This special issue proposes to understand the multiple transnational circulations of the processes of othering and racialization in postcolonial contexts by shifting the gaze through the category “Globalized South”. By “Globalized South”, we refer to a set of geopolitical areas - interconnected through colonial histories and/or economic and social structural transformations. We prefer this category over others (like “Developing countries” or “Southern countries”) because it points out the dynamics and reconfigurations structuring the relations of domination at the global scale. By adopting this category, we accentuate the social processes that (re)produce the power relations in contemporary societies. In general, this special issue intends to gather papers that focus on the making of racialized identity and otherness in the context of mobilities in the globalized South. 

Argument

The making of otherness and racialized identities in transnational mobilities has been mainly addressed from the perspective of South-North migrations, or between “peripheries” and “centers”, but not sufficiently in the context of mobilities in the Globalized South. Many studies on racialization have been carried out at various scales (from local to global) during different periods (e.g. Gilroy 1993; Balibar and Wallerstein 1998; Grosfoguel 2004), revealing not only the complexity of these processes of racialization (and ethnicisation) (Fanon 1952; Barth 1969; Wimmer 2013; Amselle and M'Bokolo 1999), but also their overlapping with other processes of categorization and power relations linked to gender, social class and ethnic-national belonging (e.g. Crenshaw 1991; Guillaumin 1992; Dorlin 2009; Falquet et al. 2010). Based on a critical race theory perspective (Essed and Goldberg 2001; Delgado and Stefancic 2017), this special issue proposes to understand the multiple transnational circulations of the processes of othering and racialization in postcolonial contexts by shifting the gaze through the category “Globalized South”.

By “Globalized South”, we refer to a set of geopolitical areas - interconnected through colonial histories and/or economic and social structural transformations. We prefer this category over others (like “Developing countries” or “Southern countries”) because it points out the dynamics and reconfigurations structuring the relations of domination at the global scale. By adopting this category, we accentuate the social processes that (re)produce the power relations in contemporary societies.

In general, this special issue intends to gather papers that focus on the making of racialized identity and otherness in the context of mobilities in the globalized South. There are therefore three main objectives guiding it: to understand how such processes affect the lives of migrants and their families including their agency and strategies of resistance (Mahmmod 2009; Spivak 1988); to analyze the dynamics of mobilities in view of the multiple forms of othering; and finally to grasp, through the prism of the experiences and practices of transnational mobilities of actors in the societies of origin and destination, how racialization empirically operates. To attain these objectives, it will bring together empirical and theoretical papers from various fields of social sciences (sociology, anthropology, political science, geography, gender studies, critical race studies, area studies, etc.). These articles should be related to one or more of the following axes:

• Mobilities and racialisation in the Globalized South: How do the processes of racialization circulate and operate in the Global South? How do migrants interpret and negotiate the racial categories in their countries of origin and destination during their migration trajectory?
• Intersectionality and processes of othering in the context of mobility: How do we think of racialization and power relations (linked to gender, social class, age, etc.) in the case of mobilities in the globalized South?
• Reappropriation of otherness, “strategic essentialism” and agency: How do migrants  develop practices of reappropriation and (re)valorization of racial categories to produce certain forms of agency? How can the experience of mobility/ies be translated into forms of (re)valorization and subversions of racial categories (on national or ethnic bases) in the globalized South?

By doing so, this special issue will point out how the forms of othering and racialized identities are produced and circulating in the globalized South. In this sense, it is inscribed in the debates on globalization, mobilities and the making of racialized identities in social sciences.

Submission Guidelines

Articles submissions in French or in British English (a title and a 300-word abstract) are to be sent by:

15 October 2018

to the Journal Secretariat (civilisations@ulb.ac.be) and to the Guest Editors of this Special Issue: Julien Debonneville, Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot and Gwenola Ricordeau (Julien.Debonneville@unige.ch).

Civilizations is a peer-reviewed journal of anthropology. Published continuously since 1951, it features articles in French and English in the various fields of anthropology, without regional or time limitations. Revived in 2002 with a new editorial board and a new subtitle (Revue internationale d'anthropologie et de sciences humaines), Civilisations particularly encourage the submission of articles where the approaches of anthropology meet those of other social sciences, revealing the processes of society making.

For more information, see https://journals.openedition.org/civilisations/

Coordination

• Julien Debonneville (Université de Genève, Suisse),
• Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgique)
• Gwenola Ricordeau (California State University, Chico, États-Unis)

Editorial Board

• Olivia ANGE (ULB, Belgique)
• Gil BARTHOLEYNS (Université de Lille, France)
• David BERLINER (ULB, Belgique)
• Maïté BOULLOSA-JOLY (Université de Picardie, France)
• Stefania CAPONE (CNRS, Paris X, France)
• Robert DELIEGE (UCL, Belgique)
• Filip DE BOECK (KULeuven, Belgique)
• Philippe JESPERS (ULB, Belgique)
• Anne-Marie LOSONCZY (EPHE, France & ULB, Belgique)
• Patrick MENGET (EPHE, France)
• Joël NORET (ULB, Belgique)
• Benjamin RUBBERS (ULg et ULB, Belgique)
• Tal TAMARI (CNRS, France & ULB, Belgique)

References

Amselle, Jean-Loup and Elikia M’bokolo, 1999. Au sœur de l’ethnie: ethnies, tribalisme et état en Afrique. Paris: La Découverte.

Balibar, Étienne and Immanuel Wallerstein, 1998. Race, nation, classe. Les identités ambiguës. Paris: La Découverte.

Barth, Fredrik, 1969. Ethnic groups and boundaries: the social organization of culture difference. Bergen/Oslo.

London: Universitetsforlaget, George Allen & Uwin.

Collins, Patricia Hill and Margaret L. Andersen, 1992. Race, class, & gender: an anthology. Belmont, California: Wadsworth.

Crenshaw, Kimberle, 1991. « Mapping the margins: intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color », Stanford Law Review, 43(6), pp. 1241-1299.

Delgado, Richard and Jean Stefancic, 2017. Critical race theory: an introduction (third edition). New York: New York University Press.

Dorlin, Elsa, 2009. Sexe, race, classe, pour une épistémologie de la domination. Paris: P.U.F.

Essed, Philomena and David, Goldberg (eds.), 2001. Race critical theories: text and context. New York: Blackwell Publishers.

Falquet, Jules, Helena Hirata, Danièle Kergoat, Brahim Labari, Fatou Sow, and Nicky Le Feuvre (eds.), 2010. Le sexe de la mondialisation. Genre, classe, race et nouvelle division du travail. Paris : Presses de Sciences Po.

Fanon, Frantz, 1952. Peau noire, masques blancs. Paris: Seuil.

Gilroy, Paul, 1993. The Black Atlantic: modernity and double consciousness. London: Verso.

Grosfoguel, Ramón, 2004. « Race and ethnicity or racialized ethnicities. Identity within global coloniality »,

Ethnicitie, 4(3), pp. 315-306.

Guillaumin, Colette, 1992. Sexe, race et pratique du pouvoir. L’idée de nature. Paris: Côté-femmes.

Mahmood, Saba, 2009. Politique de la piété. Le féminisme à l’épreuve du renouveau islamique. Paris: La Découverte.

Poutignat, Philippe and Jocelyne Streiff-Fenart, 1995. Théories de l’ethnicité. Paris: P.U.F.

Spivak, Gayatri, 1988. « Can the subaltern speak? », in Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg (ed.), Marxism and the interpretation of culture, pp.271-313. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Wimmer, Andreas, 2013. Ethnic boundary making. Institutions, power, networks. Oxford: Oxford University  Press.