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<TITLE>Democracy Under Fire: Extension to call for abstracts: Transformations</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>To all CSAA members<BR>
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The deadline for the submission of abstracts for the ‘Democracy Under Fire: the uses and abuses of democracy in the public sphere’ has been extended to <BR>
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25 August 2007<BR>
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Details below:<BR>
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Transformations is calling for papers for its next issue to be published in early 2008. <BR>
For full detailed please visit our website at:<BR>
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<a href="http://transformationsjournal.org/journal/calls_for_papers.shtml">http://transformationsjournal.org/journal/calls_for_papers.shtml</a><BR>
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DEMOCRACY UNDER FIRE: THE USES AND ABUSES OF DEMOCRACY IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE<BR>
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Democracy is big business. Western governments are today exporting democracy, by force or persuasion, to nations without a democratic tradition, with the purported aim of liberating individuals and modernising societies to make them more suited to the economic and political demands of a globalising world. The advent of democracy in such nations is not without conflict, however; democracy is installed only under covering fire, and it comes under fire from forces opposed to its blanket installation.<BR>
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At the same time, democracy in the democratic nations is anything but stable; rather, it is a constantly negotiated notion that sits at the centre of ongoing sorties by factions that span the political spectrum. Here, too, democracy is under fire, as it suffers the slings and arrows of what passes for contemporary debate. In the hands of conservative critics, columnists and “shock-jocks”, democracy is a neo-liberal system of representative government, hampered by “Totalitarian” left-wing ideologues who seek to undermine it with postmodern relativism and by pandering to “special interest groups”. In the hands of more left-leaning commentators and intellectuals, democracy is a broad and ongoing project in which it is always possible to question and refashion dominant power relations.<BR>
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The idea of democracy is a fundamental motivator of political desire in Western culture. It draws from the ancient Greek notions of demos or the people as constitutive of the political state (the polis), as well as eighteenth century Enlightenment ideals of universal rationality and civil society. In his famous essay What is Enlightenment? Immanuel Kant argued that Enlightenment was perpetual critique. He challenged us to use the power of reason even against itself, to “dare to know” as opposed to an idle acceptance of the already known. The spirit of Enlightenment dares us to challenge the idea of democracy, to submit its rationality to critique, thereby opening up new ways of thinking about democracy. In his book Spectres of Marx, Jacques Derrida poses such a challenge. He asks that we think of democracy as an ongoing project whose time never arrives but is always “to come”.<BR>
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When an event such as the recent Virginia Tech massacre can produce two diametrically opposed responses – one from the NRA lobby calling for further relaxation of gun laws, and one from gun control advocates calling for stricter gun controls – that are both uttered in the name of democratic ideals, what does this say about the state and status of democracy today?<BR>
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Transformations is seeking abstracts for papers that examine the contested state and status of democracy as an idea whose time has yet to arrive. In particular we are seeking engagements with current debates around the ideas of democracy, justice, ethical and political practice as they are played out in the public sphere.<BR>
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Call for abstracts: abstracts of 500 words due by July 15 2007 [now 25 August]<BR>
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Papers due: 15 December 2007 <BR>
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Publication: early 2008 <BR>
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Submissions:<BR>
Submissions should be sent to the General Editor, Transformations<BR>
Warwick Mules at w.mules@cqu.edu.au<BR>
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Dr. Warwick Mules<BR>
Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Education<BR>
Central Queensland University<BR>
Bundaberg Campus<BR>
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General Editor, Transformations <a href="http://transformationsjournal.org/">http://transformationsjournal.org/</a><BR>
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Adjunct Senior Lecturer<BR>
School of English, Media and Art History<BR>
Faculty of Arts<BR>
University of Queensland<BR>
Australia<BR>
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Phone: + 61 7 41507142<BR>
Fax: + 61 7 41507090<BR>
Mobile: 0447 152087<BR>
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