and the politics of the past)
- Interviews (proposals for interviews with scholars, activists, and others)
- (Re)Views (review essays on history in all media–print, film, and digital)
- Reflections (Short critical commentaries)
- Forums (debates)
Procedures for submission of articles:
By September 1, 2017, please submit a 1-2 page abstract summarizing the article you wish as an attachment to contactrhr@gmail.com with “Issue 134 Abstract Submission” in the subject line. Please send any images as low-resolution digital files embedded in a Word document along with the text. If chosen for publication, you will need to send high-resolution image files (jpg or TIFF files at a minimum of 300 dpi) and secure permission to reprint all images.
By October 15, 2017, authors will be notified whether they should submit a full version of their article for peer review. The due date for completed articles will be February 1, 2018. Those articles selected for publication after the peer review process will be included in issue 134 of the Radical History Review, scheduled to appear in May 2019.
Abstract Deadline: September 1, 2017
Contact: contactrhr@gmail.com